6 mm Rem. Loads??

[Crusty Buck]

Gentlemen, does anyone out there have a pet load for a 6mm (244) Rem. ? My little bro is looking to bench a M77 Ruger heavey barrel in this caliber at 500 yards this winter. Rate of twist is 1:12. He was planning to use the Hornady105 Amax, but that may not prove stable. Looking for pet loads. I will be competing against him so don't go overboard here
Ideas?lightbulb

Crusty Buck

 

[Trickymissfit]

Gentlemen, does anyone out there have a pet load for a 6mm (244) Rem. ? My little bro is looking to bench a M77 Ruger heavey barrel in this caliber at 500 yards this winter. Rate of twist is 1:12. He was planning to use the Hornady105 Amax, but that may not prove stable. Looking for pet loads. I will be competing against him so don't go overboard here
Ideas?lightbulb

Crusty Buck

at onetime I had two 77's chambered in 6mm with the nine twist barrels (I think they are closer to 9.5"). They really like 87 grain Hornadays and the 80 grain Sierra Blitz. Used H414 powder a lot. Seat the bullets about .005" off the lands, and in cold weather use a mag primer with the H414 and H380 powders. I tried 4064 powder, but the heat in the barrel was just too much for my likening. AA4350 and 2700 also work very well in them. My heavy barreled rifle shot 3/8's groups rather consistently, and light barreled rifle shot 3/4" groups with some bedding issues that I never took the time to completely fix. Have never seen a Ruger with a 1:12" twist. Are you sure that's correct? If so your pretty much limited to 80 grain and lighter bullets. The 105 grain Amax really wants a 1:8" barrel due to it's higher B/C. Niether of my rifles would shoot the 88 grain Bergers very well, but one would shoot the 69 grain LD's pretty good, but even then showed problems stabalizing them. Plus the throat is really too long for the 69 grain bullet anyway. The Sierra shot extremely well and was very hard on coyotes.
gary

 

[Crusty Buck]

Trickymissfit, Thanks for the information.

CB

 

[Trickymissfit]

Trickymissfit, Thanks for the information.

CB

I forgot to tell you that accuracey seemed to come out of near max loads most of the time. If your usingt the Ruger scope rings, check them closely, as I had problems with them fitting into the scallops correctly. And lastly give it a recrown, as Ruger dosn't do such a great job in that area
gary

 

[KPB71]

My Remington 6mm
87gr vm
h4350
46.2gr
cci 200
2.820 c.o.a.l
vel 3185
rem brass
this load shoots 1 moa out to 500yards

 

[Crusty Buck]

Trickymissfit, thanks again for the info. What is "Recrowning" ?

 

[Crusty Buck]

KPB71, thanks to you also for the information. Any idea what the twist rate is on your Rem 6mm is?

CB

 

[baldhunter]

Mine loves 43.5grs of IMR-4350.I've used this loads for 100 and 105gr bullets.

 

[Trickymissfit]

Trickymissfit, thanks again for the info. What is "Recrowning" ?

the "crown" is the area where the rifeling and bore meet the face of the barrel at the muzzel. I tried all three 4350's at one time or another, and felt that the ever so slightly faster burn of the AA4350 worked slightly better. There are some other tricks you could do but are near impossible to come by the parts. If by some chance you find some very old Winchester or Remington .257 Roberts cases, you will find that they hold about a grain to a grain and a half more powder (probably over 30 years old). These are good for another 75 to 100fps, but about as easy to find as an apollogy from an ex wife! Bullet tension seems to be critical with the 6mm case, and I found that .004" seems to be about right. Seating depth seems to be more effective in this round than most others. I played around with everything from .015" to .002" off the lands, with .005" to .002" giving the best results. Lastly watch what kind of bullets you select. I had some explode in the air with the nine twist barrels. Vmax bullets worked just fine as well as the Sierras.
gary

 

[Crusty Buck]

Trickymissfit, I did do my homework last night to find out what the crown was, so thanks for the push. The M77 he's shooting is called a .244. which is the 6mm Rem.; probably no new news to you. I mention it because it may have a different twist. Little Bro swears, a lot sometimes, that he checked the twist of his barrel and is sure it is a 1:12. That will have an affect on all this good information your giving us, perhaps only in bullet weight though. I passed on the info last night via phone to him, and then asked his good wife to bring him out of the stone age so that he can get online and get the info direct. Appreciated!

