Cartridge choice....

[matt_3479]

For me I choose the 6 creed and had a 243 previously. I absolutely love the 6 creed. 105's at 3130fps and not being pushed too hard. Incredibly easy to tune, and very accurate!! Will probably stick with it for my current rig

if I were to chamber a second 6 (and thinking about it) right now it would be the bra. Excellent brass, easy to fireform and now factory brass available. Unbelievably easy to tune, wildly accurate and and good barrel life.

I'd also like to try the 6x47 Lapua. Very sexy little cartridge and superb brass and accuracy from them as well.

 

[johnnyk]

.243AI and never look back.

 

[codyadams]

Thank you for the reply everyone.

I'm not overly hung up on getting 2000 rounds out of it, but more is always nice. I realize the trade off of velocity vs barrel life.

I don't want anything smaller than the 6CM. I sense there's not a lot of love for this round but it has a lot going for it. No, I'm not going to use it for elk hunting.

I currently have a more or less shot out 1:12 .243ai so I'm kinda leaning that way. I could possibly fire form my brass in that barrel and swap out for my new barrel. I also have a couple of sets of dies.

A friend recently built his 3rd 6ai and has the reamer for it as well. I just wish there was some better or more brass options.

Those of you that have experience with these rounds:
6CM
.243ai
6ai
6x284
Do you see any of these holding an accuracy edge over the other? I think some cases might be more efficient but I'm not sure about one being more inherently accurate.

What is a reasonable expectation for velocity w/105 to 115 gr bullets? When I looked in the Berger reloading manual the 6x284 was not all that fast compared to the standard 6mm.

What can I reasonably expect for barrel life with the above rounds?

Thank you for sharing your knowledge.

If your brass is in good enough condition to be worth saving, that alone would make up my mind, you would just have your smith headspace your new chamber to your current .243 AI brass so no concerns there and no real need to fireform, any forming will be very minor, and your already set up for reloading it.

I personally have a .260 AI, it's bigger brother, and I love it. It is a 29" barrel, and it is neck and neck performance wise with a couple 24" 6.5x284's I load for, maybe just a little more speed, the 5" of barrel makes up for the 5-6ish less grains of powder used. With equal length barrels, I would expect the 6.5x284 to outrun the .260ai by around 75-100ish fps, and I would expect that would carry over to the 6mm versions as well. The 6ai would be right there woth the 6x284, maybe even beat it by a small margin?? I'm not sure on that one. I would suspect the 6cm would be about 50ish fps behind the .243ai also, as equal length 6.5cm's are about 50-75 fps behind my .260ai. This is using top tier brass like adg, Peterson, Lapua, etc, which would possibly be a hindrance for the 6ai. That's about the best I can do for answering that question.

As far as inherent accuracy, I think some cartridges may have wider nodes or be easier to tune, but I believe the difference is minutiae unless your competing in bench rest. I like the 40° shoulders of the ai's personally, simply for the fact of essentially eliminating trimming. As far as your options, I think all of them are very efficient and easy to load cartridges. My father had a standard 6mm, he shot 55 grain ballistic tips well north of 4000, and it was extremely accurate and not picky at all. As long as the rifle is put together by a good smith, any of those will do fantastic, but seeing as your already set up for .243ai, that would be my choice.

 

[demonjigger]

With my 6mm SLR I am running 110 SMK's at 3175 out of a 26" Bartlein 5R. My first barrel was 28" and I was able to get 3280 fps without pressure. I still ran it at 3175.

If you go with the 243 AI you will have no problem getting those speeds.

6mm Creedmore will max out around 3150 fps with 105's with a 26".

With the larger case capacity of the 243 variants you will get good speeds before you get pressure.

I have a 6mm Creedmore also but have not reloaded for it yet. It's throated for 108's. I also built one for a friend throated for 105's. It shoots nice with them and also shoots the 87gr Hornady ammo into one hole at 3300 fps.

6 Creedmore factory ammo choices are nice if you get into a bind, or just want options.

 

[woodnut]

I am in LOVE with the 6 Creedmoor! I now have 3 700 style bolt rifles, an AR10 and soon a Ruger #1 in it! They all shoot sub 1/2MOA and run the 105s and 108s to 3000+fps. Low recoil, hits like a tank, good to over 1000 yds. You can get several brands of factory fodder, and reloading is THE EASIEST to do I have every done, and I've reloaded for over 40 years. I thought the 6.5 Creed was good, but the 6 mm beats it hands down. Why mess with success? Yeah, the other ones mentioned are great rounds, no question, but for the best of the best, in my humble opinion it's the 6 Creedmoor!

 

[PartsJr.]

Thank you again for your comments.

I like the 6ai, the longer neck and capacity, but I'm not liking the availability of brass.

The 6/284 is a cool looking round but I suspect barrel life will be short and I'm not seeing a significant gain over some of the slightly smaller rounds.

