I love 6mm....
Having proven that 6BR is an outstandingly accurate cartridge at one mile, I set my sights on something a bit different. I thought about the 6 Dasher, BRX, XC and the 6-22-250, but I settled on the 6X47 as my next project. I did a bit of research on what was working and how the cartridge is performing, and I thought this was going to be my next 6mm.
I feel Lapua brass is an outstanding vessel for pushing the pressure limits if that becomes necessary and its consistency is second to none. I have plenty of 6BR brass that is on its third barrel and still going strong, so my choice was heavily influenced by the availablity of Lapua brass. I could have gone the 243 route, but I wanted to be a bit different.
I came upon the 6mmhot.com website, which is the pet project of Robert Whitley, a Lawyer and fullbore shooter who has pioneered many cool things including a 6mm cartridge for the AR15 based on the 6.5 Grendel. He and Dave Kiff designed a couple of reamers for the 6X47 and I ordered one designed by Kiff & Whitley for 105 gr. VLD's from Dave Kiff.
I had a Remington XR100 kicking around that was destined for one project or another and out of economy and convenience, it was thus conscripted as the next platform form my 6X47L. I like the stiff, single-shot design of the XR/XP action, and in my part of the world these are an extremely popular choice for conversion to F-Class precision rifles.
Barrel? No brainer. Krieger... I opted for the #17 Heavy Varmint contour which can be shoe-horned into an XR100 factory stock sans difficulty. Trigger... a Jewell. I have come to love the 1.5 oz BR trigger and all my target rifles have them. Pulling the trigger is 90% mental and 10% physical when they are that light although if you have never used an ultra light trigger, there is a grerat deal of muscle memory to learn!
I opted for a 20 MOA Ken Farrel base. They are well made and easy to get. The QRW rings are not my first choice, but 30mm rings are all but non-existent in my area. I used what i could get at the time.
Glass is a Nightforce 12-42X56 BR scope with the NP 2DD reticle. I love the eentsy weentsy target dot and the very uncluttered picture these afford. At100 yards, the dot is about the size of a 30 cal bullet hole.
Throwing it all together was virtuoso gunsmith and 30 cal barrel makler, Mick McPhee. He trued the action and like every Remington action it came from the factory needing truing. He cut a zero headspace chamber and with no-turn brass, I have about 3 thou neck clearance. Sweet!
Neck sizing the brass was accomplished by taking 6.5X47 brass and running the necks up a 6BR body die. The 30 degree shoulders and dimensions are identical. The necks were finished off with a .268 Redding TiN bushing, the cases were trimmed to length, mouths were chamfererd and all set for loading.
The aggregate of the info I read pointed to H4350 as being the unanymous choice for powders with 105-108 bullets, ...Good load density and a burning rate that keeps pressures very civilized.
I typically load develop at home. I Have all the space in the world and no neighbours, so I am pretty lucky, however we still have snow and mud in abundance, so off to the range for a change.
I started at 36 grains of powder and worked up in .3 grain increments to 39 gr. and this put velocities at about 3100, and I seated the bullet at the lands. VLD 6's all love to be jammed, so I was expecting mediocre results until I stuck the bullets in there. Intial strings revealed about a 1 MOA group at all velocities (Yuck!) With no clear winner in terms of speed. Hmmm. I did note however that above 3000 fps, groups opened up.
I started with 105 scenars and repeated the process with 105 Berger VLS's and 108 tangent ogive bullets. the 108's were the best, but not by much. Their scarcity made me worry that this was going to be the hands-down winner.
I was running out of time and decided to start with 38 grains and try various seating depths. Yuck. Nothing Worked. nothing changed. No matter what I did, I got 1MOA groups!
Well, I ran out of time and daylight so I packed up and left it for another day and to re-think these results.
On my first free day off in weeks, I set about resuming my hunt for the sweet spot. I typically load develop at 200M but I decided to brave the hay field I had avoided last outing and since it was so mucky to get in there, I opted to shoot at 110 meters (Handy lump of snow for mounting the targets).
I had dismissed the possibility that these cartridges like jumped bullets as being absurd, but i re-load developed starting with jumping 5 thou........ Whoa!!!!! What have we here????
Groups started at .5 MOA and showed their best results at 38.4 grains. I then loaded up strings with 10 and 5 thou of jump, Juuust touching the lands and just in the lands.
Bam!!!!!! Bug-holes!!!!!!!!
Just shy of the lands and these groups tightened like a bung in a prostate exam. Chrony showed 3000 fps.
One group does not a developed load make. I went home and loaded 15 rounds to the same recipe.
Well, I either have very tight groups, or the other two shots are clear off the 4 foot frame! Second string... same thing... third string..... same thing.
This gun SHOOTS!!!!!!! All groups were in the 1's or better. I have posted a pic of the best of these 3 shot groups.
I am happy that it shoots very well, but I'm a bit concerned about its narrow window of tolerance. Oh well, I'll just have to abstain from imbibing when loading and be methodical. i can do that!
Anyway, here is a picture of the completed gun, and a picture of one of the groups.
This cartridge shows real promise and I intend to shoot with it in the Kamloops 300m ISSF match in April to prove its mettle, and of course when the snow melts, it will be playing at one mile!