CB

 

[Trickymissfit]

Trickymissfit, I did do my homework last night to find out what the crown was, so thanks for the push. The M77 he's shooting is called a .244. which is the 6mm Rem.; probably no new news to you. I mention it because it may have a different twist. Little Bro swears, a lot sometimes, that he checked the twist of his barrel and is sure it is a 1:12. That will have an affect on all this good information your giving us, perhaps only in bullet weight though. I passed on the info last night via phone to him, and then asked his good wife to bring him out of the stone age so that he can get online and get the info direct. Appreciated!

CB

as far as I know, Remington was the only one that did a slow twist barrel. But if I'm wrong then so be it! Easy way to find out what it is, is to measure the twist off a tight patch on a cleaning rod. Twelve inch twist will be one turn in a foot, and a nine will be one turn in nine inches. Just mark the rod with a felt tipped marker and go in till it makes one full turn. I don't how high of a B/C you can go with a twelve twist, but I have shot the 80 grain Sierra out of a 14 twist barrel. My guess would be a B/C of .33 max
gary

 

[KPB71]

Crusty Buck
I have a Remington 700 VLS in 6mm with a 1:9 twist

 

[Crusty Buck]

Gentlemen, why is it that one manufactor makes a fast twist and others make slower twists? To me, it would stand to reason that the variety of bullet weights and BC would dictate their production thinking.

CB

 

[Trickymissfit]

Gentlemen, why is it that one manufactor makes a fast twist and others make slower twists? To me, it would stand to reason that the variety of bullet weights and BC would dictate their production thinking.

CB

It's kinda like this. Originally Remington felt that the 6mm was a true long range varmit round, and most bullets at the time were under or near 100 grains, but with fairly low ballistic coefficients. On the otherhand Winchester went with a fast twist barrel to make it stabalize 100 grain bullets, but for the time they overstabalized it. Well somebody at some gun shop with a third grade education decided that a 1:12 barrel (or maybe 1:11) was gonna do the 90 thru 100 grain bullets. But actually the slow twist will stabalize 80% of the 90 grain bullets to the point that they are good enough for deer hunting. (Mike Ventureo did a bunch of testing on this issue many years ago). For most bullets I've long felt the 1:9 was a little too fast, and perhaps a 1:10 might have been a little better. Then along comes the Hornaday Amax and some Bergers that were very marginal in a 1:9 barrel. I have learned in my old age that there was more to it than the twist rate. The throats had a lot to do with making a high B/C work in the 1:9 barrel. The throat in my 6/250AI is cut for the Sierras and the Amax, and add that to a 1:8 barrel we see a world of difference. I honestly think it was the combo of the two. Which leads us back to the .244 / .243 discussion. Remington throated their barrels for mid range bullets like the 85 grain Hornadays of the time, but Winchester did the throat that was kinda generic in that it was a comprimise for the whole 6mm spectrum. Yet still better with 100 grain bullets. If you look in an older manual you will notice that the highest B/C in a 6mm was about .40 (BTSP) yet the other two are .35 and .24. A lot of people every year shot their deer with the 87 grain bullet not realizing that if that bullet shot well in the slower twist the 100 grain bullet (.357 B/C) would do just as well. But when they went to shoot P.D.'s at 500 yards with the other using 70 grain bullets they didn't do so great; while the guy with the .244 was shooting light's out. Plus the generic Winchester .243 is one of the worst factory designed cartridges ever sold
gary