Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats 6-06 -6-06AI -6-284 hot rod 6mm's tell me about them please .

All this talk about 257roy then Jeremy's 6-06 AI have got me thinking about a hot-rod 6mm.

I have a 280AI rem 700 set up to shoot 160 class bullets it has a muzzlebreak 28" barrel ,thinking there is a little gap in my arsenal -no super velocity flat shooting barrel burner coyote zapper .
I want to make the 280ai a switch barrel -want to learn how to headspace a barrel on and so forth .I'm interested in shooting bullets from 65 to 95gr not the long high bc stuff ,the 87gr vmax looks good with its .400bc but see that many people like the 70gr nbt [dober].
So tell me what you know about these and how they work for you please .
Thanks for your time.
Mike

Love playin' with my 6-06. Built on a winny pushfeed. Runs the 85 TSX and the 87 V-Max same/same so the vmax makes a great practice bullet. Kills all outa proportion to the caliber. Just a sweet little round.

I've done the 6x.284 thing, sort of on the cheap and a little at a time. Started out with a short action 700 ADL, dropped in a 1-14" twist PacNor barrel with a custom contour. Later I switched stocks and BDL-ized it.

It never fed super smooth but it wasn't too bad.

I shot mostly 70 grain ballistic tips over 58 grains of RL19 in Norma 6.5x.284 brass I'd necked down. That was pretty much the limit, primer pockets were loose at 5-6 rounds. I shot some 65 grain VMAXes over the same charge. Wasn't quite as accurate but still at 300 yards my target was gonna die and the splat was more impressive.

If you're going with a long action, 6x'06 will be cheaper so far as the brass goes .. start with WW .25-'06 instead of expensive Normal 6.5x.284. It should feed smoother, too. It'll have a little more case capacity, in theory be a hair faster yet.

Tom

IMO the 6/06 is the way to go, and the 6/06 AI would be second.

I'm on my 2nd 6/06 barrel and I really like the round. While I don't know many that have had a AI version I'd say it'd be a very good one.

The non AI should feed a bit better for the most part.

The 6/284 is a good round but I'd not put one in a long action and if I was going short action I'd do a 243 AI instead.

To date, I've yet to see a rifle chambered for any 284 based round that fed to my satisfaction.

Dober

Kind of thought about something along the same lines 25-06 or maybe a 6mm AI would that gain anything over the 243 AI could go short or long action 700? I would just as soon have something that will reliably feed out of a box magazine.

I played with a 6/284 for deer for while and it worked good, but in my experience the 257 was a good leap up in the right direction. It is now my go to deer cartridge. If I was building on a short action a 6/284 would be my choice, but built by a gunsmith who had the time and knowhow to make it feed nicely.

6mm and 6AI would work fine in most short actions and would be good choices if one did not want to mess with a 6/284. Either would give a useable velocity increase over a 243.

I've been doing some research on the .284 case and it is stated on the web quite a bit that it doesn't feed real well.Seems most people think it's obviously the rebated case .
I went over to savage shooters forum -those guys do a lot trying/testing on different cartridges .Found info on of these cartridges and a lot of people like the plain 6-06 for its simplicity.

If you are going to build on a 30/06 length action and want speed, there is no reason not to just go 257WBY, IMO.

I am no expert on 6/284's having only built and had 2, but they fed well and were terrific short action fun cartridges.

Love my 6/284 and it feeds nicely. I on the other hand have always wanted a 6-06. My 6/284 has been so awesome i havent gone the 6-06 route yet.

When talking about the 6mm Hot Rods, I seldom hear talk about the 240 Gibbs. I have been shooting one for quite a few years and love it! Feeds good, fits in Mausers perfectly and I get 3600-3700 FPS with 85 gr. bullets! Case life is very good,(seems like forever), and it is kind of fun fire-forming! I suppose using 62 grs. of powder makes it not nearly as efficient as the other hot 6mm's! That being said, the 6-06 or AI version sound very interesting! How will they compare to the Gibbs?
Any input will be appreciated !
Thanks,
Ken

I looked at the 240gibbs on Steve's pages [cartridge dimensions] -pretty sure the gibbs takes the '06 cartridge as far as it can go.
Someone on longrange hunting had a gibbs -can't remember the caliber -but the short neck of the cartridge doesn't do to well with the long high bc bullets.
They checked a loaded round for bullet runout then ran one through the magazine and into the chamber -extracted the round and found a good bit of run out.Probably from the long bullet going up the feed ramp.
Single loaded the long rounds.
Probably wouldn't be a problem with shorter length bullets though.

Mark -i just sold a 25cal rockcreek barrel because i've decided to go w/a .264 bore size when my 25-06 barrel goes south.
That 257roy thread sure has me thinking -i didn't know you could get that kind of performance from the Roy.

Which ever hot rod 6mm i choose will be to learn the switch barrel stuff ,so i'll have to get a 6 or 6.5 -284 case and see how they cycle through my gun.
All the cartridges mentioned would make great coyote thumpers with plastic tip type bullets and the recoil should light also .
Thanks -Mike

The 243AI is a potent round. But the 6mmAI blows out quite a bit more and shows a considerably more increase in performance. With a good barrel and chamber 70's will be doing over 4100 without much trouble. That cartridge would be my pick. The.240 Gibbs is dynamite on rockchucks but I replaced mine with the 6AI barrel. Velocities are comparable and brass will be a whole lot easier.

IMO, if you've been running a 70 @ 4100 out of a 6AI and not had any trouble then the key word is yet. That is a crazy amount of smoke to stick behind that bullet in a 6 AI.

Really guyz, either your clocks are fubar or you're just beggin to be called old one eye...!

Dober

Actually no, you're wrong about that. But what they say about opinions is true.

Cool deal, let er buck buddy!

And yes there is one born every day...!

I once was the president of the red liners club so I think I see where you're coming from. Trust me it really aint worth it.

Dober

No "buddy", you ASSume but really don't know where I'm coming from.

Hot rod 6mms and no one has mentioned the 6mm STW...

Like I said, if it makes you happy then Powder River let er buck. Hint....wear safety glasses.

By the way, not wanting to assume anything here, why don't you tell us what your burning behind that 70 to get it to 4100? Also what length barrel?

I've run enough 6/06 barrels to know that 4100 out of a case that's smaller isn't normally gonna get one to 4100.



Dober

Now ya done it Dober...grin...

Probably the end of this thread...grin...

Yeah G, we should talk about something funner like Swifts and deer and now they don't work..

Enough "BG", ballistic gack eh...

Dober