There are quite a few guys on this website that love the precision the 6mm BR brings to the table but wish their rifle was a repeater. While the BR cases can be made to feed in various ways, it seems to me there is a far easier way to skin this cat. Up until a short time ago, a cartridge such as the 6mm/204 would be a bit limited by the length of the magazine box. Now, we have the option of fitting the Accuracy Internation 223 magazine to various rifles. This little jewel of a magazine brings quite a few options to the table, the least of which is the ability to seat your bullets quite a bit further out than the typical Remington 700 box stock magazine. For example, I recently discovered the 80 Federal Gold Medal Match ammunition was extremely accurate out of my 1/8 223 AI. These cartridges are way too long for the AR15 mags but easily fit in the Accuracy International mags. In fact, I have 2 of the 223 AI mags modified to feed 22 BR. I slipped a 22-250 case into one loaded with a 40 grain NBT and it fit with room to spare.
Of course, there are scads of guys out there with 5 gallon buckets of 223 brass that don't want to buy new 204 brass as well as the AR15 guys who are limited by the AR style magazine that the 6mm/204 option would not appeal to. But for the rest of us, who are primarily hunters, shooters and accuracy fiends the bolt action rifle rules.
Then there is the issue of the custom dies. Some guys will want to swap bushings around in 204 dies, but the dies for the 6mm/204 already exist. They are available from Reeder Custom Guns at about 85 bucks I think. Reeder chambers a 6mm/204 he calls the 240 Raptor. I would suspect his reamer might cut a far deeper throat than what a bolt action guy would want because Reeder chambers his Raptor variant for the T/C series.
I do not believe the 6mm/204 would quite have the power the 6BR has but I dont think it would be unreasonable to expect 70's at 3200, 80/85s at 3000, and 100 grainers at 2750 or so. I am clearly guessing here, but maybe somebody with a quick load program could help me out with the numbers and let me know how close a 6mm/204 would come to matching the 6BR in power.
Last, I own 2 rifles in 22 BR and 3 rifles in 223 AI. Clearly the BR cartridge has the advantage in accuracy however it is very slight. I believe the 6mm/204 would bring more than adequate accuracy to the table.
Lets explore this a bit. Maybe spec out a reamer. Decide which barrel twist would be optimal. This might be some serious fun with a 6mm.....
Of course, there are scads of guys out there with 5 gallon buckets of 223 brass that don't want to buy new 204 brass as well as the AR15 guys who are limited by the AR style magazine that the 6mm/204 option would not appeal to. But for the rest of us, who are primarily hunters, shooters and accuracy fiends the bolt action rifle rules.
Then there is the issue of the custom dies. Some guys will want to swap bushings around in 204 dies, but the dies for the 6mm/204 already exist. They are available from Reeder Custom Guns at about 85 bucks I think. Reeder chambers a 6mm/204 he calls the 240 Raptor. I would suspect his reamer might cut a far deeper throat than what a bolt action guy would want because Reeder chambers his Raptor variant for the T/C series.
I do not believe the 6mm/204 would quite have the power the 6BR has but I dont think it would be unreasonable to expect 70's at 3200, 80/85s at 3000, and 100 grainers at 2750 or so. I am clearly guessing here, but maybe somebody with a quick load program could help me out with the numbers and let me know how close a 6mm/204 would come to matching the 6BR in power.
Last, I own 2 rifles in 22 BR and 3 rifles in 223 AI. Clearly the BR cartridge has the advantage in accuracy however it is very slight. I believe the 6mm/204 would bring more than adequate accuracy to the table.
Lets explore this a bit. Maybe spec out a reamer. Decide which barrel twist would be optimal. This might be some serious fun with a 6mm.....
