ADG Releases the Best 6.8 Western Brass for Reloaders

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For many dedicated reloaders, including myself, the initial release of the 6.8 Western with nickel-plated brass and small allocations of Winchester cases left me deflated. I knew the cartridge had potential from crunching numbers using high-BC bullets not available in the limited factory ammunition offerings. When a new cartridge is released, it often takes a lot of interest to get a premium brass manufacturer to add a cartridge to the production line, and the 6.8 Western did not look like it would make the cut early on. Despite limitations in factory ammunition and brass options, I went forward with building a custom rifle and sourcing Winchester brass to see what the new .270-caliber round was all about.

Test Rifle

To start my testing of the new 6.8mm cartridge, I had TS Customs build a rifle using a medium-length Zermatt TL3 action and a 22-inch 1:8 twist PROOF Research carbon-fiber barrel, bedded in a TS Custom’s KS1 stock. This rifle would allow me to really see what the cartridge is capable of with handloaded ammunition as TS is well known for building accurate rifles and I have 4 more in the same that confirm that statement.

After receiving the rifle, I hand throated the chamber to achieve a better cartridge overall length (COL) to help maximize case capacity when loading long, high-BC bullets and chose a COL of 3.00 inches, starting with the Berger 170-grain EOL bullet. The medium length action would allow the longer-than-2.95-inches length of the short-action magazines. This added COL would allow more powder to fill the case and let me see how much velocity I could squeeze out of it.

Initial Test

I started with ordering 100 pieces of Winchester brass online, and once it arrived I carefully inspected each piece. I uniformed the primer pockets, trimmed case necks and sorting by weight as I always do with nonpremium brass to make the cases more consistent. Once the brass was trimmed and ready, I began working up loads, watching for signs of high pressure, with Berger 170-grain EOL and Nosler's 165-grain AccuBond Long Range bullets using a variety of propellants, per the early-but-limited load-development information at the time.

I was able to achieve muzzle velocities of 3,000 fps with the heavy-for-caliber, high-BC-bullet and truly maximize the potential of the 6.8 Western in a 22-inch barrel compared to the factory-standrad 24-inch barrel. While the higher velocities in a shorter barrel are what most reloaders are looking for, the trade off in pushing a cartridge's limit is short brass life. The primer pockets of the Winchester brass got loose after two firings; it was noticeable when priming the cases how soft they had beome. While the brass was still usable, the next loading rendered about 25 percent of the pieces not usable to my standards with very light retention on the primer.

ADG 6.8 Western Brass

I boxed up the remaining pieces of brass and then retired the rifle to my gun safe until I heard ADG was beginning to develop 6.8 Western brass due to high demand for premium brass based on the same experiences described above. I was fortunate to receive 100 pieces of the first lot and started where I'd left off with load development.I even and added some new long, high-BC monolithic Barnes 155-grain LRX, Hammer 151-grain HHT, and McGuire Ballistics 149-grain Copper Rose to the lineup.

The initial batch of ADG brass measured 75.5 grains of H2O case volume compared to the Winchester brass's 74.0gr of H2O. The necks of the 100 pieces of ADG brass averaged 0.0152 inch in thickness with extreme spread being 0.015-0.0155, compared to the Winchester brass averaging 0.0160 inch with an extreme spread of 0.0150-.00170. (Hence my turning the necks on the Winchester brass after taking initial measurements and documenting them in my log.) Where premium brass really shines is the tighter tolerances and case-to-case uniformity. The amount of time it takes to prep factory brass to a consistent level is extenisve and I would much rather spend my time at the range and not prepping brass.

Range Comparison

After running my handloads developed with Winchester brass and developing new loads with the ADG brass and the additional monometal bullets, I found the ADG brass was no doubt stronger and handled the hotter loads with ease compared to the Winchester brass I had originally tested. The loads with the same lot of Reloder 23 propellant averaged an extra 25 fps more velocity with the Berger 170-grain and Nosler 165-grain bullts with no signs of high pressure in the ADG brass. I was pushing the limits of the Winchester brass with those loads but now had room to grow in the ADG brass because it is thicker and stronger than the Winchester brass.

After two firings on the first 100 pieces of ADG brass, the primer pockets were still as tight as could be and showed no signs of loosening up. I am currently up to five firings at the time of this writing, and the brass is still holding strong and with tight primer pockets, just as ADG brass is well known for in all its cartridge offerings.

I have loaded ADG brass in eight different cartridges and rifles over the years, from 6.5PRC to 338 RUM and the results are always the same-- better accuracy, better velocity, and longer case life. Regardless of your experience in reloading, securing quality brass for your rifles should be the first order of business, and ADG is a great place to start. I begin with 100 pieces of premium brass for every rifle I build and have yet to shoot any of them out, with the most firings on my 6.5 PRC at eight firings of a fairly hot load with Bergers 156-grain bullets at 2,950 fps. If you shoot the 6.8 Western, the new brass from ADG will serve all your handloading needs and last for many reloads under safe reloading practices and if you are looking for more information on handloading the 6.8 Western check out our Shooting Times article here. For more information on ADG brass, visit https://atlasdg.com

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