Cheers,
Ian
Having proven that 6BR is an outstandingly accurate cartridge at one mile, I set my sights on something a bit different. I thought about the 6 Dasher, BRX, XC and the 6-22-250, but I settled on the 6X47 as my next project. I did a bit of research on what was working and how the cartridge is performing, and I thought this was going to be my next 6mm.
I feel Lapua brass is an outstanding vessel for pushing the pressure limits if that becomes necessary and its consistency is second to none. I have plenty of 6BR brass that is on its third barrel and still going strong, so my choice was heavily influenced by the availablity of Lapua brass. I could have gone the 243 route, but I wanted to be a bit different.
I came upon the 6mmhot.com website, which is the pet project of Robert Whitley, a Lawyer and fullbore shooter who has pioneered many cool things including a 6mm cartridge for the AR15 based on the 6.5 Grendel. He and Dave Kiff designed a couple of reamers for the 6X47 and I ordered one designed by Kiff & Whitley for 105 gr. VLD's from Dave Kiff.
I had a Remington XR100 kicking around that was destined for one project or another and out of economy and convenience, it was thus conscripted as the next platform form my 6X47L. I like the stiff, single-shot design of the XR/XP action, and in my part of the world these are an extremely popular choice for conversion to F-Class precision rifles.
Barrel? No brainer. Krieger... I opted for the #17 Heavy Varmint contour which can be shoe-horned into an XR100 factory stock sans difficulty. Trigger... a Jewell. I have come to love the 1.5 oz BR trigger and all my target rifles have them. Pulling the trigger is 90% mental and 10% physical when they are that light although if you have never used an ultra light trigger, there is a grerat deal of muscle memory to learn!
I opted for a 20 MOA Ken Farrel base. They are well made and easy to get. The QRW rings are not my first choice, but 30mm rings are all but non-existent in my area. I used what i could get at the time.
Glass is a Nightforce 12-42X56 BR scope with the NP 2DD reticle. I love the eentsy weentsy target dot and the very uncluttered picture these afford. At100 yards, the dot is about the size of a 30 cal bullet hole.
Throwing it all together was virtuoso gunsmith and 30 cal barrel makler, Mick McPhee. He trued the action and like every Remington action it came from the factory needing truing. He cut a zero headspace chamber and with no-turn brass, I have about 3 thou neck clearance. Sweet!
Neck sizing the brass was accomplished by taking 6.5X47 brass and running the necks up a 6BR body die. The 30 degree shoulders and dimensions are identical. The necks were finished off with a .268 Redding TiN bushing, the cases were trimmed to length, mouths were chamfererd and all set for loading.
The aggregate of the info I read pointed to H4350 as being the unanymous choice for powders with 105-108 bullets, ...Good load density and a burning rate that keeps pressures very civilized.
I typically load develop at home. I Have all the space in the world and no neighbours, so I am pretty lucky, however we still have snow and mud in abundance, so off to the range for a change.
I started at 36 grains of powder and worked up in .3 grain increments to 39 gr. and this put velocities at about 3100, and I seated the bullet at the lands. VLD 6's all love to be jammed, so I was expecting mediocre results until I stuck the bullets in there. Intial strings revealed about a 1 MOA group at all velocities (Yuck!) With no clear winner in terms of speed. Hmmm. I did note however that above 3000 fps, groups opened up.
I started with 105 scenars and repeated the process with 105 Berger VLS's and 108 tangent ogive bullets. the 108's were the best, but not by much. Their scarcity made me worry that this was going to be the hands-down winner.
I was running out of time and decided to start with 38 grains and try various seating depths. Yuck. Nothing Worked. nothing changed. No matter what I did, I got 1MOA groups!
Well, I ran out of time and daylight so I packed up and left it for another day and to re-think these results.
On my first free day off in weeks, I set about resuming my hunt for the sweet spot. I typically load develop at 200M but I decided to brave the hay field I had avoided last outing and since it was so mucky to get in there, I opted to shoot at 110 meters (Handy lump of snow for mounting the targets).
I had dismissed the possibility that these cartridges like jumped bullets as being absurd, but i re-load developed starting with jumping 5 thou........ Whoa!!!!! What have we here????
Groups started at .5 MOA and showed their best results at 38.4 grains. I then loaded up strings with 10 and 5 thou of jump, Juuust touching the lands and just in the lands.
Bam!!!!!! Bug-holes!!!!!!!!
Just shy of the lands and these groups tightened like a bung in a prostate exam. Chrony showed 3000 fps.
One group does not a developed load make. I went home and loaded 15 rounds to the same recipe.
Well, I either have very tight groups, or the other two shots are clear off the 4 foot frame! Second string... same thing... third string..... same thing.
This gun SHOOTS!!!!!!! All groups were in the 1's or better. I have posted a pic of the best of these 3 shot groups.
I am happy that it shoots very well, but I'm a bit concerned about its narrow window of tolerance. Oh well, I'll just have to abstain from imbibing when loading and be methodical. i can do that!
Anyway, here is a picture of the completed gun, and a picture of one of the groups.
This cartridge shows real promise and I intend to shoot with it in the Kamloops 300m ISSF match in April to prove its mettle, and of course when the snow melts, it will be playing at one mile!
Cheers,
Ian
Last edited:
