6mm XC seating depth

[Frankr]

My other question was, have you tried factory ammo in your 6XC? I know it's pricey, but I got a couple of boxes of the Oryx and shot some roe bucks and red stags with it.

I found the Oryx grouped pretty well in my rifle. Norma also have some Nosler BTs.

http://www.norma.cc/en/Products/Hunting/6XC/

Regards

JCS

No I have not..they are not available in the US as far as I know..I do have a box of 50 Norma Factory Match ammo.
I have not shot any of them..I would love to see the cartridge go mainstream..as factory or even semi custom rifles available...I have even called a manufacture and asked if they would make one if I sent them my reamer, they said no...I am seriously considering buying a 243 and pulling the barrel sending it out to have it contoured and then chambered in 6XC....it's crazy to buy a 1,700.00 dollar rifle to have it re-barrled.. so im still unsure but I do like that rifle just wish they chambered it in a 6XC with at least a 1-8 twist or a 1-7.5..

 

[Frankr]

bullfrog I never trust measuring the shoulder bump..do to some cases may spring back slightly more than others and then there is operator error in measuring sometimes..just try some crush on the case and see if it makes any difference , you can allways tweek it slightly to more bump...I have seen a 6ppc not shoot to well and several guys were swarming over the rifle at a match and it was decided to back off the shoulder bump so it had crush and after that it shot in a hole..so I allways have set mine up on feel if it shoots well you can try bumping it back to where you like it and see if it changes..I had a little trouble with mine when I first started shooting it. shot like .350-.450 at 100 yards and chrony numbers were good no more than a 20 FPS ES, SD 6-8 FPS so I tried shooting it at 500 to 700 yards and just could not keep them on a 9" plate..so a little help from the fellows on here and I had it down to 4.5" at 700 yards and my best is a 3" outside to outside at 700 yards..so guess 2 3/4" 3 shot group at 700.
I just love mine..took a few whitetails with it and now we are after coyotes..

so what i'm trying to say is. if the case contracted .001 after fired..then you bumped it .003 and it springs back .002 and you measured it .001 under your fired case..you could have over sized the whole case too much..and have .002 to .003 headspace depending on how much the case grows back...I have seen cases sized .005 and after they sit grow back...so I set them up on feel..so ones that stayed bumped had more chamber clearance then ones that grow back...does this make any sense at all.

that is where annealing every firing..annealed before sized...it works..i have a bench mark annealing machine.
They do shoot better annealed every firing but i'm to lazy to do it...when I see a change in 200 yard groups then I anneal them. say 2-3 fireings.. if I see groups start to open up if not I just keep shooting them..

 

[RyanS]

I had the same problem. It would shoot 1/2 moa without problem but I figured it should be a bit better. So I tried 5-6 different bullets, 4 powders and two types of primers. I moved the seating depth from 110 out to 15 thou jam. Couldnt get any better no matter what I did. Then I talked to a Canadian hall of fame target rifle shooter who suggested I jam it at least 20 thou. I had already gone to 15 so sure what could the harm be? Well sure enough that extra 5thou tightened it right up instantly and is still shooting well.

 

[spclark]

... who suggested I jam it at least 20 thou.

So with that change I'm curious if you could feel the 0.005" difference when closing the bolt?

What kind of neck tension do you routinely use with this degree of jam?

I'd like to think I could improve performance over what I get with seating to 0.020" off & maybe max. 0.002" tension but shooting NRA stuff the possibility of a cease fire quickly followed by bolt lugs & a trigger full of powder granules always has made me stop short of jamming.

 

[RyanS]

I tried 1-3 and found 2 thou neck tension to produce the best results both on the target and to keep the powder in unfired extracted rounds. No noticeable difference in bolt closing.Powder is the venerable H4350 but I had really good results with imr 8208.xbr and may revisit that if the shortage of H4350 continues up here. I'm running 39gr of 4350 so I'm not on the ragged edge either. Shoots great!

 

[bullfrog]

I did some more load development yesterday with the coated 115 DTAC's. Same s**t different day. Not consistent performance. Tried H4350, H4831SC, and even H1000. Nothing would perform consistently good. Thought maybe scope/rifle/shooter problems so I had some Tubb factory loads and I tried them and they shot very well (.20"-.29"). I tried these factory loads when the gun was new and it always shot under 1/2". Shoots even better now that the barrel is well broken in. The ES for the factory load was 26. Not great but definitely just as good as anything I've been able to load. Pulled one factory load and it had 43.2 grs. of powder. Was the same size kernel but not the same color as H4350 or H4831. 43grs. of H4831 gets almost identical velocity as factory loads but did not shoot as well. I even went so far as to try brand new brass since the factory loads shot so well. Still not consistently good performance. Tried .266, .268, and .269 bushings.

I think I'm gonna have to buy some different powders.

 

[spclark]

I did some more load development yesterday with the coated 115 DTAC's. Same s**t different day. Not consistent performance. <snip> I think I'm gonna have to buy some different powders.

You working with the same batch of DTAC'S all this time? Maybe you have a batch that's not as good as those in the 'factory' ammo.... I'm not gonna re-read earlier posts so forgive my asking if you've tried other bullets (maybe some of Berger's 105's?) in this rifle yet?

The rifle I had built in 2008 was intended for the 115's but the first day's testing turned my head 90° right back to the 105VLD's I've had excellent results using for years.

If instead you decide you really, really need to try something different powder-wise, pick up a pound of IMR 8208XBR. With hBN-coated DTAC 115's I'd start around 35.4 grains & work up by 0.2's.

I've been using 36.7 grains (in either Norma brass or my homemade Lapua Palma>6XC cases, either size of Wolf/Tula KVB7/223(RE)M primer depending on case used) for three years. 3,050 fps, SD's between 7 & 10 with this recipe, neck tension somewhere around 0.001" - 0.0015" with 'em seated 0.020" off the lands in my current 30" 1:7.8 Bartlein.

 

[JohnMill]

I had the same problem. It would shoot 1/2 moa without problem but I figured it should be a bit better. So I tried 5-6 different bullets, 4 powders and two types of primers. I moved the seating depth from 110 out to 15 thou jam. Couldnt get any better no matter what I did. Then I talked to a Canadian hall of fame target rifle shooter who suggested I jam it at least 20 thou. I had already gone to 15 so sure what could the harm be? Well sure enough that extra 5thou tightened it right up instantly and is still shooting well.

That guy knows his stuff don't he?