Question for competition shooters

[barrel-nut]

Thanks again, 82. Decisions, decisions....

6BR uses a .473 bolt head, right?

[82boy]

Thanks again, 82. Decisions, decisions....

6BR uses a .473 bolt head, right?


Yup, and it fires brass right out the box no work needed. 6PPC needs fireformed from 220 Russian brass, (Unless you buy 6PPC brass. wich most competitive shooters will not use.) and usualy neck turned, popular reamer is a jgs 1042 wich has a 262 neck. 30 Br needs sized up from 6mmbr, fireformed, and neck trimmed, There is a few diferent reamers out there claiming to be the Robbinette, and they are all different. Also 30 cal bullets are expensive and can be a challange to find.

[barrel-nut]

Ok, now all the 6 BR barrels I see available from the vendors on this site are 26"+. Is that much barrel length going to be a problem for a 100-200yd rifle? I would think that shorter would be better, right? 20"? I guess weight would become the limiting factor, to be within the rules. I wonder if Jim at NSS could/would cut one of his in-stock barrels down and recrown it for me? Or just stick with 26"?

Sorry for all the newbie questions. I appreciate the help.

[82boy]

Ok, now all the 6 BR barrels I see available from the vendors on this site are 26"+. Is that much barrel length going to be a problem for a 100-200yd rifle? I would think that shorter would be better, right? 20"? I guess weight would become the limiting factor, to be within the rules. I wonder if Jim at NSS could/would cut one of his in-stock barrels down and recrown it for me? Or just stick with 26"?
Sorry for all the newbie questions. I appreciate the help.


Nope not a problem at all, there are many reasons why benchrest shooters will tell you that they have 22 in long area barrels, and one of the biggest reasons is to make weight. On a light gun they are limited to 10.5 lbs. You also got to remember they use custom actions that are shouldered and they use a heavier barrel profile, and a straighter taper, again for different reasons. Some will tell you it goes back to the Houston Warehouse experiments. A few things to add is first Jim Briggs just sells barrels he doesn't do work on them, but he can order you anything you would like in the way of length. You also have to remember that if you go the 6BR route you are not doing the same thing as everyone else is. There is a difference between the 6PPC, and 6mmBR. On the other side of things I don’t understand why the venders offer the long barrels, my long range 6BR is at 25, (ordered from Jim Briggs.) and anything more is just overkill.
http://www.angelfire.com/ma3/max357/houston.html

A few other things to add, there is a bunch of different twist rates offered in 6mm. Most 6BR shooters choose to shoot 1 in 8 twists, so that they can stabilize the heavy bullets and shoot out past 1000 yards. The 6BR is a highly preferred mid to long (600-1000 yards.) range benchrest round, and has set many records along the way. A large majority of point blank benchrest shooters (100-300 yards.) shoot 6PPC with a 1 in 14 twist barrel. The round was originally developed as a Silhouette pistol round.

Back in the 80's there was a problem getting 220 Russian brass, and what was available was going for a high premium, so point blank benchrest shooters looked for different alternatives, some when back to the duce (222 rem) and many played with the 6BR cartridge, many wanted the case capacity of the 6PPC and they shortened up the 6BR calling them different names tall dog is one that sticks out in my mind. The fact is they got the 6br to shoot, but when George Kelby made a deal with Lapua to bring in good 220 Russian brass, the gig was all over, as shooters went back to the 6 PPC.

Now considering all of that, if you were going to do the 6BR for 100-200 yards you may want to do like the 6PPC guys and go with a 1 in 14 twsit barrels and shoot the same bullets they are using. I would ask the club about weight, because believe me it is hard to get a Savage to weigh in at under 10.5 lbs. They may let you compete at factory weight which is on a 12 BR should be around 11 1/4 lbs without scope, I would say it may make heavy gun weight at 13.5 lbs, our club we go with the heavy gun weight on all guns.

Last, I did not think about it until now, but another good choice for you to think about would be the duce. The 222 rem still hold a few 100-200 yard benchrest records. Back in the day it was one heck of a hot round, they shot them in Remington (700 xp, etc.) actions. Heck the smallest group ever shoot at 100 yards was shot with the deuce. You would have to change bolt heads to a 223 bolt head, and it is nothing hard to do and takes me about 1 minute to do. The duce is still highly competitive, with some older shooters still shooting them. The bullets are super cheap, and it don’t use much powder, again it is one of them calibers you can just pull brass out of the box and go. What killed the deuce for many was there was no good brass, well finally in the last year or so Lapua started making the brass, and it is readably available. (As well as Nosler and Norma.) The duce is such a legend that people are still looking at it; many claim it is the perfect marriage of powder capacity, and size. The go to powder is 4895.

The 223 rem is nothing to sneeze at with new powders, brass, and good bullets it will compete with the 222.

[barrel-nut]

Thanks again Patrick. Lots of good info. I already have a .223 bolt head as well, so I guess I have more options now. Too many choices is better than too few! I'll research some more and let y'all know what I decide, though it looks like it may be a while due to work loading me up in the next few months...

[82boy]

A few other thing to consider not many barrel makers chamber in the deuce. If you are going to get the barrel from Jim Briggs, Criterion (CBI) doesn't offer a 222 rem, but Shilen does. ( In 255, 250, 246, and 242 necks.) If you dont want to turn necks you may want to go with the 255 neck. CBI does offer a no neck turn 6mmBR but I dont believe they offer a 1 in 14 twist 6mm barrel. Shilen does offer 6mm Norma BR in .272 (no neck turn, and they offer others as well, but they do have a 1 in 14 twist barrel. With Shilen I like the ratchet twist barrels and they are available in 22 and 6mm 14 twist. Again Shilen offers a 6PPC, again CBI doesn't. You may want to make your choice now, because you will be looking at 6+ weeks on a barrel.

SSS can do anything you want as well. The biggest problems you are going to have with that rifle is: 1 do to the stock design it will torque in the bag, this will be mangified by the heavy bolt lift assoated with Savage rifles. (I would recamend getting a leaval on the gun, so that you can realign the gun after each shot.) SSS is the only gunsmith I know of that can take out the problem with the heavy bolt lift, and when they are done you will get a action with the bolt lift equal to a Bat custom action. SSS is backed up with work if you was going to have them T&T (Blueprint) your action it will ba a couple of months. I dont want to rush you but this is the time you need to make your decisions and get the ball rolling, so that you will have the gun for match season. Good luck.

[barrel-nut]

You mentioned neck diameters, what is the benefit of a tight neck chamber? Better concentricity on reloading? I already have a neck turner, and have done it a little, but in my rifles it didn't seem to help, probably because of the standard chambers. I just "knocked off the high spots", that's all. Is this something that I should consider too? (getting a tight-neck chamber)?

[82boy]

You mentioned neck diameters, what is the benefit of a tight neck chamber? Better concentricity on reloading? I already have a neck turner, and have done it a little, but in my rifles it didn't seem to help, probably because of the standard chambers. I just "knocked off the high spots", that's all. Is this something that I should consider too? (getting a tight-neck chamber)?


Well, Most times tight neck allows for the brass to be fitted to the chamber so that it is worked less. I will say that I do do a light clean up on all my brass and it does help with consintrisity. Neck turning is something you have to deside if it is something you want to do, I dont think that it has much to do in the accuracy depertment, I have both, and cant tell a difference.