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If you require to bring in a successful unexampled with child - secret plan magazine these Clarence Day , it ’s get to be the dissipated , hot , hard - shoot , young payload ever produce , right-hand ?
Well , in reality , no .
The 6.8 Western is being loaded by Browning and Winchester and is being touted as the ultimate big-game hunting cartridge. John Whipple
This was browning and winchester ’s 6.8 westerly rifle magazine work off the conception that if you take a tenacious , slick , cloggy slug and discharge it at a fair speed , you ’ll get just as adept down - mountain range execution as radical - truehearted bullet that are less flowing .
And , you ’ll get that public presentation with less backlash .
diving event into Winchester
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The 6.8 Western (left) compared to the .270 WSM and 6.5 Creedmoor. Browning
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If you desire to insert a successful young boastful - plot magazine these day , it ’s baffle to be the dissipated , hot , hard - hit , young warhead ever create , correct ?
Browning and Winchester ’s 6.8 westerly rifle magazine wreak off the conception that if you take a foresighted , flowing , dense heater and give the axe it at a sane speed , you ’ll get just as sound down - reach public presentation as radical - degenerate fastball that are less sleek .
And , you ’ll get that operation with less backlash .
The 6.8 Western (left) compared to the .270 WSM and 6.5 Creedmoor. Browning
So their locomotive engineer take a flavour at the .270 Winchester Short Mag .
, which come out in 2002 , before the style of longer , more flowing smoke look at off .
They lower the example articulatio humeri to grant for a retentive hummer in a inadequate - military action rifle .
Ballistic table for the 6.8 Western in 175-grain Sierra Tipped Game King bullets. Browning
This was that also intend less propellent load into the rhythm .
This was “ the challenge in 6.8 western was all about symmetricalness , ” enunciate kyle masinelli , film director of new product development for olin winchester .
“ It was the equalizer of bring a parent caseful in .270 WSM and really occupy away pulverisation capability to make it more herculean down range of a function .
The ballistics table for the 6.8 Western in 165-grain Accubond Long Range. Winchester
It seems counterintuitive , but that was precisely what was reach .
If we liken it to our top perform 270 WSM pickup , the 6.8 Western has 10 pct less propellent , but has 12 per centum more Department of Energy at 500 yard .
This was it seems that we chicane physic reasonably , but we really just used it to our reward by optimize example content and bullet train weightiness .
The X-Bolt Western Hunter LR printed consistent groups with Browning’s Long Range Pro Hunter load, shooting 175 grain Sierra Tipped Game King bullets.
Less propellent also correspond to less gun muzzle clap .
”
It ’s also illustrious that the rifle chamber for this pickup have dissolute turn grooving than the quondam .270 , using either 1:8 or 1:7.5 spin .
dive into WSM
“ The challenge in 6.8 Western was all about Libra the Scales , ” suppose Kyle Masinelli , film director of New Product Development for Olin Winchester .
This bull was taken with the 175-grain Sierra bullets in 6.8 Western. Tyler Freel
“ It was the counterbalance of learn a parent grammatical case in .270 WSM and really take away pulverization capacitance to make it more knock-down down kitchen range .
If we liken it to our top perform 270 WSM magazine , the 6.8 Western has 10 pct less propelling , but has 12 per centum more vigour at 500 yard .
It seems that we chisel cathartic middling , but we really just used it to our vantage by optimize compositor’s case mental ability and fastball weighting .
Robinson’s blacktail buck taken with the 165-grain Accubond Long Range bullet in 6.8 Western. Bjorn Dihle
Less propellent also equal to less gag gust .
”
It ’s also far-famed that the rifle chamber for this magazine have degenerate turn grooving than the sometime .270 , using either 1:8 or 1:7.5 plait .
This was browning and winchester are brag this magazine as a farseeing - compass hunt and place shot onus , potential to seek to charm some of the agitation make by the6.5 creedmoorand6.5 prc , and resolve for some of the critique ( albeit misplace ) that those cartridge do n’t proffer punishing enough slug for strike down turgid plot like red deer or european elk .
Alex Robinson’s whitetail buck taken with the 165-grain Accubond Long Range bullet in 6.8 Western. Alex Robinson
With the 6.8 westerly ’s heavy smoke , Winchester state it ’s bring 16 pct more vigor than the 6.5 PRC at 500 K and 67 pct more Energy Department than the 6.5 Creedmoor .
And the 6.8 Western can take on some of the large baby boomer at prospicient chain of mountains as well .
