1st time reloading 6mm norma br question

[fella5]

Very new to bolt action rifles and I just got my Savage 12F 6 Norma BR. Forgive me for my questions

I wanted to know what you guys/gals suggest for load during break-in. I have 100 new Lapua brass (blue box neck measures around .012), Varget, Berger 80gr and CCI BR4 primers. Do you suggest I FL resize the brass or just expand the neck and resize the neck? I have two bushing right now (.267 & .266) which one do you suggest I try first. Reading the forum, I notice that 30-31gr of Varget should work. Should I even work up a load with new brass? I was reading the 6mm BR section and they say to take new Lapua 6BR case, add a CCI 450 primer, drop in 30 grains of Varget, top it with a Fowler 80gr FB bullet at the lands, and shoot it. Should I seat the bullet to the lands? Will the load I work up with new brass have the same results when the brass is fire formed? Or should I not worry about it until the brass is fire formed? Should I even bother with a chronograph for new brass also? Sorry again for all the questions.

 

[cmillard]

run the brass through a fl die, then you can run an expander mandrel into the mouth. from there, do the normal case prep and seat the primer, charge case and seat bullet. i would jam the bullet when fireforming the brass. i would chronograph just to see where you are at velocity wise.

 

[fella5]

Cole,

Thanks for your input. Do suggest I work up the load or just load all 100 the same and fire form the brass? Hodgdon say's 30.5 (min) and 32.5 (max)..... load all of them to 31.0?

 

[Travelor]

Work up your loads while fireforming.

Also I would load no more than 30 gr of VARGET to start with and work up .3 at a time until you see what your gun likes.

 

[cmillard]

you will be fine with 30 grains of varget. that is what i used to fire form my brass, but that was with a 107 sierra. and, guess what, that is my chosen load also. it shot so good, why go any further? but, start from there, and if you don't get the desired velocity, step up in increments of .3 grains. it also helps if you can load at the range. less packing up and driving.

 

[sdneil]

Fella 5--My 12 F-class 6br is at max with 30 gr varget & 107 MK--- would not start there--RL 15 is best in mine--good luck you will like the rifle.Neil

 

[cmillard]

forgot that point. it kind of depends on how much freebore you have in your chamber. mine has about .115, so i can seat the 107s out fairly far. check your freebore with a LNL gage.

 

[fella5]

Well I just measured using my LNL gauge and the Berger 80gr FB. From the base to the ogive I measure an average of 1.974. The Berger if seated out to the lands is way to short I think. How much of the bullet needs to be seated in the case neck? I just FL size the brass and expanded the neck. So my next step is to resize the neck (.266 bushing) and chamfer, deburr, prime, charge and seat the bullet. Sounds right? From this link, the freebore is 0.100: http://accurateshooter.wordpress.com/2008/07/16/savage-6br-factory-rifle-delivers-superb-accuracy/

 

[rocketron]

i would load no more than 20.... load two at 29.2 then add .2 or .3 gn load two more and so on till i got to 31 gn.

if this is a brand new rifle your not going to find the magic load right away.....your going to be getting use to the rifle...adjusting the scope....breaking in the barrel if you choose...so why not use this to find max load

as posted by sdneil.....30gn of varget and 108bt is max in my 6br also (rem700 bartlien barrel)......i played a little with the 87 gn v-max and 31.2gn of varget was about max with them.

Ron

 

[jonbearman]

I would use 29.6 grains of h322 with a light bullet such as a 68 gr flat base or the like. Varget is squirrely in my gun.

 

[fella5]

Thanks for all the feed back... I will start at 29.0gr of Varget since that is really all I have at the moment and work up to .2 or .3grs up to 31.0 as long as I don't see pressure signs. I will also be breaking in the barrel at this time and adjusting my scope, etc. Can't wait... I should of gotten a heavier bullet since I really want to shoot it out to 600yards. Oh well... maybe after I fire form the brass.

 

[Travelor]

You fella's forgot that he is shooting 80 gr bullets. Look at post #!

 

[fella5]

Yeah... I will be loading Berger 80gr ;D

So is it safe to start at 29.0gr and work up. I know Hodgdon website starting load is 30.5. Sierra starting load is 28.7 and max is 30.5.

 

[camac]

Scotty it is very safe (well as safe as loading can be) to start at 30 gr varget for the 80 gr and work up. The posts above are for much heavier bullets as pointed out by Travelor and it could be hot for a 105/107gr. The thing I found was it wasn't worth pushing the 80's much above 3100 fps for accuracy, but pressure was low at that. You should find you can go "much higher" than 31 even but around there somewhere (+/- a grain) you should find a nice accuracy node.

