6.8 Western

[Nelsesmp]

Been doing a lot of reading on 6.8 western. Lots of promise. I have been looking for rifle options but only really came up with browning and winchester. Both make great rifles. I won’t buy though as not US made. I kinda assume companies have been inundated with so many new cartridges lately they are waiting to see if it will stay around. Just my guess.



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[madcalfe]

6.8 mags don’t work for wsm. Probably should have looked at the xbolt mag before ordering. Xbolt mags have good shoulder stops to keep tips from getting deformed. Because the shoulder is further back on the 6.8, the wsm case shoulders don’t fit in a 6.8 mag.

Pic is hard to tell but the 6.8 mag shoulder is further back but they cut out more material where the tip of the bullets go. I might need to take a dremel to the tip of the wsm mag.

So if anyone needs a discounted 6.8 mag, I know a guy.

why wouldn't you just take a dremel to the wsm mag? it looks plastic... you'd easily be able to notch it out at the front.... also you'd be able to take a dremel to that 6.8 western mag and make the shoulders a little bigger to fit the 300wsm

 

[wind gypsy]

why wouldn't you just take a dremel to the wsm mag? it looks plastic... you'd easily be able to notch it out at the front.... also you'd be able to take a dremel to that 6.8 western mag and make the shoulders a little bigger to fit the 300wsm

I wasn’t sure how thick the plastic was so didn’t mess with it. Now that I saw how they increased COAL on the 6.8 mag I’m not concerned with dremmeling some out of the wsm mag.

 

[Reburn]

I wasn’t sure how thick the plastic was so didn’t mess with it. Now that I saw how they increased COAL on the 6.8 mag I’m not concerned with dremmeling some out of the wsm mag.

to increase coal on a factory tikka wsm mag.
dremmel out the back. spacer. I used a flush cutter or sometimes called an orbital cutter and a dremmel. you will need to cut the inside out smooth and form the top of the feed lips at the back.
Then buy a 270 tikka mag. use the follower and spring and bottom plastic in the modified wsm mag.

I was not able to successfully able to modify a 270 mags feedlips to take a wsm case. The factory wsm case has optimal feed lip spacing for prc and wsm cases

This made my wsm mag work for my wsm at longer coal and 6.5 prc.

 

[wind gypsy]

to increase coal on a factory tikka wsm mag.
dremmel out the back. spacer. I used a flush cutter or sometimes called an orbital cutter and a dremmel. you will need to cut the inside out smooth and form the top of the feed lips at the back.
Then buy a 270 tikka mag. use the follower and spring and bottom plastic in the modified wsm mag.

I was not able to successfully able to modify a 270 mags feedlips to take a wsm case. The factory wsm case has optimal feed lip spacing for prc and wsm cases

This made my wsm mag work for my wsm at longer coal and 6.5 prc.

We were talking about x bolt mags. I use HCA mags in my tikka.

 

[Reburn]

We were talking about x bolt mags. I use HCA mags in my tikka.

I'm an idiot. Sorry bud.

 

[littlebigtine]

My buddy has one and its almost ballistically identical to my 7mm rem mag shooting 165 accubonds. his xbolt hells canyon shoots sub moa with my tikka all day. both 24in barrels. that short action is a perk but still only has 3+1 rounds on board. I think that the ackley will become more widely available in the future as well as the 7saum. All of these options as far as i can tell are phenomenal for western hunting. bang bang

 

[Warrior10]

I waited too long deciding if the hype was real and can't find a Browning in stock now, damn.

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

I waited too long deciding if the hype was real and can't find a Browning in stock now, damn.

It's hype
Just get a magnum tikka t3 donar rifle and screw an 8 twist 270 wsm shouldered prefit on there throated for 170s.
It shouldn't cost you more than 1k and you'll have a much better rifle.
Unless you don't handload I guess

 

[mtnbiker208]

can the 6.8 western shoot the 270wsm or vice a versa?
thanks
tim

 

[Tumbleweed]

can the 6.8 western shoot the 270wsm or vice a versa?
thanks
tim

No! Headspacing is way different. You could not chamber a .270wsm round in a 6.8. If you chamber a 6.8 round in a .270wsm, the firing pin cannot reach the primer. I believe the shoulder lengths are .080" between the 2.


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[Tumbleweed]

So, I thought I'd give an update on my new 6.8 project. The rifle is a Browning Xbolt Western Hunter with 24" barrel. I put a TiPro1 muzzle brake on it. Scope is a Burris Veracity 3-15 in Seekins precision matched low rings on a bedded 20MOA Warne mountain tech rail. I put a Mcarbo trigger spring in it to create a consistent pull at 2.5lbs.

Running the Berger 170 EOL's out of Winchester cases (only thing available yet) with Ramshot Magnum and CCI200's. Barrel break in was not needed as I discovered, this barrel has yet to produce any copper. Looking at the bore with a camera, this is by far the most pristine factory barrel I've seen. As good or better than some match barrels I've observed.

I was able to run speeds up to 2970ish before seeing any pressure signs at all. Extraction was normal. I tested seating depth and found two spots that produced decent group sizes. .100" jump and .035" jump. Optimal charge tests using .100" jump didn't quite produce what I was after, groups in the .75-1moa range. ES and SD with each group were very good, usually less than 10 ES.

I moved to an optimal charge test (2/10 increments) with .035" jump. Results were very similar with groups in the .75-1moa range. This is about when my barrel started to speed up so there was some retesting going on. ES and SD were excellent in the upper ranges of velocity (2930-2960fps) but the perceived sweet spots or nodes, were very narrow and affected a lot by even 10 degrees change in ambient temperature. I decided I needed to drop down and look for more stability and a wider sweet spot.

