6.8 vs 7SAUM

[Budman]

Looking at building a hunting rifle & want to stay short action but still want to push at least a 170 Gr, bullet. I've looked at charts & see that they are very similar. Any pro / cons would be helpful.

 

[wind gypsy]

Purty dang similar. Factory ammo would probably favor the 6.8, handloads I'd prefer the 7. I don't know why you're stuck on 170 grains though, either would do fine with some of the 16X pill options especially in some SA mag options. If you use some of the newer mag options that allow 3.1"ish COAL that would benefit the 7.

 

[gerry35]

Both are very nice options that are almost identical. You just need to figure out if you're a 277 or 7 mm guy. Or you could get one of each.......

 

[RoseAllen]

Purty dang similar. Factory ammo would probably favor the 6.8, handloads I'd prefer the 7. I don't know why you're stuck on 170 grains though, either would do fine with some of the 16X pill options especially in some SA mag options. If you use some of the newer mag options that allow 3.1"ish COAL that would benefit the 7.

Which mags are 3.1" for short action?

 

[wind gypsy]

Which mags are 3.1" for short action?

Baney box for bdl. UM short xl. I’m pretty sure the carbon seekins mags are pushing 3.1” too.

 

[gringo76]

The 7 PRC is here for the long haul with the shift towards long range shooting in general. The 7 PRC was helped massively by the selection of quality high BC bullets already on the market.

However, I’m not a big fan of 7 saum on a short action. If you have a medium or long action you can get a lot more performance out of it.

 

[Bfish22]

Looking at building a hunting rifle & want to stay short action but still want to push at least a 170 Gr, bullet. I've looked at charts & see that they are very similar. Any pro / cons would be helpful.

Do you reload or rely on factory ammo? Factory ammo I’d go 6.8 with a sierra 175. I don’t think there’s much for factory 7saum out there.

Reload, I’d still probably go with 6.8 with upcoming adg brass and a Berger 170. But a 7 saum with adg brass and a Berger 175 would be almost identical in performance, dont think you could go wrong with either of those options.

 

[Beetroot]

Historically (last 20years ish) 6.8/277 has been a complete non-starter (for a hand loader atleast) as for lighter weight bullets 6.5mm always had more/better options for high BC bullets, and 7mm was better for heavy bullets.
Basically leaving the 270 to be labeled as a fudd cartridge and the 270wsm to drop off the radar worse than the other WSM/SAUM cartridges.
A similar situation to why 25cals dropped in popularity compared to 6mm and 6.5mm.

I guess it comes down to if you want to hand load or not.
If you are happy buying Winchester ammo then 6.8Western would be ok but for the handloader I wouldn't expect the big players (Hornady, Lapua etc) to be putting much effort into it so your options are likely to be limited.

Personally I'd say 6.5PRC would be a far safer bet for long term support for factory rifles/ammo and a 7mm Short mag of some flavour if you are going custom.
Short action 7mm mag is probably best served by the SAUM but I think the 7mm-6.5PRC is likely to become the standard in the future.

 

[kevingm1987]

Historically (last 20years ish) 6.8/277 has been a complete non-starter (for a hand loader atleast) as for lighter weight bullets 6.5mm always had more/better options for high BC bullets, and 7mm was better for heavy bullets.
Basically leaving the 270 to be labeled as a fudd cartridge and the 270wsm to drop off the radar worse than the other WSM/SAUM cartridges.
A similar situation to why 25cals dropped in popularity compared to 6mm and 6.5mm.

I guess it comes down to if you want to hand load or not.
If you are happy buying Winchester ammo then 6.8Western would be ok but for the handloader I wouldn't expect the big players (Hornady, Lapua etc) to be putting much effort into it so your options are likely to be limited.

Personally I'd say 6.5PRC would be a far safer bet for long term support for factory rifles/ammo and a 7mm Short mag of some flavour if you are going custom.
Short action 7mm mag is probably best served by the SAUM but I think the 7mm-6.5PRC is likely to become the standard in the future.

Many more options that Hornady and Lapua.

Bullet options from Berger, Nosler, and Sierra ranging from 165-175. I would shoot any 3 of these bullets before putting a Hornady bullet down the barrel of my gun. Lots of options for 130-160gn class of bullets from all the players out there.

Brass was and still is the down fall. ADG is on board and in the process of development. Hopefully on the shelves before the end of the year.

I'm probably a little bias, first rifle was a .270 and was excited for the 6.8 when announced. Once I snag some quality brass, I will spend more time dialing in my round. 165 ABLR, 170 EOL, 175 TGK, all shoot excellent out of the my gun.

 

[Beetroot]

Many more options that Hornady and Lapua.

Bullet options from Berger, Nosler, and Sierra ranging from 165-175. I would shoot any 3 of these bullets before putting a Hornady bullet down the barrel of my gun. Lots of options for 130-160gn class of bullets from all the players out there.

Brass was and still is the down fall. ADG is on board and in the process of development. Hopefully on the shelves before the end of the year.

I'm probably a little bias, first rifle was a .270 and was excited for the 6.8 when announced. Once I snag some quality brass, I will spend more time dialing in my round. 165 ABLR, 170 EOL, 175 TGK, all shoot excellent out of the my gun.

Yeah definitely more options, but once Lapua starts making brass for a cartridge you know it'll be sticking around for a while.

Hornady a similar situation with bullets, they (and Berger) finally released some decent high BC bullets in 25cal, meaning they now see enough of market to spend time and money on R&D.

There are actually a tonne of bullets for 277 already but most of them are older designs and lack behind the 6.5 and 7mm options. The Berger 170gr EOL being thr obvious exception but the BC in that is basically the same as the 7mm 175gr and lower than the 156gr EOL.

I guess what I'm trying to say is the jury is still out on whether 6.8 western will be a flop or not, and chances are its probably going to be.
So if you are happy with the factory ammo and rifle options available at the moment then it's a fine choice, but I wouldn't buy it expecting other manufacturers to jump on board any time soon.

If it were me a 6.5PRC Tikka would be the easy factory option, if going custom I'd likely go 7-6.5PRC.

 

[35WhelenAI]

OP, why the desire to stay short action? What's the difference between that and the std action? Less than .5" AT MOST? Is that gonna make a difference if you get an animal or not? There are some incremental benefits potentially however that is debatable when considering the cone of fire with any action. It's such an interesting fascination in my opinion. Short action, fat cartridges hold less in the magazine with how much real benefits in the real world?

 

[wgcracker13]

I run a 6.8 Western. I use 170 EOL, 7 saum brass from gunwerks fireformed, N570, Fed 215, 26" barrel going 3015 fps and it shoots very well in my rifle. I am waiting for the ADG 6.8 Western brass to come out to use. 7 saum isn't bad at all. If we compare the 175 elite hunter to the 170 eol, the 6.8 will be faster and flatter with the same length barrel within the same peak pressure with ideal powders. The calibers are so close that an animal won't know a difference when you hit it.