6mm Rem with a 70-grain BT - 05/21/17
No, I don't consider the 6mm to be a varmint cartridge really, but since I'm shooting 70-grain Ballistic Tips I figured this wouldn't fit in the in the "Big Game Rifles" forum at all.
I ended up with an old 788 in 6mm a while back and was going through gyrations with it trying to make it shoot. I think I may have found the problem, but not before I sprung for a nicely put together Model Seven custom in 6mm. This one has a Krieger barrel, Jewell trigger, a Sako-style extractor fitted to the bolt, and it all lives in a B&C Medalist stock. The custom is nice and light and rather compact for a rifle having a 24-inch barrel, so it's going to be my truck gun for targets of opportunity while I'm out on the lease. I scoped it with a VX-3i 4.5-14x40mm using Warne two-piece steel bases and Zee rings.
I have a pile of 70-grain Ballistic Tips and an 8-pounder of Ramshot Hunter which was not slated to be used in anything in particular, and QuickLOAD showed the combination to have potential so that's the direction I took it. This morning I finalized my load: 50.4 grains of Hunter with the BT seated pretty deep. I can reach the lands, but the magazine will not accept ammo of that length and I do not want to load one round at a time. As a consequence I am 0.120" off the lands, but that doesn't seem to present a problem. So far, a 3-shot group has measured 0.26", and two 4-shot groups went 0.60" and 0.55" a week later. A week later still, I fired two 5-shot groups (this morning) with this load and the first group measured 0.97", but I was being sloppy and I knew it after the second shot. The second 5-shot group came in at 0.51" and I'm satisfied with that kind of accuracy.
Velocity was quite good, too. The load averages 3616 fps fifteen feet from the muzzle, measured with an Oehler 35P. Extreme spread would have been 33 fps but for one round that produced 3589 fps. The SD as measured was 13 fps. I blame the errant velocity on the brass. The brass had not yet been fireformed to my chamber, but it will be annealed and then run through a Lee Collet die. I think there was a neck tension issue, but my guess is just that---a guess.
Anyway, I thought I'd post this because it's a combination I have never seen discussed. I think if it works for me, it oughta work for someone else too.
I ended up with an old 788 in 6mm a while back and was going through gyrations with it trying to make it shoot. I think I may have found the problem, but not before I sprung for a nicely put together Model Seven custom in 6mm. This one has a Krieger barrel, Jewell trigger, a Sako-style extractor fitted to the bolt, and it all lives in a B&C Medalist stock. The custom is nice and light and rather compact for a rifle having a 24-inch barrel, so it's going to be my truck gun for targets of opportunity while I'm out on the lease. I scoped it with a VX-3i 4.5-14x40mm using Warne two-piece steel bases and Zee rings.
I have a pile of 70-grain Ballistic Tips and an 8-pounder of Ramshot Hunter which was not slated to be used in anything in particular, and QuickLOAD showed the combination to have potential so that's the direction I took it. This morning I finalized my load: 50.4 grains of Hunter with the BT seated pretty deep. I can reach the lands, but the magazine will not accept ammo of that length and I do not want to load one round at a time. As a consequence I am 0.120" off the lands, but that doesn't seem to present a problem. So far, a 3-shot group has measured 0.26", and two 4-shot groups went 0.60" and 0.55" a week later. A week later still, I fired two 5-shot groups (this morning) with this load and the first group measured 0.97", but I was being sloppy and I knew it after the second shot. The second 5-shot group came in at 0.51" and I'm satisfied with that kind of accuracy.
Velocity was quite good, too. The load averages 3616 fps fifteen feet from the muzzle, measured with an Oehler 35P. Extreme spread would have been 33 fps but for one round that produced 3589 fps. The SD as measured was 13 fps. I blame the errant velocity on the brass. The brass had not yet been fireformed to my chamber, but it will be annealed and then run through a Lee Collet die. I think there was a neck tension issue, but my guess is just that---a guess.
Anyway, I thought I'd post this because it's a combination I have never seen discussed. I think if it works for me, it oughta work for someone else too.