Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters 6mm-06

Mule Deer, Thank You. Rio7

Luckily, this isn't a blind hunting rifle!

Nice.

But you right about that box blind.

DF

aalf, is that a manners stock?

When I had my .240 Weatherby is was based on the original 9 lug action with a 26" barrel. At that time, there was a couple of guys at the range using 6/06's so I had the opportunity to chronograph them side by side.
With the same bullets, the '06 version was always 100-200fpos faster than the "smaller" .240 case. The owners were very happy with them.

John,

I well remember that.

Son of a bitch!! You can barely get that rifle in the pic, let alone get it in a blind!!


Nice buck and sharp shooting iron.

So how much gain are we really talking over a 6mm Remington loaded long (Tikka action)? 150fps on a 90gr bullet? This is my current dilemma--deciding whether to order a barrel in 6mm Rem, 6-06, or fast twist 25-06. Mostly a target/coyote/deer rifle, but no longer than 24", and shooting suppressed.

Cloudrnnr,

The basic rule-of-thumb for rifle cartridges is that any increase in powder room gains about 1/4 of that in potential velocity. The 6mm Remington has about grains of powder room, the 6mm-06 about 62 grains, a 19.23% increase over the 6mm. Divide that by 4 and the potential velocity increase is around 4.8%, meaning an increase of 144 fps over a 6mm Rem. load getting 3000 fps.

By the way, due to this basic rule, any increase in loading a cartridge "long" is tiny, especially in a relatively small caliber like 6mm.

Thanks, John. That is about what I figured. Have you seen the ratio to hold true regardless of the amount of overbore involved? I've seen the argument that there is a diminishing effect/benefit of shoving more powder at an overbore.

Light recoil, accurate, flat shooting:

6mm Remington Custom
26" 10 twist, NOT 8T
80g Barnes TTSX
R#19
WIn primer
3600 fps
Jump the bullet .050 from the lands

6mm Rem AI
3800 fps
same thing

you will NEVER see the need in shooting a big caliber on deer again until you start shooting very long range.

In the 6mm Rem, I have shot deer end to end with the barnes 85g TSX, stock rem rifles


WHEN YOU ORDER THE BARREL BLANK FOR THE GUNSMITH, SPECIFY A .237 BORE, NOT .236

The formula has worked in all the cartridges that have pressure-tested data available.

I worked out the formula with published data a number of years ago, partly because I'd run into too many people (including supposed gun writers) who assumed any increase in powder capacity would allow velocities to increase the same amount. I knew THAT wasn't true, so crunched the available data and cam up with the 4-1 Rule.

One of glaring examples occurred while doing that. At the time the .300 Remington Ultra Magnum was relatively new, and I was invited on a hunt to use (and promote) the .300 RUM. I took some fired cases home and measured the capacity using water. (Incidentally, the most accurate way to use this method is with a bullet seated, instead of filling the case to the mouth.)

It turned out the .300 RUM has just about exactly twice the capacity of the .308 Winchester, but the .300 obviously doesn't get twice the velocity of the .308. If it did, 180-grain bullets would have a muzzle velocity of over 5000 fps. Instead, it turned out, that in the .300, 180s got right around 1.25 times the .308's top velocities. I applied that rate to other rounds, and it worked well.

The formula does NOT apply to the same powders, but the powders that get top velocities at about the same pressure.

Makes sense, MD. Doesn't make my decision any easier, but it makes sense!

Keith, I'm building around a couple of 90gr (NAB, STGK) bullets, although the 95gr LRX is definitely on the playlist--that will require a bit more than 1 in 10". 1 in 8" is recommended, I believe

The 22/243 and 6mm/06 must be about the easiest and best wildcats around. Much easier than the 22/250 AI and 6mm Rem Improved.

Just neck down 243 or 25/06 and away you go.

The 22-250 AI all you have to do is shoot 22-250 ammo in it. My 22-250 AI shoots quite well with both 22-250 and 22-250AI mo. The 22-243 on the other hand has that awful long sloping shoulder that is an abomination to some.

I think one we move into any of these sort of calibres we are in the gun nut area:) and personal choice is a big one. Personally I would just rather neck down new brass and also have the bigger case capacity.

A mate of mine very extensively tried several, all fast twist barrels and and accuracy rifle, Jewell Triggers , Nightforce scopes etc, and did 22/243, 22/240 Wby (and with the double radius shoulder), 22/06 and 6mm/06. He also had one of the small 6mms, I think it is on that short Lapua case and he had that mainly for spotlight shooting s less blast etc.

22/240 has the issue of very expensive brass. He also got some of the cheaper Norma Branded but it was softer than the Wby branded Norma brass. This is not uncommon. With the Norma branded brass his loads with 80 grainers dropped a little over 100 f/s So he bailed out as unlike bigger Wby calibres there was lots o shooting. The 22/06 would often get split necks on firing but the same 25/06 brass was perfect in 6mm/06. So 22/243 won the day EXCEPT it was beaten overall by the 6mm/06

All the 6mm/06s I have had were 1 in 12 twist and same for 6mm /284.

You can fiddle about with this stuff

But then I go an buy a 300 H&H and you can't get much more of a long sloping shoulder than the 300 H&H.

My comment was a little tongue in cheek. I am a die hard Remington fan and think the 6mm is much better than a 243

If I were to build a faster 22 than the 22-250AI, I suppose I'd look at a 22-6mm Remington. But I doubt that will ever happen. I'm very happy with my AI.

I bought a few Remington 700's ADL'S and BDL's in 30-06 for about $300 each a while back thinking I'd make a 35 Whelen and a 6.5-06 and maybe a 6mm-06. But now the price of Remington 700's have doubled, it seems in a short while. So what to do???

I have had lots of Rem 700s but always as actions. They are tops for "glue ins" and especially since you can get the trigger out. Mine were all in an alloy stock we used to have in Australia. The stocks were skeleton in the butt an forend and the overall shape/dimensions was a copy of the Rem 40X. Because of the skeleton forend they looked fine whether a Number 5 barrel was screwed in or a HV taper. They were solid allow through the action but you could have them machined out to take the Rem 700 magazine and floorplate and all mine were that way. I had 3 with 30/06 actions and one with a magnum Rem 700 action. On the magnum action I had 300 Win, 338 Win, 358 STA an 375 H&H barrels.

The 30/06 actions were machined off so a barrel could be swapped between actions. That is easy to do.

But except for very short periods of time, like days:) I have not had Rem 700 rifles.

There were quite a few 22/6mm Rem Imp in Australia as one of the bench rest gunsmiths set up to do them as he did them as his sort of standard long range gun and they were very good. I have used them (never owned one) with both fast twist and 80 grains also with 1 in 14 twist.