Been thinking about building a 6x45 bolt gun with a 20" barrel for my youngest daughter. She is 4'3" and 80 pounds. She shoots the 223 out to 400 yards on 2 MOA steel targets very good.I think 80gr is lightest I will shoot for deer. Still carries 1000ftlb out to 110yds. In my 6x45 I'll move to 90gr after i kill 300 more deer and run out of 80's...ha ha I feel it's the best balance of speed & weight in that cartridge. The issue in a 6x45 is being limited to overall length. The bullet seats very deep into the case taking up space. So a 100gr really drops in velocity.
I get 2800fps out of a 20" barrel and I feel that velocity works well with inexpensive cup&core bullets. They expand well but don't come apart like they might do in a faster cartridge. It's a good pairing to make the cup&core very effective. No need to buy bonded, premium or monolithic bullets in a 6x45, it's just not necessary.
It's my go-to light caliber when shooting conventional ranges. Otherwise I slide out my 300wm
James
Can you make the AI brass with a die or do you need to fire form them?I bought a 243 a while back, cheap savage axis just for fun and something to do while barrels cool. it turns out to be extremely accurate with the 68 gr flat base either berger or barnes and the heavy partitions but now everybody wants to play with it and it wont last long at this rate. that's what brought me to the 6x45ai just a simple barrel change and hopefully longer barrel life. already locater a 223 bolt and Ragged hole barrels makes prefits with Wilson barrels. looks like time to make the jump
22 inch #4 barrel 1-9 twist is my first choice, maybe a varmint contour if barrel heat is a problem
how is the barrel heating any issues and what is your powder of choice?
What powder works best for your loads?I think 80gr is lightest I will shoot for deer. Still carries 1000ftlb out to 110yds. In my 6x45 I'll move to 90gr after i kill 300 more deer and run out of 80's...ha ha I feel it's the best balance of speed & weight in that cartridge. The issue in a 6x45 is being limited to overall length. The bullet seats very deep into the case taking up space. So a 100gr really drops in velocity.
I get 2800fps out of a 20" barrel and I feel that velocity works well with inexpensive cup&core bullets. They expand well but don't come apart like they might do in a faster cartridge. It's a good pairing to make the cup&core very effective. No need to buy bonded, premium or monolithic bullets in a 6x45, it's just not necessary.
It's my go-to light caliber when shooting conventional ranges. Otherwise I slide out my 300wm
James