The 6.8 Western, By Jesse Werner

[B Harrison]

I am not talking about number of manufacturers, I am talking about availability. More people may offer 6.5 prc, but it was not being made. Winchester did a much better job putting out batches of 6.8W than Hornady (or anybody else) did during the ammo crunch. Things are loosening up now so see PRC ammo coming back, but it was not there this time last year and 6.8W was is my point. So, who cares if say Lapua makes 6.5prc brass if they never do a run.

I will also comment that the “premium” brass guys make brass for cartridges where they think can get folks to pay 2-5 bucks a piece. Has nothing to do with popular. That is why you can buy mostly dead rounds like the 7 saum or 7 rum from adg but not 7 rem mag.

I am not saying the 6.8W is going to be more or less popular than any PRC round. Even if not as popular as 6.5 prc or whatever does not mean it still wont be popular. Seems to be catching on ok as Win / Browning selling guns/ammo fast as they can make it.

Lou

The 6.8 was on the shelves because demand is low.
The 6.5 sells out pretty quickly.

There is no comparison in popularity, between the two chamberings.
If you asked 100 random hunters a good portion of them will have never put hands on a 6.8, but at least 1/4 of them will own a 6.5 or have shot one. Hornady runs things in the rifle market right now. If they had released the 6.8W as a PRC, even I would own one.


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[txtransplant]

If they had released the 6.8W as a PRC, even I would own one.

The silly name of the cartridge is holding you back?

 

[gerry35]

Hornady runs things in the rifle market right now. If they had released the 6.8W as a PRC, even I would own one.

Precisely why many don't want anything to do with Hornady, at the very least they are the bullies of the hunting world. They won't support it because they know it's a great cartridge and their ego won't let them support anything not made by them. They were asked many times to make proper ELD-X and ELD-M bullets for the 270 cal but don't. Everything but the 277 bore.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Is the 6.8 western even a thing anymore in 2026?

More now than it has been. Early in its inception, ADG and Petersen almost laughed when I inquired about the possibility of them making brass. Fast forward and we now have both. They had to make sure the demand was there.


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[Tumbleweed]

Precisely why many don't want anything to do with Hornady, at the very least they are the bullies of the hunting world. They won't support it because they know it's a great cartridge and their ego won't let them support anything not made by them. They were asked many times to make proper ELD-X and ELD-M bullets for the 270 cal but don't. Everything but the 277 bore.

Man if we had a 175 ELDM with a b/c around G1 .690 I’d be tickled. But as you said, that’ll never happen


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[Tumbleweed]

This thread, and your article, really helped me when I was getting my gun built and running in 2023. Thanks for bringing it up again. Since then I made a big move to a different part of the province, got the moose in my avatar and a young mulie buck using the 170 gr Ballistic Tip. Used Retumbo but have some N565 waiting to try just like you. Magpro and the 175 gr TGK is my other good load.

The 6.8 Western is slowly building some momentum which is nice to see. Savage is chambering it now and ADG and Peterson are making good brass for it.

That’s awesome. Thanks for mentioning that. Glad yours is doing its job well


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[gerry35]

Man if we had a 175 ELDM with a b/c around G1 .690 I’d be tickled. But as you said, that’ll never happen


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Sierra is the most likely to come up with a bullet like that, their 175 gr TGK is .633 I believe but I would bet a TMK would come in higher. I'm happy with the TGK but would definitely try it, the more bullets the better.

 

[gerry35]

The silly name of the cartridge is holding you back?

Could write it on the barrel with a Sharpie, we won't tell anyone haha.

 

[thinhorn_AK]

There's a whopping four flavors of ammo available on Midway.

Sounds like it’s hanging on for dear life. It will be gone in a few years.

 

[Tumbleweed]

Sounds like it’s hanging on for dear life. It will be gone in a few years.

I highly doubt it. I think it’s definitely more of a hand loader’s cartridge, but with the premium brass offerings in ADG and Petersen, it will only fuel usage. It’s a great parent case to build wildcats off of as well


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[Tumbleweed]

Sierra is the most likely to come up with a bullet like that, their 175 gr TGK is .633 I believe but I would bet a TMK would come in higher. I'm happy with the TGK but would definitely try it, the more bullets the better.

Their bullets tend to have a lot of shank and a blunter ogive which cuts back on velocity potential quite a bit. I’ve heard they’re new tipped offerings are working fantastic though


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[fuzzymarindave]

There's a whopping four flavors of ammo available on Midway.

Thats three more than I need! Full disclosure though, my single do-it-all load for that cartridge is a handload.

 

[LongWayAround]

I highly doubt it. I think it’s definitely more of a hand loader’s cartridge, but with the premium brass offerings in ADG and Petersen, it will only fuel usage. It’s a great parent case to build wildcats off of as well


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I think "sustain usage" is probably more accurate than "fuel."

