6 Dasher

[Flybuster]

I love this gun, but If I had to start over. I might have made it a 17 pound gun. Just so that I can make light gun class in 600-1000 yard benchrest.
I thought about that before I built the gun, but at that time we didn't have 600 yard benchrest in Portland.

That's ok, because I can still shoot Heavy gun. That just means I have to build another gun for light class....RIGHT???

I don't know if or any compromise it would be to make the gun any lighter, for F-Class. 17lb vs. 20+lb.

 

[Desert Fox]

Here's my new F-Class/Varminter/600-1000 BR HV-Gun/Rock buster

Stocks made by Robertson Composite, Barrel is a Broughton, action is a Bat 3-Lug. I have a Leupold VX-III 8.5-25x50. I am extremely happy with how it turned out and so far how it shoots.

Shooting a white spot (chuckar crap) on a rock face at 905, kept drilling it.
Then I sighted in to shoot a 15-20" rock at 1022 yards, the wind was blowing the opposite direction up on the hill.

Busting some dirt, trying to hit a 900+ rock, got it on my last fireforming load

So far these are the only shots on paper, first shots out of the gun were in the upper right orange, gotta love that.

That portable shooting bench look familiar. Nice rifle by the way.

 

[Flybuster]

Hmmm, I wonder where I stole that design.....

Yeah it dosn't work half bad! I shoot mostly prone, but there are times you just need a bench, like cronographing. My dad can't lay on his belly, and if he did he couldn't get up. So there's the solution. Thanks for your design and compliment.

 

[Flybuster]

I wanted to test that load again to make sure it wasn't a fluke. The load was a 105 Berger VLD +.015 into lands over 33 grains of Reloader-15, CCI 450 Small Mag. Primer.

I don't think it was a fluke. This group breaks Powder River Sportsmans Club current 1000 yard record, which is currently 4 and 3/16"..... My group is 3.80" Unfortunately this wasn't shot at a match. Although I had 5 witnesses, who were setting up to shoot a black powder match.

 

[captacademy]

Nice rifle and great pics.

 

[Flybuster]

Thanks Capt'n' much appricaited!

 

[Flybuster]

Here's a recent long range rockchuck hunting trip.

I have received my new cronograph. I shot my 105 Berger VLD load with 33 grains of Re-15. Average velocity was 3047fps and E.S. was 13 fps for 5 shots. I'll stick with this load for now.

 

[milanuk]

Tanner,

How are you liking that Caldwell Fire Control rest you got from Ron? Given the cost of a Farley compact or Shadetree coax head for my Sinclair, I'm starting to give one some serious consideration for the Dasher.

Got my Dasher out for the first time yesterday. Found out that fire-forming 1x fired brass don't work so well (20% case failure rate). Got me a little nervous looking forward to fire-forming the virgin Lapua cases sitting on the bench!

Monte

 

[Flybuster]

Monte, I have to say this rest is pretty awesome. I haven't shot off a high end rest, like the Farley. But its definetly worth $215. I'm going to make some legs and feet for it, when I get motivated.. And the bag has to go.

Yeah, I was just reading about your problems. Kinda perplexing. I started out with 32 grains of H-4895 new brass, alittle warm but no splitting. Then I ran out of that lot, bought a new 1lb container. And 31.5 was too much, so I pulled the bullets and backed it down to 31 grains. I didn't realize there's that much difference between lots.

So far I have lost like one to split neck, I noticed one was already split brand new? And alot of this new brass has terrible burrs in the flash holes. I need to figure out how to clean up without openening the hole.

I checked out that dog tracker stock, hey thats kinda cool.. I will definetly have to be on my toes if you bring that thing to the match!

 

[milanuk]

Right now I'm kind of flying blind as far as seating depth... doing the old-fashioned method of seat long w/ a fair amount of neck tension and polish the bullet up real shiny, chamber it and look for rifling marks w/ a magnifying glass. Definitely not my preferred way to fly! Should have a tap to make my own modified case for the Stoney Point tool in the next couple days (one of the nice things about living 1-2 days by USPS from Russ Haydon's Shooter Supply!) and then I can do things right. Until then I'm mostly just putzing around w/ the left-over brass from that Lapua factory ammo I had setting around. Experimenting w/ case annealing using the Hornady annealing kit - trying to figure out how long to hold the case in the flame w/o having to use the blasted TempiLaq every time - the dang stuff works, but when it changes it basically dries on harder than the hubs of hell - i.e. 'lacquer' and won't come off short of chiseling w/ a screwdriver!! Might have to see if some appropriate lacquer solvent will take it off. More 'experimenting' to keep me busy. The annealing seems to make a noticeable difference in getting the neck tension to behave and act properly...

'Officially' this gun is 'for the wife'... me being a salty F/TR type and all that gun) but having seen Chris and yourself tune up on folks w/ those Dashers, I have high hopes for it. I'll certainly have to 'test drive' it from time to time to make sure it's working okay for her...

Definitely need to send the bolt off to Gre-Tan to get the firing pin bushed - got a pretty good crater going on the primer; little to no pressure sign otherwise. Had the same problem on a couple 6mm BRs - one Savage and one Remington - cratered primers even on moderate loads. Got the pin bushed, problem solved.

 

[Flybuster]

Have you tried the slotted neck method for finding seating depth? You have to ruin a case, though.

Russ Haydon's a pretty good guy, he just sent me a shell holder for my dasher. quick service.

Annealing, something I will look into. I have heard the Hornady kit is the way to go, I just don't want to get too anal about reloading, yet.

I would like to hear about your progress on your rifle, hopefully you get this thing figured out without ruining any precious lapua brass. Good luck to you.

 

[Flybuster]

This group was shot with my VLD load at 295 yards, forgot my rangefinder that day!

Well my memory isn't the best. Today I took Dad out, kinda for a fathers day squirrel hunt. I brought my chronograph and forgot the 9volt battery..
I let dad shoot alittle with the Dasher. He hit a popcan at 491 yards, he comes from the oldschool and couldn't beleive it, he was really excited.

 

[ol mike]

I was just cruising thru old pictures and happened up on you and your dasher -cool.

How did the chuck shooting go ?
Who is behind those binos on the tripod?
Take care.-Mike

 

[300whinny]

Mate

The Dasher is a mighty fine round indeed. I have been shooting one in 500m and 1000yd comp's for 3 years now, and dont have the desire to change.

I liked the caliber enough to have a varminter built in it.

Load development should be very quick and easy. Both my rifle with all projectiles used shoot very well. Just this week I loaded up some 65Vmax to do a quick ladder test. The rifle has a 1:8 barrel and a freebore of 0.114 which resulted in just enough neck to hold the 65Vmax in. Over 1.2grains of testing and 7 different loads, the group was 0.75" at 200m.

Everything I put in this case seems to work! The 1:8 twist still hammers the 65Vmax into nice groups!

The big surprise is how well the 87Vmax work out of mine. It will shoot under 1" at 300m, and has done so in competition.

Here is a couple of pictures of both my Dashers.

This one is my varminter, bipods can be fitted to front also.

This is the comp rifle

As for split necks or fireforming issues, I have had none. I use the false shoudler method.

Cheers