Thread: New .270 cal cartridge from Winchester

It seems like Winchester will e giving the .270 faithful a new short magnum cartridge in .277 calibre. The 6.8 Western is a slightly shorter case at 51.30 mm than the .270 WSM and designed to shoot 175 gn projectiles in a 1:8 twist barrel at 2840 Fps. Cartridges are loaded to 65 000 PSI.

There are more details and diagrams at this link
https://saami.org/wp-content/uploads...2020-11-01.pdf

and where pray tell me are they intending to GET 175grn .277 cal projectiles from?????
it would be far far far better if they talked nosler into poking a plastic tip into the 160grn partition that we all can use anyway.....
Im trying really really hard to see why they decide this is good idea..... really hard.
folks dribble on about how great a 280AI is but no one will suggest AI the std 270 win is good idea...... funny,same case and very similar projectile,sure there is better selection on .284 projectiles around...but there are some plenty good .277 ones.
mind you,having some 1;8 twist barrels around the show would give interesting options....

This sounds cool.



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A take on 6.8 PRC would have been better

I'd guess that Winchester must be talking to someone who makes high BC pills presently. More to follow i guess.

Greetings All,
The curmudgeon here. The 6.8 Western or the .270 Winchester slightly shorter magnum as I will call it will give little more than a standard .270 Win with a fast twist barrel. Speer got slightly under 2,800 fps with their 170 grain round nose in their no 9 manual. Interesting that the case has been shortened to about the same length as the 7mm SAUM. Probably to allow the long pointy projectiles to be seated in short actions. We got by for about 50 years with only two .270 calibre cartridges but I have lost count of how many have popped up in the last 20 years or so. Still, I suppose that new sells for a little while at least.
Regards Grumpamac.

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
The curmudgeon here. The 6.8 Western or the .270 Winchester slightly shorter magnum as I will call it will give little more than a standard .270 Win with a fast twist barrel. Speer got slightly under 2,800 fps with their 170 grain round nose in their no 9 manual. Interesting that the case has been shortened to about the same length as the 7mm SAUM. Probably to allow the long pointy projectiles to be seated in short actions. We got by for about 50 years with only two .270 calibre cartridges but I have lost count of how many have popped up in the last 20 years or so. Still, I suppose that new sells for a little while at least.
Regards Grumpamac.

Grandpamac time marches on

The original 270 is five hundred years old and so are the rifles chambered in it. Those old rifles need reduced factory loads. So the original has had its wings clipped.

In real numbers and in practice in the field, a teency weency little itty bitty 6.5 case not much bigger than a 22-250 case will send a 140gr pill downrange and leave the 270 for dead ballistically. The rather enormous 270 case with all that recoil with 130gr pill is actually quite gutless by comparison.

People have worked out that a light pill with a low BC doing 3200ft/sec is actually quite feeble compared to a heavy, high BC pill doing 2800ft/sec and the barrel lasts longer.

The old 270s performance was largely cosmetic.

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

and where pray tell me are they intending to GET 175grn .277 cal projectiles from?????
it would be far far far better if they talked nosler into poking a plastic tip into the 160grn partition that we all can use anyway.....
Im trying really really hard to see why they decide this is good idea..... really hard.
folks dribble on about how great a 280AI is but no one will suggest AI the std 270 win is good idea...... funny,same case and very similar projectile,sure there is better selection on .284 projectiles around...but there are some plenty good .277 ones.
mind you,having some 1;8 twist barrels around the show would give interesting options....

Dont Berger do a 175 vld? Elite hunter maybe I remember I looked into them for wsm but twist was wrong

Isnt that one of the big issues? The twist rate?
A couple of heavier projectiles but vast majority of 270s twist is marginal for them
Ice found the same thing researching for the 264win mag
Standard is 1-9 but the later long range projectiles need quicker which ironically slower calibres like the creedmore do have the quicker twist which gives makes them ballistically better a long way out even though they are up to 300fps slower

Greetings All,
At least the 6.8 mm Western has a twist suitable for high BC projectiles. For far too long US cartridges have been kneecapped with slow twists. A case could be made for 8 inches being the standard twist for all calibres up to and including .30 calibre.
Regards Grandpamac.

BUT when you up the twist AND the speed...you need to make projectiles harder or they blow apart...and when speed decreases they no longer expand properly...
catch 22
oh and SOME of us still use those wonderful speer 170grn round noses...or at least I will when have live poohseventy again....

Originally Posted by grandpamac

Greetings All,
At least the 6.8 mm Western has a twist suitable for high BC projectiles. For far too long US cartridges have been kneecapped with slow twists. A case could be made for 8 inches being the standard twist for all calibres up to and including .30 calibre.
Regards Grandpamac.

I agree 1:8 twist is a sweet spot for twist rate. Todd Hodnett from Accuracy First stated he uses this in his rifle builds up to and including 308w.

MD,

Amax, ELDM’s and Berger pills don’t explode in my 1:8 twist 6.5 at close to 3000 fps so I reckon this will not be an issue at 2800 in the new round.

yeah Ive heard other folks say that too......and also other folks say they do..... Ive seen light jacketed rounds enter animal and totally fly to bits...but animal died so not bullet failure as such....
Ive seen what 130grn taipans do in std .270 winchester......they sure dont exit ANYTHING ...nor do hornady 110grn hps both in 1;10twist...now someone is bound to use something like them or speer spbt in new fast twist round and wonder why nothing hitting target....I just hope like hell projectile manufacturers DONT start making harder the rounds we already have....
the increase in rpm from a 1;10 to 1;8 twist will tear soft projectiles apart....they doing over 180,000 rpm now in std chamberings.
52gn berger hps behave less violently in 22-250 with 1;14 twist at 3600fps than they do in .223 1;10 twist at 3000 fps....so there is SOMETHING in it.....

180,000 rpm sounds like an dramatic way of describing it.
1:8 twist means the bullet will rotate about 500 revolutions over a distance of 100m.
1:10 twist means the bullet will rotate about 400 revolutions over a distance of 100m.
Passing through a deers chest, a typical bullet will only rotate 1.5 to 2 times.
Not that extreme really.


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