The big brother to my 6.5x68s, is my newly acquired rifle in 8x68s cal.

[buckstix]

The big brother to my 6.5x68s, is my newly acquired rifle in 8x68s cal.

Just like my 6.5x68s, I had never heard of this 8x68s cartridge until I was offered to purchase a rifle in this caliber. It is a Sauer Weatherby Mark V made in 1964. The very first Mark V rifles were built in Germany by J.P. Sauer, and under license from Weatherby, Sauer was able to build Mark V rifles for the European market in various calibers. This is one of them. The 8x68s cartridge is a very powerful 8mm cartridge. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/8×68mm_S

This unique rifle has a 26" no. 1 contour barrel with an island rear site and a barrel-banded ramp front site. It also came with a claw mounted scope. I was able to find custom loaded ammo from Reed’s Ammunition & Research ...
- https://reedsammo.com/product-category/rifle-ammunition/metric-calibers/8x68s/ ...

The ammo shot very well in this rifle and I expect to use it for hunting Wisconsin whitetails this Fall.

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8x68-000.jpg

http://www.buckstix.com/buckpics/8X68-TARG-0.jpg

 

[375er]

That should knock the stuffing out of a whitetail. Nice rifle!

 

[PerH]

But sad Brenneke rifle ammo isn’t imported to US they have some Exellent 8mm loads . TOG is one of them .

 

[buckstix]

I prefer to use Nosler partition bullets, and will reload with their 200g bullets and expect to achieve nearly 3,000 fps using RL-22 powder.

 

[JD Noblin]

Congrats on that Weatherby! I am SO JEALOUS! I would have snapped that rifle up as I love both the cartridge and Weatherby Mark V rifles (especially the German ones). I have both a 6.5x68 in a Heym SR30 and a 8x68 in a Steyr Custom Shop.

Norma makes 8x68 brass and its readily available in the US. Unfortunately 6.5x68 is hard to find....I have a friend who goes to Germany and he brings me back a box of RWS brass so my supply is slowing increasing.

 

[Ontario Hunter]

Strange to see a Weatherby Mark V from that vintage without the rollover cheek rest and thick decoupage finish. But I guess the Germans were always less showy. I seem to recall their ladies preferred hairy armpits and legs. :-(

 

[Beck]

I've killed a lot of game with an 8x68S, fantastic cartridge. Kind of between a .300, and a .338 - best of both worlds in my opinion.

 

[mauser98]

3000 fps with 200's in a 26" barrel is easily obtainable even with standard powders like imr 4350. My BRNO 602 with a 25.5" does 3050fps no problem.

 

[buckstix]

I will be test various loads and post the results showing velocity

 

[Frederik]

I'm also a newby with the 8x68S but from what I have experienced I can see those poor whitetail doing DRT with a shot form your 8x68.

I need to get the trigger sorted it is a bit rough and does not break cleanly making it diffilcult to shoot groups but looks very promising. Played with 195Gr Interlocks that came with the rifle and was surprized how easily it hit 2900fps although I only have a 24" barrel.

I got a bunch of new RWS brass that came with the rifle.

 

[buckstix]

I found ammo for sale at this site. It is custom loaded with Norma Brass with the correct head stamp. That is what I used in the target above. https://reedsammo.com/product-category/rifle-ammunition/metric-calibers/8x68s/

 

[PerH]

Norma load or has loaded the 8x68 with 200 Aframe , so the load may be original from them .