.

Deer opener in Germany 1 May 2022. Also the possibility of pigs at the place I was going so I opted for my Mauser 66 in 8x68S shooting RWS 187 grain factory loads.

Long and short a roebuck came in at 8 pm. 75 yards. Dropped like a bag of concrete at the shot and never knew what hit him.

Both front shoulders jello and everything in between. Not a great looking carcass hanging in the meat locker with both front legs off and half the ribs cut out. Brutal.

A super cartridge / caliber IMO but it has to be big, solid game!

.

In other words, a ton of wasted meat?

Maybe a heavier bullet won't destroy as much meat but that is the usual end result when shooting through the shoulders.

The lung shot on deer generally doesn't waste meat like that.

I lived in and hunted Germany for many years, my go to rifle for Reh was a .243. I later switched up to a 30-06 shooting low recoil 127 grain Hornady ammo. It wasn't as soft shooting as the .243 but you had the option to drop in a 158 grain oryx round and plug a pig when the opportunity presented itself.

Q: When does deer hunting become varminting?

A: With 187 grains @ 3150 fs.

quote:

Q: When does deer hunting become varminting?

A: With 187 grains @ 3150 fs.

True but it is SUCH A NICE GUN and it needed an outing !!!!!

On the other hand - dead is dead. Right?


.

Depending on the bullet, this caliber can blow up a lot of meat. Big fan of the 7x65R shooting heavy for caliber especially at typical moderate distance in Europe. Even the 9.3s are gonna do less destruction.

I figure actual meat loss of deer shoulders is about 2 to 4 lbs of meat..Ive seen the same from many calibers from the 222, 220 swift, any hivel bullet..The 8x68 is no worse than the 270 to the 300 win mag. Never much said about that, cut the guy some slack...

Im thinking the 8x68 won't accept standard US primers and thats problem IMO, if correct...

8x68 is my favourite calibre for hunting stags during the rut and driven hunts.

Flat, fast and hell of a lot of energy

quote:

Originally posted by Atkinson:
I figure actual meat loss of deer shoulders is about 2 to 4 lbs of meat..Ive seen the same from many calibers from the 222, 220 swift, any hivel bullet..The 8x68 is no worse than the 270 to the 300 win mag. Never much said about that, cut the guy some slack...

Im thinking the 8x68 won't accept standard US primers and thats problem IMO, if correct...

No. It will accept standard US primers.

RWS brass at least accepts normal primers. It is a good cartridge, just a little behind the 8 Rem Mag. I had an older (pretty beat by the time I got it) Mauser in this cartridge. I liked it enough to start building myself another one, though I haven't got around to finishing it yet. I mostly use 185 gr Rem bullets for lighter game, then move up to 200 gr NP's and 220 gr for heavier game. - dan

I hunted in Germany for a year back in the early 80's, was able to get a German hunting licence so could also hunt on my own, with permission of the owner of a hunting block of course. Used a variety of rifles owned by hunting friends but one thing for certain it was frowned upon to take shots that would damage meat. All game meat was expensive and valuable for supplying hotels, restaurants, etc., so wastage was minimised.
Coming from a country where game animal hunting is free; any number of animals of any gender can be taken all year round; meat wastage is not too bothered about (just shoot more animals if you want more meat), I had to contain myself when hunting roe deer in Germany and make sure I took clean heart lung shots in behind the leg rather than just any shot, stationary or running that presented itself as I do in my own country.

Boar was no different. I found often enough the Germans did tend to use large calibres although the 6.5 and 7mm cartridges were popular. There were energy restrictions applicable which ruled out some of the lower powered smaller cartridges but for Roe deer the 223/243/7mm-08 with 120gr bullets would be ideal IMO for these animals including boar but of course that wouldn't be "traditional" enough for many hunters.

On a couple of occasions I was sent out by the Mayor who had the hunting rights to the village and surrounding area, to shoot some Roe does and young ones and deliver to a hotel for preparation for up coming festivals of some sort. I was using a break open multi barrel gun of SxS 12G and 7x65R under-barrel. When going to load the gun I discovered my friend had given me solids instead of soft point ammo. Illegal to use solids on game there but I shot a doe and yearling anyway with a lung shot and a head shot respectively. The hotel chef was very happy to receive the whole ungutted animals, delivered as per instructions from the Mayor.

Some of the RWS bullets were/are fairly soft, my German friends found that out when using them in various cartridges out here in NZ on our game, the Kegel Spitz (needle nose) bullets were one variety that were way too soft and didn't always perform well on bigger animals such as Red deer and Tahr.

One of my friends used a 6.5x68 with copper capped H-Mantle bullets out here on deer, chamois and tahr, it seemed to work well enough.

I've enjoyed my 8x68S since I acquired it in the mid 1980s. I prefer 200 gr. bullets and have used 220 gr. They are deadly and do not blow up on game as a 180 gr bullet at 3,100+ will do. With the 8x68S I can only yawn at any 300 or 338; have no interest or use for either. I had a 308 Norma in a Schultz and Larsen, but sold it. Really interesting rifle but the cartridge, the only 300 mag I had any passing interest in, didn't hold my attention.

My 8x68S is a Sauer 90.

I have take a few Colorado elk and a mulie with it using Barnes X bullets and it accompanied me on my first trip to Africa where it aquitted itself well on Eland, Blue Wildebeast, bushbuck, Kudu, and Zebra.

Like the rest of you I have found that the light bullets tend to do a lot of damage in close.

I really need to work up a good light bullet load and then just use it on prairie dogs for giggles. Might also be useful on Wyoming antelope next year.

Good caliber just use the 200 or 220 gr. bullets, the monolithics or Nosler partitions work as well as can be expected, and if you hand load slow the bullets down with whatever you use will help..I had the same problem with my 308 savage mod 99, switched to a 150 gr. Win Power Point and 2800 fps on Mule deer and whitetail, works like a charm, a bullet hole and 3 to 4 inches of blood shot around the hole..works well on elk also..