I'm not saying that it's not a cool cartridge and I might be interested if I was into reloading.

Realistically, reloaders are the majority of the people that will keep it alive.

Looking at the factory ammo options, there are really only a handful of loads from three-ish manufacturers that I have seen. If you throw out copper bullets and soft points, there aren't many good bullets being loaded.

For one, who shoots Browning factory ammo? Two, who out there was looking for a better way to launch a soft point bullet? Heavy copper...?

My sophomoric opinion is that they tried to market this to people who think 6.5's are for guys who might be "light in the loafers." The failure was that they didn't market well and didn't have rifles and ammo ready at the same time (if I recall).

I do think the old comments about the ammo being in stock during the shortage are funny. Like somehow that was an indicator of popularity. No, people didn't have rifles to shoot it through. Same goes for when guys say it must be popular because it's out of stock...

 

[UnckleBob]

I think "sustain usage" is probably more accurate than "fuel."

For one, who shoots Browning factory ammo? Two, who out there was looking for a better way to launch a soft point bullet? Heavy copper...?

I wasn't planning to shoot factory ammo with my 6.8W, but I am getting the velocities I was promised and the accuracy has been better than I expected. Much better than I expected.

Today is the first time I have pulled out the ADG brass to use it to reload. The factory ammo + Barnes ammo is plenty good enough. The only reasons I am reloading is to (1) enjoy reloading and (2) see if my rifle likes a Nosler Partition.

 

[RME]

They were asked many times to make proper ELD-X and ELD-M bullets for the 270 cal but don't. Everything but the 277 bore.

FWIW, they have a .277 145 gr Eld-X. With 27 caliber cartridges almost non-existent in the competition world it’s reasonable for them to skip the Eld-M at this point in time.

 

[WRO]

Precisely why many don't want anything to do with Hornady, at the very least they are the bullies of the hunting world. They won't support it because they know it's a great cartridge and their ego won't let them support anything not made by them. They were asked many times to make proper ELD-X and ELD-M bullets for the 270 cal but don't. Everything but the 277 bore.

Or hear me out, it’s an odd ball with low demand and they’re barely keeping up with what they have to produce now.


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[gerry35]

FWIW, they have a .277 145 gr Eld-X. With 27 caliber cartridges almost non-existent in the competition world it’s reasonable for them to skip the Eld-M at this point in time.

The 145 gr is nice but it leaves a lot on the table for 1 in 8 twist 6.8's and 270's. It could easily be 170-175 gr.

Or hear me out, it’s an odd ball with low demand and they’re barely keeping up with what they have to produce now.


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There's a lot more out there than you think, at this point more than the 257 bore and they offer both ELD-X and M bullets for them. The 257 might be on it's way to be more popular or maybe not. It's well known that they don't want the 6.8 Western to succeed.

 

[Lou270]

6.8W ammo sales out fast. Why Win will not
do more frequent runs is beyond me. I suspect it is because they source their high BC bullets from Sierra/Nosler so out of their control to a point with the smaller makers who have to support their own ammo lines and other people who load their bullets. Hornady does not have this problem with their eld lines and supply quite a bit of brass for others to load. Barnes and a lot of smaller loaders using Horn brass just like Browning is Win. brass. Would not surprise me if Fed gets Horn PRC brass as well considering the PRC Rem/fed loads came out when they all of a sudden started using Horn bullets in their Premium lines. This is also why Barnes loads 6.8W in their more expensive Reserve line with ADG. Apparently Win will not sell brass to others or more likely don’t need to with the military contracts. The new 6.8W 175 BC max load has a .68 something BC and made in house by Win. Probably to get around the supply constraint of out sourcing bullets for their high current high BC lines. Reports I have seen have been very favorable for accuracy/SD. We will see. Positive sign that Peterson and Savage jumped on 6.8W bandwagon

Lou

 

[Lou270]

The 6.8 was on the shelves because demand is low.
The 6.5 sells out pretty quickly.

There is no comparison in popularity, between the two chamberings.
If you asked 100 random hunters a good portion of them will have never put hands on a 6.8, but at least 1/4 of them will own a 6.5 or have shot one. Hornady runs things in the rifle market right now. If they had released the 6.8W as a PRC, even I would own one.


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No. 6.8W was on shelves because Win had the clout to do it. They are vastly bigger than Hornady. Nobody else put hunting ammo on shelves during worst of the pandemic, let alone a new cartridge. Probably not the best time to do it, but they did. I saw guys bought 6.8W because it was only ammo they could get. I also agree the 6.5 prc is much more popular, but still very niche and not “big” in terms of volume. All of the high BC hunting stuff is very niche. Hornady is big fish in a little pond in that regards. Not knocking them as that is our pond.

Lou