I haven't ruled out the 6Creedmoor or 6x47 or a few other cartridges mentioned but would like the case capacity to push 110ish grain bullets over 3000fps. I have some more reading to do.

I'm leaning toward the .243ai as I already have one along with dies and brass. The barrel on my current .243ai is not quite shot out so I'm thinking I'll buy some good high end brass and fire form in this gun with the intent of using it in my future build.

Do you see any issues with having my smith head space using my existing fire formed brass?

One other question I haven't researched (forgive me if this is already posted) Do you see much difference in accuracy between say completely prepped (neck turned, primer pocket uniformed, flash hole debuted, sorted by weight) Winchester brass and doing the same to a higher quality brass (Lapua or other)?

Thanks.

 

[Creedmoor shooter]

Thank you again for your comments.

I like the 6ai, the longer neck and capacity, but I'm not liking the availability of brass.

The 6/284 is a cool looking round but I suspect barrel life will be short and I'm not seeing a significant gain over some of the slightly smaller rounds.

I haven't ruled out the 6Creedmoor or 6x47 or a few other cartridges mentioned but would like the case capacity to push 110ish grain bullets over 3000fps. I have some more reading to do.

I'm leaning toward the .243ai as I already have one along with dies and brass. The barrel on my current .243ai is not quite shot out so I'm thinking I'll buy some good high end brass and fire form in this gun with the intent of using it in my future build.

Do you see any issues with having my smith head space using my existing fire formed brass?

One other question I haven't researched (forgive me if this is already posted) Do you see much difference in accuracy between say completely prepped (neck turned, primer pocket uniformed, flash hole debuted, sorted by weight) Winchester brass and doing the same to a higher quality brass (Lapua or other)?

Thanks.

6 creed pushes 110s over 3000 fps easy. I got up to 3125 and I was even leaning on it yet. Should hit 3200 on the top end with 110s. 3100 comfortably

 

[demonjigger]

I use Winchester brass in my SLR. I've had a couple brand new cases I've had to throw away because they had significant defects and were totally unusable. But I have 300 cases prepped for it. And I'm not bench rest shooting either. If I was I'd use Lapua.

For the most part accuracy wise, I can't tell the difference between totally prepped Winchester brass and Lapua brass. I've shot .25" groups with Winchester.

I like using the less expensive Winchester brass in competitions where I'm likely to lose some. And it's about 2/3 the cost.

Lapua brass is pretty much load and shoot. The only thing I might do is run a mandrel in on the first loading. Also the primer pockets are really strong with Lapua meaning more reloads.

So if you're looking for ultra accuracy you might as well start with quality brass. My budget and application keeps me from using it in everything.

 

[weatherbee]

6-284, 6MM remington, 240 Weatherby

 

[1894C]

6 br

 

[codyadams]

Thank you again for your comments.

I like the 6ai, the longer neck and capacity, but I'm not liking the availability of brass.

The 6/284 is a cool looking round but I suspect barrel life will be short and I'm not seeing a significant gain over some of the slightly smaller rounds.

I haven't ruled out the 6Creedmoor or 6x47 or a few other cartridges mentioned but would like the case capacity to push 110ish grain bullets over 3000fps. I have some more reading to do.

I'm leaning toward the .243ai as I already have one along with dies and brass. The barrel on my current .243ai is not quite shot out so I'm thinking I'll buy some good high end brass and fire form in this gun with the intent of using it in my future build.

Do you see any issues with having my smith head space using my existing fire formed brass?

One other question I haven't researched (forgive me if this is already posted) Do you see much difference in accuracy between say completely prepped (neck turned, primer pocket uniformed, flash hole debuted, sorted by weight) Winchester brass and doing the same to a higher quality brass (Lapua or other)?

Thanks.

As far as accuracy, well prepped and sorted winchester brass will be just as good, however I like to have about 300 pieces if I want 100 good consistent cases, and a couple more groups of 50 or so consistent cases. Where Lapua, Peterson, ADG, Alpha and other top brass companies really step ahead is the strength department. With winchester and Federal brass in my .260ai, I had about 5% get cracks in the neck or shoulder by the 3rd formed firing. I got 12+ firings out of my Lapua brass and finally started loosing primer pockets in a few of them, but never lost a single piece prior to that. I still have 90 or so of my original 100 Lapua brass, but switched over to Peterson srp brass. I'm around my 5th firing, no issues and the pockets still feel new.

 

[Canhunter35]

I had a 6bra built, pretty hard to beat, freakishly accurate, barrel life, etc.

 

[slikmrc]

I've got a Benchmark barrel on order to build a 6 Creedmoore. 7.5 twist four groove, planning on running 100 to 107 grain bullets.

 

[woodnut]

Fraz01, that will be a great build! What action and stock? Barrel length and wt?