6 Dasher Help

[wmcclendon]

All 5 of the rifling grooves show exactly the same pattern, so it would seem the reamer was centered. This was a PTG uni reamer, so it has the chamber centering piece.

Dusty, can you elaborate please? The longest area of the freebore seems to be .130 right now. Are you saying the freebore is too big now?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

once you get it squared with that longest part it looks extremely long to me but its hard to tell. has this barrel been fired before you used the throating reamer?

 

[wmcclendon]

Nope, never fired.

If I’m measuring the freebore correctly, the longest is .130.

I did the throating by turning the tool by hand. Any reason to go with a low speed drill?

 

[Dusty Stevens]

So is this a uni- throater with the dasher shaped case on it as a guide? May be time for a call to ptg to see if kiff has ever seen that kind of cut before- i know i cant see how it happened. I seen a post on here not too long ago that showed someone putting a modified case on a throater to make it a uni. This type thing is why i stay away from a throating reamer. They go way too fast with no warning for my likes.

 

[wmcclendon]

It is a uni-throated by PTG and it has the chamber guide, but not dasher specific.

The first cut took off what I set it for (.050). Second cut took off a little more than what I was going for, but not much. Both cuts seemed fine...I could feel it cutting and then the cut got lighter as I hit the stop until it was finally spinning fairly free. I could still feel some bump and I assume those were the flutes riding up and off the rifling grooves.

I’ll contact PTG on Monday.

 

[wmcclendon]

Just got off the phone with PTG. They said my issue was due to the 5 groove rifling and the straight fluted reamer. I had a feeling that could do it. They make a spiral flute reamer that will work. He suggested I could try a tighter bushing and it might help. Maybe I can wrap some tape around the one I have to tighten it up? Would probably be too big at that point though. He also said to check the reamer and make sure it isn’t undersized since it’s a rental. I checked that earlier and it seemed right, but I’ll double check it.

Waiting to hear from SkeetLee about maybe just rechambering to the Norma dasher reamer.

 

[RussellJ]

Building a 6 Dasher and I’m a bit worried about the barrel I ended up with.

It’s a X-Caliber 1:8. I was told they used a JGS reamer. Contacted them and they say it’s a .271 neck with a .040 freebore.

Couple of questions: is this freebore going to work for me? I’m looking to shoot 87 vmax and 108 ELDs. Seems way too small from what I’ve been reading. I need to research this “donut” thing.

Will I have to turn case necks for this? Looks like I’ll be ok I think. Thinking hard about using the Norma Dasher brass. Any issues with that besides having to trim them down?

Thanks...total noob here with these wildcats. Mainly just looking for a long range prairie dog gun and target shooting.

wmcclendon;
The barrel you described is what received when I purchased my 1st XCaliber RemAge barrel. I'm shooting 75grn V-Max bullets with IMR 8208XBR powder. My 2nd Xcaliber barrel came with a .135" freebore. I'm shooting the 87grn V-Max out of this barrel again with IMR 8208XBR powder. Both barrels shoot very small groups with low SD's.

 

[wmcclendon]

Russel,

At this point I wish I would have just shot 75 vmax out of this one. Oh well, I’m knee deep in it now.
Could you share your 87 vmax loads please? Glad to hear yours is shooting good. I hope mine makes it there one day.

 

[wmcclendon]

Another update....I now have a Norma Dasher chambered barrel, and a Norma Dasher Reamer.

Backing up a little...I went back in with the throating reamer and used a little more force to try and keep it from jumping on the rifliing. Seemed to work pretty well and I was happy with myself until I looked closer at my last chamber casting. The extra force must have been turning the hardened steel chamber guide and I ended up with a groove in the shoulder area due to this. Crapolla!

Decided to just move on to the Norma chambering and use the extra neck length to clean up the throat. Purchased the reamer from PTG and hand reamed the chamber. Looks like it turned out pretty good. My headspace is still good (it's a savage, so it's adjustable, but I still have good clearance to the bolt head it seems). I'm going to try it at least.

Good news is I don't have to trim the 500 pieces of Norma brass now .

Plan to do some shooting this weekend with it, so I'm sure I'll be back with another update. Hopefully a positive one.

 

[wmcclendon]

Shot the gun yesterday. I ran a few ladders with Varget and one with RL15. All with 87 grain vmax. There weren't any flat spots that stuck out to me, but I picked a level and loaded 5. Group was promising, but the last shot killed it. I tried another and my groups just kept getting worse. Last group I jumped the bullet about .010 (the others were at touch) and got a lot of vertical. I'm going to try some more loads with the Vmax, but I'm ordering some Nosler and Bergers as well. So far, the gun seems ok. I definitely have some work to do on load development though.