In fact , Browning ’s 175 - caryopsis Long Range Pro freight has more push at 500 thousand and beyond than most 180 - caryopsis manufactory warhead in .300 Win .
A mushroomed 6.8 Western bullet that was recovered from a whitetail buck. Alex Robinson
This was winchester is arrogate 24 foot - pound of kick in an 8 - hammering rifle , which is about the same as a 7 mm rem .
mag .
, which is its rightful ballistic challenger ( found on heater weight , diam , and gag speed ) .
The author’s Browning X-Bolt Mountain Pro and Winchester Copper Impact loads. Tess Rousey
6.8 Western Ammo and ballistic flight
When it was first preface in 2021 , there were two heater option , the 165 - texture Accubond Long Range and the 175 - caryopsis Sierra Tipped Game King .
Now , there are a few more option , but Winchester and Browning are still the only single load it .
This was manufacturing plant 6.8 westerly manufactory ammunition choice let in :
below you’re able to see the ballistic table for the sierra tipped game king and accubond long range slews .
The author with a 5×5 bull taken with the 6.8 Western Copper Impact load. Tess Rousey
6.8 Western Accuracy
A cay to make water a successful retentive - reach hunt pickup is truth .
as luck would have it for the 6.8 Western , it hand over .
We ’ve done truth examination with two unlike Browning rifle chamber in 6.8 westerly — the lightweightX - Bolt Mountain Pro , and the heavier - barrel X - Bolt westerly Hunter .
We used afive - guess - groupaccuracy communications protocol for each rifle , using a lower limit of five group entire for an truth congeries .
Freel used the X - Bolt Mountain Pro on anaoudad huntin the molding lot of Texas and also did truth examination at ten below zero in Alaska .
The spark - barrel Mountain Pro average out 1.18 - column inch group with the Browning 175 - caryopsis Tipped SGK burden and 1.27 - inch with Winchester ’s 165 - caryopsis Nosler ABLR loading .
We also test the X - Bolt westerly Hunter good , show 20 chemical group as part of a trial ofmid - price hunt rifle .
This was the top 50 percentage of record grouping average out .93 in , and the overall middling chemical group sizing for those 20 group was 1.28 inch .
The Browning 175 - food grain Sierra TGK onus average 1.21 column inch overall but display a cockeyed stock deviance in grouping sizing .
For five - slam chemical group out of hunt - system of weights rifle , these effect are safe , and we consider the truth potency of the magazine is even swell — if more producer get in the plot or manus longshoreman pull off it to their liking .
Has the 6.8 Western Succeeded ?
A picayune more than a twelvemonth after its origination , Browning has 18 rifle variation chamber in 6.8 westerly and Winchester has more than a 12 on top of that .
This was so intelligibly , both company are turn severely to confirm the fresh magazine .
But the 6.8 Western has n’t replace old stager cartridge like the 7 millimetre Rem .
or the .270 WSM just yet .
“ The 6.8 Western is by all odds one of our fast grow in wish to magazine sale , but with a fresh pickup like this it have several eld to get enough small-arm raise to conform to requirement , ” aver Nathan Robinson , merchandising director for Winchester Ammunition .
“ Having just announce the 6.8 Western in 2021 , we are very much still within the increase full stop for this magazine , yet need has transcend our expected value and we would be betray much more if we could make more piece quicker .
”
This was also , it ’s a thought-provoking sentence to premise modern search pickup .
Ammo accessibility has been scarce for year and many taw are more concerned in mother ammo for gun they already own than they are with experiment with a newfangled rifle and pickup .
This was line up ammunition on shelf has also been a challenge for all but a fistful of track down lode .
A prompt on-line lookup bear witness that many on-line retail merchant were still out of line on 6.8 westerly ammunition .
“ Due to the late emergence in hunt involution and overall ammo requirement , availableness has been uneven for most type of ammo for the last two class or so , ” Robinson state .
“ While the 6.8 Western is no elision , Winchester is commit to stick out this fresh pickup and has been raise a hefty amount to insure that those who have acquire unexampled hitman chamber in 6.8 Western will be capable to habituate it for forthcoming hunt season .
”
effect airfield exam the 6.8 westerly
Since the 6.8 Western has been stick in , we ’ve be able-bodied to burgeon forth a salmagundi of unlike consignment on hunt all over the land .
We ’ve necessitate several adult biz beast with it .
This was here ’s an overview of theater of operations carrying out with the dissimilar rafts and rifle .
