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Anyone ever hear of a 6x44 round?

koger

Silver $$ Contributor
A buddy called me this afternoon, about a varmint/Benchrest type rifle a t local pawn shop. He stated it had a Sako 75 stainless action, and a 22" or so heavy stainless barrel, and all it had stamped on it was 6x44. I am going to look at it tomorrow, just wondering if anyone on here had heard of this cartridge. All help appreciated.
 
If it was a BR cartridge, I can see the 308x1.75" being the parent ?

Another possibility could be the 280 British (7mm British) necked down ???

I can't really think of much else. However Quickload lists a 7x44 Penna, which I can bet my car keys it's not where the this 6x44 came from.
 
I have one. They was built years ago off of the 300 savage case. They are now being built using the larger base and lapua brass from the 6.5 x 47 lapua. It appears to be very similar to the new 6GT.
FWIW,
Vern
 
Here are another couple of links on this site and its 6mmBR previous incarnation.

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/6x44mm.474048/#post-4723318

https://www.accurateshooter.com/guns-of-week/gunweek038/

It seems the 6X44 or '6mm BR Long' had its adherents and was seeing benchrest success in the early years of the century, but as you never hear of it now has presumably lost out to cartridges that are easier to form and prepare but perform equally well and have since appeared.

Assuming that the rifle you've discovered is chambered for this wildcat, the case forming process shown in the Gun of the Week feature would just kinda put me off even if the necessary form and reloading dies came with the rifle. :)

So it might be a case (ouch!) of evaluating the rifle sans barrel against its price (or determining whether the barrel is worth setting back and rechambering in say 6 Dasher, and what its twist rate is too). Have fun - it'll be an interesting investigation in any event.
 
My friend and shooting mentor Roger Gower and Bob Brackney developed this case back in the early 80's
to compete in the Hunter Class, score shooting dicipline. It was a real pain to form the .308 Rem. URBR brass
with small rifle primer. They used a set of RCBS forming dies. It had the case capacity of a 30-30 Win. to meet
the rules for case capacity. The cartridge did perform very well, especially at 200yds. I believe Roger won two
I.B.S. Championships with that cartridge. I shot the cartridge briefly but couldn't get it to perform as well
as Roger. I then necked it up to 30 Cal and in it's maiden match in July of 1983 I shot a 250-14X which was just
off the score record at that time. Both the 6MM and 30 Cal were outstanding cartridges. I have often thought about
using Lapua 6.5X47 Brass and doing another 6MM to shoot @ 1000yds. but since I already own a Dasher and a BRA
I can't justify the expense, I really do feel it would be very competitive and work as well or better than the
family of 6's built on the BR Case.
 
Chuckhunter said:
My friend and shooting mentor Roger Gower and Bob Brackney developed this case back in the early 80's
to compete in the Hunter Class, score shooting dicipline. It was a real pain to form the .308 Rem. URBR brass
with small rifle primer. They used a set of RCBS forming dies. It had the case capacity of a 30-30 Win. to meet
the rules for case capacity. The cartridge did perform very well, especially at 200yds. I believe Roger won two
I.B.S. Championships with that cartridge. I shot the cartridge briefly but couldn't get it to perform as well
as Roger. I then necked it up to 30 Cal and in it's maiden match in July of 1983 I shot a 250-14X which was just
off the score record at that time. Both the 6MM and 30 Cal were outstanding cartridges. I have often thought about
using Lapua 6.5X47 Brass and doing another 6MM to shoot @ 1000yds. but since I already own a Dasher and a BRA
I can't justify the expense, I really do feel it would be very competitive and work as well or better than the
family of 6's built on the BR Case.
Click to expand...

Chuck, you need something to do for the winter.... lol... jim
 
I am pretty sure the 6x44 was Dave Tooley’s brainchild for when IBS 600 yard started in 2003. Joel Kendrick used it to take SOY. He was dominant back then. I believe the took 243 Win. Lapua brass, pushed the shoulders back and trimmed the neck back. It was a great cartridge, but a pain to form I understand. I am guessing the case capacity was is bet the Dasher and a 6x47 Lapua. Samuel Hall
 
SHall said:
I am pretty sure the 6x44 was Dave Tooley’s brainchild for when IBS 600 yard started in 2003. Joel Kendrick used it to take SOY. He was dominant back then. I believe the took 243 Win. Lapua brass, pushed the shoulders back and trimmed the neck back. It was a great cartridge, but a pain to form I understand. I am guessing the case capacity was is bet the Dasher and a 6x47 Lapua. Samuel Hall
Click to expand...