 

[17VLD]

The b.c. of the 87 V-Max is very nice at .400.What freeborn did you come up with for it,have you done a final chamber cast?Hoping this all works out for you.In hindsite you should have loaded up a bunch of 65 V-Max’s and had fun shooting pds,then next season had the free bore changed.Try 33.3 of Rel-15 and see how that works,where are you at with the Rel-15?
Good luck,I hope you enjoy the Dasher on your trip.
Matt

 

[wmcclendon]

Yes, the BC of the 87 Vmax is the real enticing thing. I hope I can get them to shoot ok. I did get the Nosler 80 varmint bullets in as well. I'll be shooting both this weekend hopefully.

Going with the Norma reamer, I ended up with .104 freebore. The extra neck length of the Norma brass helps with getting the base of the bullet out of the case though, so it's better than a standard Dasher with a .104 freebore. The final chamber casting looked pretty good.

I agree that I probably should have just tried the lower weight Vmax with the original freebore, but I got caught up with the higher BC and shooting match bullets into tiny holes. This has definitely been a learning experience and not a cheap one. Education is expensive!

Thanks for the thoughts on a RL15 load. I don't have much of that powder on hand, so I'm trying to work up a Varget load.

I did determine that the neck tension on the rounds I shot the other day were way too tight. I'm going through now and paying more attention to the brass before loading it. I was in a hurry to shoot before, but probably just wasted some time there.

 

[wmcclendon]

Did some more shooting yesterday with some frustrating results. I shot 5 shot groups using Varget and Nosler 80 grain bullets. 33 grains up to 34.5 grains. No real great groups, but I wasn't completely comfortable with my bag setup. Best group was 1.37 @ 200 yards with 33.9 grains. ES for that was 12 and STDEV was only 4.5. Most of the group size was due to horizontal. The thing I don't understand is that I was only getting 3100 fps with this load. This load is nearly 2 grains more powder than 6BR loads with less velocity.

Also gave the 87 V-max another try with Varget from 33-34.4. Best group was 1.18 @ 200 yards with 33.3 grains. 3 were in one hole with one just a tad off of those and then one an inch to the right. Not much vertical in that group. Most of the other groups were all vertical with 1.5" groups. Lots of groups with 2 bullets touching, but 1.5" apart. Again, velocity seems quite low with the powder charges I'm running. I'm only getting 3000 fps with the 33.3, where others are reporting 3150.

I'm running an x-caliber 26" barrel. Bullets are about .010 off jam, but I did try some at .030, but velocity definitely didn't change. I start getting some primer cratering around 34.4 with the vmax, so I'm trying to keep everything a bit under that.

I've read that barrels will speed up some as they are broken in. I've got about 150 rounds down this one, so maybe it picks up some. Is the velocities I'm getting way off, or nothing to worry about? I was hoping for more with the varmint bullets, but I can concede to shoot it at lower velocities I guess.

What should be my major places to look to improve the vertical groups? I'll definitely be working on my bag setup, but the way it was, I think that will help horizontal more than vertical.

One more thing...I'm running an XLR chassis, so no bedding. Maybe I need to change torque on the mounting screws.

Varget.......80 Nosler...........87 Vmax
33...............2949.................2943
33.3............2990.................2995
33.6............3139.................3054
33.9............3097.................3023
34.2............3123.................3091
34.4....................................3120
34.5............3116

So the peak at 33.6...would this signify a node?

Thanks everyone!

 

[Dusty Stevens]

Vertical definitely can come from bag/rest setup. Horizontal can be due to the wind and most likely is. Were you using wind flags? What type of rest setup?

 

[wmcclendon]

Wasn’t using flags, there was some wind, but where we shoot is a little protected, but it could definitely be the cause.

I’ve got a Sinclair front rest and protektor front and rear bags. I made a bag rider for the rear, but that made it super high. I had to run the front rest almost at it’s highest position. I’ll be taking care of that this week. I’m also planning on making a wider front to help keep it stable.

I’ve never had a gun that I could shoot and just push back to the stop and it would be lined up again.

 

[wmcclendon]

My velocities look way too slow to anyone?

 

[boltfluter]

Might consider shooting at 100 yds. 200 with no flags can get ugly fast. Just a thought.

Paul

 

[wmcclendon]

Another brief update.

I picked 33.3 of Varget with the 87 grain Vmax bullets for my load. Seated for about .010 jump. Got 3100 FPS from this, so that seemed good. No great groups before I left for my prairie dog shooting, but it was real windy for my last day of shooting groups.

Gun did good in the field. I was able to connect on one of the big rodents at 1280 yards. Took me around 30 rounds to get the elevation and wind right. Had plenty real close shots, but the wind was very inconsistent.

I’ll be loading some match bullets soon and see how this gun likes those.

Thanks again for all of the help!