None that I know of.
It is a great cartridge. It was introduced at the same time as the 243 Win, and it was called the 244 rem. The developers intended the gun to be used on medium sized game i.e. coyotes, wolves etc, which it is ideally suited for. So with that in mind they made rifles with a slow twist rate that stabilized lighter bullets well, but did not handle anything over 90 grns. The 243 Win however had a faster twist rate and could handle the 100 gr bullets. Hunters quickly found that the cartridges were great for deer, but the 244 rem was at a disadvantage because hunters could not use 100 gr bullets. So the 243 Win got a lot of popularity. Remington changed the twist in the barrels and hoped for more success, but by that time everyone just wanted a 243, and the rumors of the 244 Rem not stabilizing bullets was hard to overcome. As a last hope, Remington re-introduced the same cartridge as the 6mm rem a few years later, hoping a new name would spark new interest and help forget the short comings of the past. But the 243 was now a bread and butter cartridge and it was too hard to displace, so the 6mm Rem never took off like it should have.
The ironic part is that with the added velocity, the 6mm rem was more suited for larger game from the beginning over the 243. If you are lucky enough to find an older Remington chambered in 6mm Rem don't let it go. Any "244 Rem" made after 1958 also has a fast twist rate. I picked up a Rem 700 made in 1979 for a song, and I will never let that baby go.
It's encouraging to see Remington do a limited run of them again, it means that ammo may come more available. It is ideal if you handload. If you were absolutely set on buying new, then the other easiest way would be to get a savage and put a shilens barrel on it.
I was looking for the Remington 6mm then found my 257 Roberts, that ended my 6mm search.
Great post..Why isn't 6mm Remington more popular?
Because 243 Winchester won the 6mm War against the 244 Remington, not 6mm Remington.
6mm Remington is a faster twist 244 Remington and was introduced after 244 Remington failed in the market.
244/6mm Remington:
243 Winchester
- single use cartridge (244 Rem) (-) , dual use cartridge (6mm Rem) (+)
- got off to a bad start (not dual use) (-)
- more powerful cartridge (+)
- lower accuracy - long action (-)
- based on "old" cartridge (-)
In short, the 243 Winchester did everything well on the first iteration, is based on a modern cartridge and is very accurate (won Hi-Power National Match) while 244/6mm Remington is arguably the best long range varminting cartridge based on a old cartridge. 6mm Remington is 244 with a faster twist allowing dual-use but unfortunately it was too little, too late.
- dual use cartridge (+)
- got a fast start and never slowed (+)
- better accuracy - short action (+)
- less powerful cartridge - not a big difference (-)
- base on "experimental" cartridge T65 (308 Winchester) (+)
Nonetheless, 6mm Remington (and 6mm AI Rem) is the cartridge of choice used in many custom long range varmint rifles,
Alex