Sam, I've heard stories of who's brainchild it was and to be quite frank I don't really care but to my knowledge no one had ever heard of it before 1981 and Roger won back to back National championships with it in 1981 and 1982 as well as the Pa. states in either 82 or 83. Roger came up with the concept and Bob Brackney did the chamber work with Roger's reamer, which he still has. So the 6X44 was created a long time before 2003. Give Roger a call sometime, he can give you the entire history. I can tell you that in it's day the 6X44 was tough to beat especially when Roger Gower was shooting it.:)
 
Chuckhunter said:
Sam, I've heard stories of who's brainchild it was and to be quite frank I don't really care but to my knowledge no one had ever heard of it before 1981 and Roger won back to back National championships with it in 1981 and 1982 as well as the Pa. states in either 82 or 83. Roger came up with the concept and Bob Brackney did the chamber work with Roger's reamer, which he still has. So the 6X44 was created a long time before 2003. Give Roger a call sometime, he can give you the entire history. I can tell you that in it's day the 6X44 was tough to beat especially when Roger Gower was shooting it.:)
Click to expand...
Its not a big deal to me either. But I am guessing you are taking about a round made off a .223, .222 Rem Mag brass and made for short range shooting 66-68g bullets back before the PPC took hold. I am talking about a round made for long range made off the 243 Win brass. A lot more case cap. for 105g VLD’s. Samuel Hall
 
SHall said:
Its not a big deal to me either. But I am guessing you are taking about a round made off a .223, .222 Rem Mag brass and made for short range shooting 66-68g bullets back before the PPC took hold. I am talking about a round made for long range made off the 243 Win brass. A lot more case cap. for 105g VLD’s. Samuel Hall
Click to expand...

Actually Sam, the cases were formed using .308 URBR Rem brass (small primer pocket) which was a production run originally made for Jim Steckl when he was making the original 6BR's to try and beat the PPC's with an American cartridge. The Brass had to be worked so much that it just didn't work as well as the 220 Russian brass that the PPC's were designed to use. You are correct about short range and 65 to 68 grain bullets, that's what we were shooting at the time. Roger and I didn't get into the long range game (1000yds) until 2017 and if the Dasher hadn't been winning like it was chances are very good that we would have dug out the old 6X44 reamer and went to work. I believe Joel Kendrick said he thought it would be Ideal for 1000 yds. and we all know how well he shot it at 600. Some day I still might give it a whirl because it's decidedly much easier to make the brass from the 6.5X47 Lapua and we still have the form dies. O.K Sam, you can leave my head now! :) Good chatting with you.
 
Chuckhunter said:
Actually Sam, the cases were formed using .308 URBR Rem brass (small primer pocket) which was a production run originally made for Jim Steckl when he was making the original 6BR's to try and beat the PPC's with an American cartridge.
Click to expand...

Referring back to my earlier posted link, 6mmBR.com Gun of the Week #38

https://www.accurateshooter.com/guns-of-week/gunweek038/

this is Joel Hendrick and his rifles (plural as the featured 'guns' were a BAT and a Borden both using 6X44mm). If you scroll down the feature, you can see he made his 6X44 brass from the Lapua 243 Win as parent. (Maybe 308 UBBR was too difficult to get hold of by 2003; or maybe it was felt that a cartridge using ~37gn H4350 needed a large primer case, as David Tubb did around the same period with the 6XC.)

There is also an interesting 'Tech-Talk' piece by Dave Tooley yet further down on how he developed his iteration of the concept. Whilst apparently done from scratch, he admits freely he reckons it had been done before in an earlier period.

This appears to be a case of the same thing invented twice to meet the same need but no doubt with detail differences. Either way, it looks a very nice little wildcat, but all that case forming and associated work - no thank you. Also interesting that the Dasher has seen off the challenges from those designs with larger capacity cases and heavier charges such as the 6X44, 6XC, and 6-6.5X47 Lapua.
 
Laurie, case forming was a labor of love but I do like to see when someone like Joel or Dave Tooley resurrect an old case or new to them as the story probably goes and has success with them. From the time that I shot the 6X44 circa 1982/83, so many things had improved, mainly much better optics, better bullets and so many improvements in barrels and actions, as well as bedding techniques, not to mention the availability of so many more powders to choose from. My old dies for the cartridge look like something from the stone age compared to these exquisitely machined jewels of today. As much as I would love to chamber one up and try it at long range, it's just not cost effective enough to make it worth while for me, especially when the Bra cases are so easy to make. With that being said I still have enjoyed talking about that old case that IMO was ahead of it's time. :)
 
Well said Sir. Yes, it is a good looking cartridge, just what you think a well bred mid-range BR number should look like and looking much more 'modern' than its age would suggest.
 
As Dave Tooley says in his Tech-Talk in the old Gun of the Week 6mmBR piece on Joel Kendricks' use of the 6X44mm, there is rarely anything completely new in shooting and ammunition.

This seems to particularly apply to 6mm competition orientated wildcats. I suppose if you consider people are looking to design something to meet a particular need, and many of those needs don't change a lot over the decades, you'll end up with similar results if trying to optimise a cartridge design. Then every generations sees someone come along who wittingly or otherwise produces a new 'take' on the solution hoping to beat whatever the match winners currently use.

What has changed is the availability of new parent cases to make these wildcats. Whilst you started with 22-250 Rem, 250 Savage, 308 Win brass back in the 80s, there is now small primer very good quality brass from Lapua, Peterson and others in 6.5X47L and 6.5 Creedmoor among others to either ease the forming job, or to provide a new marginally different take on an old song. (I'm about to have a second go at 6mm SLR and one factor was the availability of Peterson 243 Win SRP brass alongside the more common large primer versions - a 50 ct box has just arrived in Blighty from the US courtesy of Brownells UK.)

Anyway, long may the experimenters prosper and continue. Sooner or later someone will supplant the 6 Dasher and PPCs although it seems hard to envisage it right now.
 
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