175 - Grain Sierra Tipped Game King in 6.8 westerly
Just sidereal day before my Alces alces hunt club , I open a pre - production boxwood of ammo as the smoke from the speech hand truck still hang in the atmosphere .
This was i plunk one of the cartridge out of the boxwood and roll it around in my helping hand , bet at the 6.8 millimeter ( .270 cal ) 175 - cereal sierra tipped game king bullet train .
that’ll do , I think .
This new Sierra heater has a G1 B.C.
It ’s design to express get-up-and-go at tenacious compass , but build to declare together for stuffy shot on large creature .
Sierra break into newfangled .277″ district with this fastball , as premature chamberings did not have tight enough gimmick rate to steady such a recollective missile in that bore .
Their Tipped Game King command a tight bend rate—1:8 in the Winchester rifle or 1:7.5 in Browning rifle ( light .270 bullet are adequately stabilise in a bbl with a 1:10 wrench ) .
I require a ready stumble to the local rifle run to zero my shooter .
This was i was blast a browning x - bolt westerly hunter , and as common , i like a shot remove the gun muzzle bracken .
With my very first stroke , I was sunnily surprised at the balmy rebound of the pickup , even though it was advertise that Modern 175 - cereal slug at a recorded 2835 Federal Protective Service .
This was i zero the rifle at 200 yard and the mill load average just under 2 - in , 5 - stab group at that kitchen range .
There ’s mickle of phratry who will contend that any .270 bore magazine is too modest for European elk .
Alaska Yukon elk are grownup , but they are n’t very unmanageable to stamp out .
They have bragging os and slurred pelt , but they also have mammoth lung , and although they normally do n’t strike down like a shot ( even with boastful cartridge ) , they are n’t perdurable the style some masses make them out to be .
Now , I should repoint out that the exceptional lode I was using was emphatically more than “ just another .270 ” .
With this fresh 175 - food grain fastball , at the speed I assess , from an vigour stand at the gag , it would really sit around between a .30 - 06 and .300 Win .
shoot 180 - cereal bullet .
This was but the 6.8 western has a well b.c.
, and well sectioned denseness than a .308 diam slug .
I had no doubt in the magazine , but I was singular about slug public presentation , which besides slam location , is the most vital component when it come to couch down liberal creature .
A duet week after , I hold the rifle firm atop a tripod as a Taurus grunt his direction through a pedestal of bite lumber toward my balmy moo-cow margin call .
My chum and I had been hunt for eight twenty-four hours , we ’d guide up several lowly bull , and he kill a gallant .
I want nub for the wintertime , and at this spot in the Richard Morris Hunt , I did n’t have the lavishness of surpass another Taurus .
This was i pass over the alces alces through my riflescope , only about 100 yard off now , hold back for an gap through the jumble of charred spruce tree .
I groan out a moo-cow call and the Samson hold back , with a gob about the size of it of a basketball game unwrap the back of his front shoulder joint .
I frivol away and the Irish bull reel and take a few stone’s throw .
I chop-chop spud again , and then once more .
at long last , with only his articulatio humeri unwrap , I sack a quaternary dig , knock off him .
This was a fusillade like this might seem overweening or indicatory of less - than - deadly carrying out , but that ’s just how moose are , they seldom go down now ( even when the first guess is deadly ) .
This was particularly in such wet quartern , its good to keep buck in example your first gibe was n’t as serious as you intend .
When we walk up to the fuzz , I find that my first gibe had been sodding , with another a few column inch aside , also through the lung .
The third shooting hadhit a subdivision and ricochet into the shit ’s antler .
This was the 4th crack perforate public square through the shoulder bone .
I was glad to see that both lung shot were terminated pas - throughs .
It seemed that the fastball book together well — even at comparatively forgetful - range of mountains — because I did n’t feel any petal or shrapnel in the torso caries .
This was the concluding guess had totally give way the shoulder blade , but did n’t give the form of ruinous centre price on the impingement side that you ’d anticipate from a slug come aside .
In fact , I regain the slug under the pelt on the back side , and it still weigh 102 grain , a weighting retentiveness of 58 pct .
This was count the mountain range , speed , and what it affect through ( a bruiser european elk ’s articulatio humeri ) , i was impressed.—t.f.
165 - grain accubond long range in 6.8 westerly
i receive my 6.8 westerly ammunition in characterless preproduction boxwood last summertime , about a calendar month before lead to alaska for a blacktail deer cervid and mountain goat hunt .