 

[fella5]

Camac,

Thanks or the clarification. What I have seen on the 6BR info page and other sites is that it seems that 3100fps is almost the sweetspot for the 80gr. You think that this bullet weight would be okay out to 600 or should I work up a load for the 105gr or 107gr bullets.

 

[RonAKA]

Very new to bolt action rifles and I just got my Savage 12F 6 Norma BR. Forgive me for my questions

I wanted to know what you guys/gals suggest for load during break-in. I have 100 new Lapua brass (blue box neck measures around .012), Varget, Berger 80gr and CCI BR4 primers. Do you suggest I FL resize the brass or just expand the neck and resize the neck? I have two bushing right now (.267 & .266) which one do you suggest I try first. Reading the forum, I notice that 30-31gr of Varget should work. Should I even work up a load with new brass? I was reading the 6mm BR section and they say to take new Lapua 6BR case, add a CCI 450 primer, drop in 30 grains of Varget, top it with a Fowler 80gr FB bullet at the lands, and shoot it. Should I seat the bullet to the lands? Will the load I work up with new brass have the same results when the brass is fire formed? Or should I not worry about it until the brass is fire formed? Should I even bother with a chronograph for new brass also? Sorry again for all the questions.

I have a Savage 6BR LRPV 26" with a 1-12" twist. I've shot the Berger 80 grain, using Varget, and CCI BR-4 primers. This is the second best shooting bullet after the 68 grain Bergers.

The best group sizes have resulted from 32.0 grains of Varget, giving 3114 fps velocity. I've shot up to 32.8 grains and not seen any evidence of excessive pressure in my gun. I've seen fairly good evidence of a ladder test sweet spot in the 3100 fps range, and it may get better up to 3150 or so, but have not tested it yet. If you have the same barrel design as mine, you may want to cut to the chase and try some three shot groups at 31.8, 32.0, 32.2, and 32.4. Some of them may surprise you at how good they are.

On my new cases I used the expander ball only. It was a full sized 0.243 ball. I now size the cases with a 0.267 Forster bushing, but have the older brass. You may want to consider using the .266 if the .267 does not give you enough fit on the bullet. You want the neck OD to "grow" by 0.001" when seating the bullet.

On somewhat limited testing I seem to get the best groups at a 0.010" jam into the lands. The plan is to try some jump positions later on to see if groups can be improved. Pressures tend to go down with jumps so, you can identify safe maximum loads by using jam settings.

Yes, I would chronograph all the initial firings. You want all the data you can get. I think the velocity is a very important factor in identifying sweet spots for your particular barrel. You also want this information so you can accurately determine how much powder is required to get a certain velocity in your particular gun.

 

[fella5]

Thanks RonAKA... I have a 30" with a 1-8" twist, so I think I might have different results that you. I did end up using the 2.66 bushing so hopefully that will be enough. When I used a LNL guage to check to see how far the lands are, I ended up with a 1.948 average which I think will seat the bullet too far out with not much of the neck holding the bullet... but that is with the Hornady shell that you use to measure. I will measure it with one of my new Lapua shells to see. How much of the bullet needs to be seated in the neck?

 

[RonAKA]

So far the 68 grain Bergers have shot the best for me, although the 80 grains may be a bit more consistent. The 68 grains are seated 0.150" into the neck. The 80 grains are deeper -- about 2/3'rds of the neck or the same amount as I resize. The 69 grains are seated less and are less accurate still. The 62 grain are worst still, and seating does not seem to make that much difference -- so who knows...

Yes, 30" 8 twist barrel is going to be different. You will get more velocity with the same powder. Barrel time will be longer with the same velocity. Vibration frequency will go down. Twist may slow velocity some. Hard to say how it all adds up. Best to do a ladder test to see what you have.

 

[fella5]

RonAKA.... are all ladder test the same? I usually just load 5 rounds of each and see how they shoot

 

[RonAKA]

In a true ladder test you shoot only 1 shot per load, and go from min load to max load. In the 6BR I would suggest steps of 0.3 or 0.2 grains. If you have a good spotting scope then shoot them at 200 yards or if you can see every bullet hole, at 300 yards. Keep a piece of paper and record the POI of every shot. What you are looking for is groupings of shots where the charge is increasing, but the POI does not go up the page.

Another variation is to shoot three at each load level and average them. Takes more shots and time, but may get you more meaningful results. A few links to read:

http://www.desertsharpshooters.com/manuals/incredload.pdf

http://www.6mmbr.com/laddertest.html

http://www.optimalchargeweight.embarqspace.com/#