Those who have played with 6x45 for light varmint spitzer style bullets, did you end up going, or wish you had zero freebore? SAAMI 6x45 has an .050" freebore and I think that's going to be a bit long for 58vmax from initial measurements. Also .271" neck OD seems awful generous for a .265"-.266" loaded round. Bolt gun, no mag length restrictions.
6x45 freebore for varmint bullets
- Thread starter GrocMax
- Start date
swd
Silver $$ Contributor
I just finished one for myself a month ago. For 58s I would go with zero. For heavier bullets it depends on what action/mag length you have, but you still don't need much. Mine is on a Sako L461 which needs a pretty short OAL to fit in the mag. I shot a deer a week ago with mine using an 85g Partition. It worked just fine. I can't wait to shoot a coyote with a 70g Sierra Varminter. So far it seems to be extremely efficient and makes more speed than you would think with mid weight bullets. Have fun!
Its the Savage stagger feed internal (I wish they wouldn't have dropped this design), max OAL on an unmodified box is 2.400", the 223/204 stagger feed internal box is a std 308/243/22-250 type box with a divider wall in the rear, and the bolt baffle has an extension on the right side to keep the bolt from overtravelling all the way to the rear. So there's really no OAL restriction.
My favorite feed system for PD's, its way easy to keep plopping rds in the box when you have time, and depending on the stock you can get 8-9 223 based rds in it with some minor mods.
The 6mm 58g ZMAX are just way too cheap to ignore, been stockpiling them, under 12 cents a round for a 6mm varmint slug makes it doable for a cheap bastid like me.
My favorite feed system for PD's, its way easy to keep plopping rds in the box when you have time, and depending on the stock you can get 8-9 223 based rds in it with some minor mods.
The 6mm 58g ZMAX are just way too cheap to ignore, been stockpiling them, under 12 cents a round for a 6mm varmint slug makes it doable for a cheap bastid like me.
swd
Silver $$ Contributor
I cut my throat separate from the chamber and have about .030'' free bore. I checked a 58 VMax at jam length and the upper edge of the bullet/boat tail junction is maybe .020" up into the neck from the shoulder. So to clarify that, most of the boat tail is below the neck. You could go zero or .050" free bore and be o/k, but at .050" most of the boat tail will be in the neck. If I were only going to shoot 58s I would probably have a reamer ground at zero FB and you always have the option to add free bore with a throating reamer if you decide you want more.
Tomorrow I'm off to my favorite ranch to hunt coyotes. 80g Sierra Blitz at 3050. The load is a little hot, primer pockets only last 2-3 loads. The next batch I'll back down to 2950-3000 and I think I'll have good case life at that.
Tomorrow I'm off to my favorite ranch to hunt coyotes. 80g Sierra Blitz at 3050. The load is a little hot, primer pockets only last 2-3 loads. The next batch I'll back down to 2950-3000 and I think I'll have good case life at that.
Thanks SWD.
Do you remember what your leade angle was? The SAAMI spec 6x45 was 2.5 degrees, I knocked mine back to 1.5 which should be like 10+ thou gain in FB.
When I made the rough measurements a small jump should have put the forward edge of the rear chamfer right at the neck to shoulder junction, sounds like we're in the ballpark anyways. I'll be using WC844 (H335) pulldown exclusively, don't think I'll ever load enough in to get to the bottom of the neck anyways, 27g of WC844 isn't even in the neck on a 20 Prac and that's a hot load on a 34g 20.
My focus is on economy, trying to keep total per rd costs below 25 cents including barrel wear, therefore sticking with a simple to form 223 based caliber I can use milsurp powder and cheap and plentiful 223 brass. Hot rod 22's and 6mm's aren't a very economical PD gun when you factor in per rd barrel costs, fun while they last, but that speeding ticket can get expensive
Do you remember what your leade angle was? The SAAMI spec 6x45 was 2.5 degrees, I knocked mine back to 1.5 which should be like 10+ thou gain in FB.
When I made the rough measurements a small jump should have put the forward edge of the rear chamfer right at the neck to shoulder junction, sounds like we're in the ballpark anyways. I'll be using WC844 (H335) pulldown exclusively, don't think I'll ever load enough in to get to the bottom of the neck anyways, 27g of WC844 isn't even in the neck on a 20 Prac and that's a hot load on a 34g 20.
My focus is on economy, trying to keep total per rd costs below 25 cents including barrel wear, therefore sticking with a simple to form 223 based caliber I can use milsurp powder and cheap and plentiful 223 brass. Hot rod 22's and 6mm's aren't a very economical PD gun when you factor in per rd barrel costs, fun while they last, but that speeding ticket can get expensive
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