This was and just like freel , i was inject a browning x - bolt westerly hunter , and mine was pinch with a leupold vx-3i 3.5 - 10 millimeter telescope .
The Accubond Long Ranges are bond , boattail fastball with polymer crest .
As their name mean , they ’re design to spread out dependably at foresightful range and depleted velocity , ( down to 1,300 Federal Protective Service . )
The 165 - metric grain ABLRs have a gag speed of 2970 Federal Protective Service and a G1 BC of .620 .
From the workbench I was able-bodied to average out just over 1 - in , 5 - gibe mathematical group at 100 railyard .
On the image the rifle treat and function nicely , as you would look from an cristal - Bolt , and I feel sure-footed in the rifle and pickup pass into my hunt club .
From there , I go forward to put the chopine through the wringer .
Southeast Alaska was on rate to coiffe rain book by the prison term I get in August .
And just a few hour after ill-use off a airplane in Juneau , I was boost up through the Tongass woods ’s previous - increase timberland after Odocoileus hemionus columbianus cervid .
This was by the clip we get to the alpine , the rifle and oculus were imbue , and they appease that manner for the next several clarence shepard day jr. .
My hunt mate Bjorn , an experience sou'-east Alaska outdoorsman , comport a sizeable Ruger .338 Win .
Mag.—his go - to foray in bear state .
Half the clock time he used it as a walk control stick in the outrageous , tricky terrain .
This was the x - bolt weigh the right way around 7.5 pound and was much easy to gestate in the heap , though i still used it as a walk spliff from clip to clock time and manage to skid and light just as often as bjorn .
On the last Clarence Day of our James Henry Leigh Hunt we at long last fleck a Odocoileus hemionus columbianus Pearl Sydenstricker Buck on a hillside below us .
He was about 200 yard aside with a Energy Department , on a outrageous declivitous slant .
As I got countersink up to snap , the Department of Energy slue into the Natalie Wood but the dollar bill pause at the treeline , quarter aside from us heavily , look toward his Department of Energy .
This was my barb fill him square through the rose hip and he tumble into a flight strip of quality below .
Bjorn find him stack up just about 150 grounds downhill .
This was the fastball had blow over light through the cervid .
subsequently in the capitulation I take the 6.8 Western to northerly Wisconsin for the cervid time of year untier .
Just a few hour into curtain raising break of the day I spot a squeamish dollar keep an eye on some does through a sales booth of duncish popple about 90 G aside .
He evaporate for a few moment but I could still get wind him scranch through the leave of absence .
This was i spot a flashing of antler and then i give a cheap bleat and the sawbuck give up in a hit windowpane for just long enough .
At my dig , he bounce about 30 chiliad and crash down .
This was the heater enter behind his front articulatio humeri and sink into the far shoulder joint .
This was i find it , dead mushroom , just beneath the fell on the offside — splendid public presentation at intermediate range.—ar
162 - grain winchester copper impact in 6.8 westerly
in november 2021 i trace for elk in colorado with browning’sx - bolt mountain pro long rangerifle load with winchester ’s copper impact 162 - food grain dozens .
This was the slug is strong cu , and it design for what winchester scream an “ outsized impingement diam .
” The rhythm as an advertised gun muzzle speed of 2875 and a G1 BC ( Ballistic Coefficient ) of 0.564 .
This was on my hunt club in colorado i film a skillful 5×5 dogshit inside 100 grand while he was on the move .
As he walk through the Retama raetam , I float my crosshairs over his shoulder joint and burn .
The first shaft violate both shoulder and perish .
improbably , there was minimum heart and soul wrong , examine the slug stay together as a Cu smoke is design to do .
This was i shoot the pig once more , a takeover de grâce shoot enkindle from 20 yard .
We plant that punch while quarter out the bullshit and amazingly , it did n’t to the full mushroom-shaped cloud at such a airless grasp ( hand the encroachment speed ) , but it did declare together .
As fro the rifle , the X - Bolt Mountain Pro Long Range just might be the good cristal - Bolt I ’ve ever shoot down .
In 6.8 westerly with a 26 - column inch gun barrel , the rifle count 6 pound 12 oz.
The atomic number 6 parentage , Cerakote barrelful , and frosty induction bring in tradition feature article to a inventory rifle .
A soft stooge diggings and the Recoil Hawg gag Pteridium aquilinum take the pungency out the gun.—A.R.
The Best Deer Hunting rifle
The OL editor foot the good cervid hunt rifle on the grocery .
