Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunting Rifles 6mm Remington question for experienced users

I was recently gifted with the new Lyman 49th edition manual. They claim the 6mm Rem was/is not as accurate as the .243 Win. Can't say I'd ever seen that claim before. Of course I realize many variables are at play, and nothing is ever truly equal, but for those that have or have had both a 6mm & 243, could you tell a major accuracy difference in one vs the other? Ever had a problem 6mm that just wouldn't come around like you think a typical sporter should shoot?

I fully realize how close the rounds are & that what one will do the other will do equally well. The accuracy claim is what I'm most interested to hear about. Any and all info is appreciated.

I've owned several and for the most part were accurate. I built one on a Win 70 action with a custom barrel and it was extremely accurate (5 shots you could cover with a dime @ ioo yards). should have kept that one. Oh well!

I have in the past,and do again now,have both a 243 ,and a 6mm,or 244.I have had good accuracy with both.

Most of those claims of poor accuracy stem from the original issue of the 6mm, when it was called the 244 Remington.

As originally conceived, it was twisted too slow for heavier bullets to perform well. IIRC, the twist was 12", but that's just from memory.

When the 243 came out, which was after the intro of the 244, Winchester was smart enough to recognize the problem & they twisted the 243 at it's current rate of 9-9.5" or so.

Remington recognized the error of their ways with the 244, changed the name to 6mm & increased to twist rate.

Since that time, the cartridges have been more or less on equal footing depending on who you talk to & what their personal biases are.

I've had 'em both & the 6mm is just as accurate in equivalent quality hardware as the 243 & it does provide a marginal potential velocity advantage.

MM

Poppycock! It has a LOT more to do with the barrel, bedding, ammo and shooter than the cartridge. I think a good smith could build a 30/30 that would shoot in the 2's or 3's if asked to do so and given enough money and parts etc.

My 6mm's have been great shooters and I for one consider it to be a superior round to the 243. Don't have one right now, but I could see myself owning the cartridge again when the grandkids are a little older.

Interesting claim they made. I bought a used 700Rem bull barrel that I worked with for quite some time and was never able to get the accuracy that I was expecting. Thank goodness somebody else wanted it worse. I've got a Mod 600 6mmRem now that is more accurate than the .243 Tikka that I have at the present. I think my wife will use the 6mm this year for deer.

I've had both and if there is anything to the claim it would take the loading/shooting abilities of those in BR.

I think that if there is any truth to that rumor it has more to do with the brass available and higher number of Bench and Heavy Varmint Rifles made up in 243 and 243 AI as opposed to 6mm Rem.

If you used the same barrel for each first 243 and then set back to re-chamber to 6mm I doubt you would see a measurable difference assuming comparable brass and loads were used.

Hope the 6mm Rem. is continued, to me it is the better round. Seems to be hanging in there in Europe. Now a 6mm Rem Rimmed aka 6x57R in a nice single shot would really get me going.

What MontanaMan said. I have an early 1960's edition labeled 6mm Rem, and it's quite accurate. So much so that the wife has taken it away from me. It's accounted for all of her deer and pronghorn.

Had a Ruger 77V, tang safety, Heavy bbl was shortened to 21" before I bought it.

5 once fired Federal cases, H450 Powder (now discontinued IIRC), 97gr Hammett VLD bullets, and Benchrest primers....

ALL in ONE HOLE at 100 yds............and that hole was small!

Shot many 243s, most all shot from 5/8" -7/8", factory sporters.

Both very accurate, but the 6mm Rem may hold an edge. Surely an identical gun using say Lapua 243 brass would give that 6 above a good run.

Many a die hard 6mm fans out there who feel it has an edge.

I think Lyman's text is an errant slip that simply reveals the text-writer's bias, nothing more. They are also quite high and wordy about the 243.

FWIW, the phrase in the Lyman text is as follows:

"However since most shooters have found it it slightly less accurate than the Winchester round it has never been extremely popular."

MontanaMan nailed it. It came from the .244 street rep. and the longer bullets. I have a 6mm Mohawk that will shoot a gnat in the rear hole at 100 yards and always has. (and that's little!) My .243's shoot just as well. Not much differece in them that I've ever seen.

MontanaMan,

Your post is close but not exactly historically correct. Both the .243 and .244 came out in 1955, and while the .224 may have beaten the .243 by a few months there wasn't enough time for Winchester to change anything. The original twist in Winchester .243 barrels was 1-10. It may be different now but remained 1-10 for many years.

I have always found the 6MM very accurate and at least with the rifles I have worked with easier to find an accurate load for than the .243.

After more years of shooting than I care to tell, I have shot several 243's and several 6mm's. Have shot some that were scary accurate. Scary in a good way, very accurate. Never sell the 6mm short, both in accuracy and range. A man that can shoot can love shooting and hunting with that round.

JB,

Thanks for the clarification,.............I didn't go back & look up the exact dates, just going from memory on what I knew of the story.

Yeah, the original Win 243's were 1/10" but Rem's current stuff is 9.125" which is kinda an odd number; haven't checked Win's current twist.

MM

The most accurate rifle I own is a 6mm Rem on a Model 700 Long action.. with a 24 inch Pac Nor Stainless Steel Barrel, in a heavy magnum contour and a one in 7 twist...

I like the 243 a lot.. and shoot it a lot..

but I'd take a 6m Rem on a long action any day over ANY 243...

My Ruger IIRC was around 1-9", MOST all 243s I shot showed a preference to 85 BTHPs though 100s shot well.

My current 6BR has a 10 twist as all my former 243s and it loves the 95 B tip but shoots 66, 68, and 70s just as tight.

I think the former twist in original 6mm/244 no doubt hurt w/heavier bullets, but the latter were properly twisted, and I believe most 'in the know' would argue the longer neck and sharper sholder on the 6 Rem has an edge in 'inherit accuracy potential.'

The king IMHO is the 6BR w/8 twist if you want the best in accuracy, w/6mm on 6.5x47 case running right with it, brass quality has few peers. The PPC will do very admirably to 300 yds, tad more w/o heavy wind, and twist rate/bullet wt. can affect how the round holds up 'on out yonder.'

Most hunters are not handloaders. Factory ammunition for the 244 was appropriate for the rifle's twist. No accuracy problems there.

The 244 lost out to the 243 because the 722 was a plain, cheap looking rifle too long-barreled and heavy for a sporter and too light for a varmint rifle. The 243 was in the M70 Featherweight. If the rifle's cartridges had been reversed, the M70 in 244 would have been the winner. My opinion-I was there.

Bruce

bcp has a good point. The 721,722 series is uglier than a sack full of fried eholes. Even to another 721-722.