6mm WSM?

[huntokanogan]

anybody out there ever necked down a WSM cartridge i.e. 270WSM to a 6mm bullet? Is that even possible?
If possible, would a project get me in so deep $$$ wise that I would end up wishing I stuck with a 6/284 or like round?
I've never seen any dies for a 6mm WSM so I assume they would need to be custom made.
I have a 243 I had kind of been set on doing an Ackley in, but before I do that I thought I should look at all my 6mm options.
I like the idea of the 6mm crusader...

 

[noneck180]

I would stick to a Lapua case, if I were building a 6mm.

 

[Thesteeleboy]

I own a 6 Short Mag. Its built on a Remington action with a Jewell trigger, a 32" Creager barrel. I had the reamer built around a 95gr Berger VLD. It has a tight neck chamber .268 so the necks need to be turned to .011 leaving .003 clearance. Norma makes 270 win short mag brass now for a better foundation than the Winchester brass. It shoots a 95gr Berger VLD @ 3650 fps ahead of 63gr of RL-22. I use 270 Winchester short mag bushing style dyes to build my brass and the gun shoots sub 1/2 moa @ 100 yds. Having said that, its a lot of work to build the brass while maintaining neck run out tolerances of .003 . I have two 6-284 I built around Berger 105 VLD"s and they shoot great and are less work starting out with 6.5 Norma brass. They shoot around 3400 fps. Hope this info helps.

 

[Fiftydriver]

When I was working on a possible 6mm member of my APS Allen Magnum family of wildcats, I played with a version of the 6mm WSM and my test results showed me that it is just to much case capacity for the bullets available.

I am surprised to hear any Berger bullet is surviving a 3650 fps velocity launch but I suspect as that barrel gets a bit of wear on it, those VLD will start dusting in flight which is usually what happens with the light jacketed Bergers with anything over 3400 fps.

In my wildcat research I did get the 107 gr SMK up to 3650 fps in a 30" barrel length but throat life was quite limited and velocity spreads were wider then I liked with the proper burn rate powders.

Add to that the problem with carbon fouling and it just did not produce what I felt was worth releasing to the public.

When you look at a 6mm WSM with a 100-107 gr bullet at 3600 fps class velocity in a 30" barrel and then look at a 6mm-284 with the same bullet weights within 100 fps of the larger WSM wildcat, its hard to say its worth it when you consider the much shorter throat life.

The more I play with the 6-06, the more I like that chambering. Feeds MUCH smoother then the 6-284 which feeds better then the WSM version. In the end, the 6-06 will match the WSM version pretty easily and do so with less powder, less powder fouling and while not great as far as barrel life goes, its still much better then the 6 WSM offers in throat life.

 

[huntokanogan]

great info. After reading and talking to a couple local smiths I had decided that when I do decide to finaly start my high horsepower 6mm it will be either a 6/284 or a 6-06. Leaning twards the 6-06 for now. Haven't heard much downside of either besides the barrel life issue. But when builind a gun like this Barrel life is not my #1 concern. also was made aware of some feeding issues with the 284 case.
I thought maybe the 6WSM would either be very hard in the way of forming brass or darn near imposible to make shoot with that much of a powder charge. thanks for reassuring me on the subject. I was a little suprised to hear that people had built them....wasn't sure, so I had to ask!
Good luck in your builds guys (and gals)

 

[Thesteeleboy]

I couldn't agree more with fiftydriver. My 6-Short Mag is fun, but it wont be around long. I have already started to experience my Berger Bullets turning to dust after about 500 rounds and have worked up a load for 105gr Hornady Amax and they seem to hold together. The 6-284 and the 6-06 on the other hand should be around a while. They both offer great performance.

 

[Outlaw6.0]

I'm very happy with my 6-284 & with a 1000yd accuracy record under it's belt, there is no arguing the accuracy potential. The 6-06 is intriguing as well, should be easy to form brass (thinking 25-06), on the other hand both Norma & Lapua make 6.5-284 brass (i've used both & prefer the Lapua). I know Lapua make 30-06 but that would be quite a bit of work to go down to 6mm; Nosler does offer 25-06 brass which might not be a bad way to go.

For me the brass availability takes the cake, both require a long action & are so similar in performance that reloading components are really the only debatable topic (that I can think of).

Let us know what you choose & good luck!

 

[Fiftydriver]

If your looking for a bench gun for competition the 6-284 is a better choice in a single shot because as you have mentioned, brass is extremely high quality.

If you want a repeater for a hunting rifle, I would give the nod to the 6-06 for its feeding and high performance.

I generally use Winchester 25-06 brass in my 6mm-06 rifles. If you want extreme percision, all you have to do is prep the brass and then weigh and sort it. Generally, most are suprised at the consistancy of the Win brass once they start looking closer at it. Certainly not saying its the full equal to the Lapua or Norma cases for the 6.5-284 but its plenty quality to out shoot most of us humans in a good rifle.

The difference between the two would most likely come down to what type of rifle you want and how you will be using it to say one is really better then the other. On shear performance numbers, its to close to call.

 

[strombeckj]

+1 with Kriby,

Kevin Weaver has a reamer for the 6mm Duster. When I was talking with him about a super 6 build he was not all the keen on the 6mm duster saying if I wanted to shoot heavy bullets to go with a 6mm-06 imp for hunting...ie repeat shots. The FPS was nominal based on a 6-06 imp.