Cartridge choice....

PartsJr.

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I am trying to narrow my selection down and am wondering what you would do and why?

I have a NEW (given to me by a friend) heavy 17 contour 29" 6mm 1:7.5 twist 5R Bartlien barrel waiting on a future build. It will go on a 700 trued short action. It doesn't have to be a repeater and would consider running it as a single shot which would allow a couple of the slightly longer cartridges I mention below.

The gun will be a LOW volume varmint gun (coyote, prairie dogs at long range) with the possibility of setting up in an elevated box stand for the occasional white tail. I would like to get 2000 rounds out of it.

The cartridges I'm considering:
6mm Creedmoore
.243 AI
6mm REM AI
6mmx.284

Thanks for your input.
 
All good choices and all will achieve what you want. The 6mm Rem AI would be the most difficult to get brass for, last I knew Remington only did seasonal runs for brass.
 
I am trying to narrow my selection down and am wondering what you would do and why?

I have a NEW (given to me by a friend) heavy 17 contour 29" 6mm 1:7.5 twist 5R Bartlien barrel waiting on a future build. It will go on a 700 trued short action. It doesn't have to be a repeater and would consider running it as a single shot which would allow a couple of the slightly longer cartridges I mention below.

The gun will be a LOW volume varmint gun (coyote, prairie dogs at long range) with the possibility of setting up in an elevated box stand for the occasional white tail. I would like to get 2000 rounds out of it.

The cartridges I'm considering:
6mm Creedmoore
.243 AI
6mm REM AI
6mmx.284

Thanks for your input.
It will depend highly on the availability of the brass unless you already have them.
 
2k barrel life likely won't happen with the 6x284, 6mm AI, or even the 243 ai, even with careful shooting, but they would be great performers, brass would be easy to find for the 6x284 and .243 ai, and as stated, the barrel was free, so why not?

But if barrel life is a true concern for you, and assuming you don't have any brass allocated yet, I would go 6 creed, 6 BR or 6 Dasher for brass and barrel life. I haven't built any of those myself, so I would chose among those and do some research.
 
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I'm in the 243AI or 6mmAI camp, but I am biased having owned both of those. I love my 6mmAI for those extended shots, but I will admit, the 243AI has better and more brass available. Once the 6AI has used up its life, it will be rebarreled in a 243AI.

2,000 rounds will be a push.
 
to hell with barrel life it was free build the 6-284 neck down load and shoot and have a blast
I second this. You mention long range low volume shooting the 6-284 seems like a clear winner to my kind of thinking. With that aggressive twist and velocity you could easy run the 115 Nosler rdf, 125 matrix vld, 110 smk, 110 atip, 115 Berger etc.

combine this with HBN treating the barrel and bullets and run the newer copper erasing powders and I wonder if 2000 rounds is even that far out now?
 
I've been looking for a 6mm build here shortly, and the 6 dasher or 6gt are tops on my list. Great performance and decent barrel life for a 6mm. And you can get fully formed brass and dies for both. Just need to sell my 338 Norma to pay for some of it!
 
6 creed will be the easiest. Quality brass available and you dont have to fart around with fireforming. You can push 110 class projectiles to 3100+ pretty easy in a 26in barrel. You might get 2,000 rounds out of it but thats pushing it. All depends how hot it gets. All depends what kind of performance you want vs ease of use. 6mm rem AI would be cool but your very limited on brass options.
 
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