I found stability in the 2840-2870fps range. I never could tune group size to better than .75MOA, but at 67.3 grains, I'm in a flat spot that's 6/10 grain wide and group size is also stable here. My son and I took it out to 708 yards last night and it's holding well at 1 moa or better. This is enough to satisfy my goals for the rifle for now, but I will be switching powder this winter to something temp stable and that will give better accuracy. Maybe N560 or RL23

Also, a note on the brass, I'm getting cracks in the shoulders and necks even with annealing. This is showing up at about 3 firings. I had to neck turn as well. Will be looking forward to some good brass from ADG in the next year or two...hopefully!


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[Warrior10]

Thanks for the write up Tumbleweed. I lucked out yesterday and stumbled upon a Browning HC Speed 24in, pretty excited.

 

[oilman87]

So, I thought I'd give an update on my new 6.8 project. The rifle is a Browning Xbolt Western Hunter with 24" barrel. I put a TiPro1 muzzle brake on it. Scope is a Burris Veracity 3-15 in Seekins precision matched low rings on a bedded 20MOA Warne mountain tech rail. I put a Mcarbo trigger spring in it to create a consistent pull at 2.5lbs.

Running the Berger 170 EOL's out of Winchester cases (only thing available yet) with Ramshot Magnum and CCI200's. Barrel break in was not needed as I discovered, this barrel has yet to produce any copper. Looking at the bore with a camera, this is by far the most pristine factory barrel I've seen. As good or better than some match barrels I've observed.

I was able to run speeds up to 2970ish before seeing any pressure signs at all. Extraction was normal. I tested seating depth and found two spots that produced decent group sizes. .100" jump and .035" jump. Optimal charge tests using .100" jump didn't quite produce what I was after, groups in the .75-1moa range. ES and SD with each group were very good, usually less than 10 ES.

I moved to an optimal charge test (2/10 increments) with .035" jump. Results were very similar with groups in the .75-1moa range. This is about when my barrel started to speed up so there was some retesting going on. ES and SD were excellent in the upper ranges of velocity (2930-2960fps) but the perceived sweet spots or nodes, were very narrow and affected a lot by even 10 degrees change in ambient temperature. I decided I needed to drop down and look for more stability and a wider sweet spot.

I found stability in the 2840-2870fps range. I never could tune group size to better than .75MOA, but at 67.3 grains, I'm in a flat spot that's 6/10 grain wide and group size is also stable here. My son and I took it out to 708 yards last night and it's holding well at 1 moa or better. This is enough to satisfy my goals for the rifle for now, but I will be switching powder this winter to something temp stable and that will give better accuracy. Maybe N560 or RL23

Also, a note on the brass, I'm getting cracks in the shoulders and necks even with annealing. This is showing up at about 3 firings. I had to neck turn as well. Will be looking forward to some good brass from ADG in the next year or two...hopefully!


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Awesome stuff!! Im still deciding on what scope I want to put on my new x-bolt, but hoping to starting working up some loads within the next month.

 

[natedock1]

Anyone buy and shoot the 6.8 Western yet? I’m considering this round for my next rifle purchase but would like some feedback from you pros! It looks like ammo can be purchased but finding a rifle appears to be more challenging. Please share your experiences.

as a winchesters 270 wsm owner i would avoid this round. if winchester does the same with this caliber as they did with the wsm they will be the main producer of it and then quietly make less and less ammo for it and there wont be a lot of gun varieties available either. i have owned the 270 wsm since it came out and this is basically a 270 wsm with less powder and a longer heavier bullet for slightly better ballistics at ranges most people will never shoot at an elk with. reloading component availability and reasonably priced factory loads would make me shy away from this round. it will never be mainstream much like my 270 wsm lost its flavor with hunters

 

[762 ULTRAMAGA]

as a winchesters 270 wsm owner i would avoid this round. if winchester does the same with this caliber as they did with the wsm they will be the main producer of it and then quietly make less and less ammo for it and there wont be a lot of gun varieties available either. i have owned the 270 wsm since it came out and this is basically a 270 wsm with less powder and a longer heavier bullet for slightly better ballistics at ranges most people will never shoot at an elk with. reloading component availability and reasonably priced factory loads would make me shy away from this round. it will never be mainstream much like my 270 wsm lost its flavor with hunters

Who cares about the flavor
Get some dies and brass, enjoy ridiculous accuracy, and tell the "Flavor" to get bent

 

[natedock1]

Who cares about the flavor
Get some dies and brass, enjoy ridiculous accuracy, and tell the "Flavor" to get bent

good luck getting brass and dies for a limited interest round is my point

 

[ShaneC]

good luck getting brass and dies for a limited interest round is my point

Walked into a store a couple weeks ago and they had the dies and several hundred rounds of brass. I have seen it available in several stores around the country. It is out there.

 

[ElPollo]

as a winchesters 270 wsm owner i would avoid this round. if winchester does the same with this caliber as they did with the wsm they will be the main producer of it and then quietly make less and less ammo for it and there wont be a lot of gun varieties available either. i have owned the 270 wsm since it came out and this is basically a 270 wsm with less powder and a longer heavier bullet for slightly better ballistics at ranges most people will never shoot at an elk with. reloading component availability and reasonably priced factory loads would make me shy away from this round. it will never be mainstream much like my 270 wsm lost its flavor with hunters

Agreed. Not the best pathway for widespread adoption of a cartridge.

 

[LOB39]

I was interested in the 6.8 and even bought ammo for it before buying the gun...problem is I have never seen a gun for it anywhere. Now i'm thinking of just selling the ammo ha