Building a 6mm BR

[straightshooter]

I am interested in building a 6mm BR. I don't have any gunsmithing tools,such as a lathe) so as far as I can tell my only option is to buy a savage rifle for my base. I would like to buy a nice barrel and a nice stock. I won't be using the rifle for competition, but I want to build a rifle capable of shooting 1/4 MOA.

I have been looking at a Shilen barrel, but I'm looking for any suggestions. Also it doesn't look like HS Precision makes a stock for savage so the next best thing out there looked like a Bells and Carlson, but once again I'm looking for any suggestions.


Also does anyone have any advise as far as the builds go? Any extras that I should look into before I build it? Thanks in advance for the help!

 

[Thorbird]

You may have already considered this, but you could by a savage 6mmbr with a single shot,large shank)action and 30 inch barrel that comes with it, I think they come with HS precision stocks?

The gun should be capable of 1/4 moa. That would be the 3 screw action, compared to the 2 screw single shot,small shank) savage action. If you want to go with the small shank, just buy one, buy the barrel from shilen if you like, or whoever, buy any number of stocks made for that action, the B&C medalist would work and work up loads.

You could end up with a 1/4 moa gun? No guarantee, but the barrel and your handloads, and your shooting will determine if it is a .25 moa gun. Good luck.

 

[cwood3]

I purchased a Savage Target Action and a McGowen barrel. I bought my stock from Bill Shehane at scopeusout dot com. That stock was inletted to perfection. I'd recommend checking them out. He does beautiful work for a good price.

CW

 

[HPMike800]

Shooter:
The word on Savage barrels is that their pretty good, I don't think I get rid of one without trying it.If your talking about changing stocks, you need to decide what kind of shooting you'll be doing.
Mike

 

[6BR]

Straightshooter, what are you building the 6BR for? I am building a new 6BR too.

 

[tightneck]

Now just wait a minute here folks. 1/4 minute accuracy ain't that easy. You don't just simply slap together an action, barrel, stock and misc. extras' and proceed to shoot 1/4 minute groups. This gun your proposing may shoot a 1/4 minute group every now and then, but to average 1/4 minute is an entirely different thing. That takes top notch Benchrest equipment coupled with a shooter that is capable of reading the flags and other conditions very well. That's not to say that the equipment needs to be the most expensive, just that it must be capable of very small aggregates. I get my tail beat by some pretty shotty looking rifles sometimes. For a rifle to be able to achieve this kind of accuracy, it needs to be put together by someone who knows how to build winning rifles. How about an example...Last week at the IBS group nationals in Ohio, exactly 10 shooters out of about 150 managed to keep their 3 gun aggregate under a quarter minute. Thats 30 five shot groups, a large enough sample to get an average. Less than 7 percent of many of the best Benchrest shooters in the world maintained 1/4 minute accuracy...I didn't type this post to discourage you from putting your rifle together. I typed it so that you will not be disappointed when your dream rifle won't quite meet expectations. The only rifles that will meet the 1/4 minute level consistently are full blown competitive BR rigs...period

 

[Obtunded]

I agree with Tigntneck. .25MOA groups every session are the stuff of internet lore. The reality is they take experience and attention to precision reloading as well as having the skill to shoot like that and the equipment to achieve the results.

Buy a Savage F-class in 6BR. Most shoot very well. When its barrel is toast, put on a top notch custom such as a Krieger and have it professionally gunsmithed.

 

[Thorbird]

Thank you tightneck for seeing how some our answers could be misunderstood. I was thinking in terms if "capable" of shooting a .25 moa group. I would hate someone to get turned off by a great shooting rifle if they are not averaging .25 moa. I do not have a single gun that can average .25 moa, at least if I am behind the trigger. That is after prepping all the brass and doing lots of load testing to find the sweet spot and using top end bullets, and playing with seating depth, etc. I have shot a fair number of .25 moa groups, but could never average that.

 

[straightshooter]

Gentlemen,

Thanks for all the help. I would like to give a little bit of background so you guys know what I am looking for. I own several guns,all factory) and reload for all of them. All of the factory rifles have trigger work on them, but that's pretty much all that has been done. I would consider myself better than the average reloader, but not a great/competition reloader.

Most of my rifles I have gotten them to produce,not necessary average) 3/4" groups, and several are capable of shooting 1/2" groups or less. I would say that I am a reasonable shot, but I don't shoot competition. Most of the bullets that I use are either hunting bullets or varmit bullets,Accubond or V-max).

I would really like to have a gun that can shoot 1/2" groups consistently and produce a quite a few 1/4" groups,that is why a tried to say capable of 1/4" groups). My goal is to spend less than $1,200 to do so. The gun will be used for some target shooting from 100 to 500 yards and varmit hunting.

I realize that isn't a lot of budget, but I don't want to spend $5,000 on a custom gun or $2,500 on an HS precision,or similar).

So does anyone have any good ideas? I wouldn't be apposed to a factory rifle, but I do really want a gun that will produce consistent 1/2" groups with a fare amount of 1/4".

,Sorry about the 1/4" and 1/2" reference. We usually shoot at 100 yards so that is how I think when I talk about groups) I would really like to have a gun that would be capable of shooting 2-3" groups at 500 yards. I realize that at that distance consistent loads are key, but without the right gun you can't ever get there.

 

[billmo]

Straightshooter, Tightneck is dealing reality here and I can see you are agreeing. Shooting .250 groups at 100 yds. happens. AVERAGING .250 groups???? Well, it takes a winning rifle, good equipment to shoot from, and a competative shooter to accomplish that. Here is a good test. Get your loads as good as possible. Shoot 10 5 shot groups for 10 days. Do the math at the end of the 10 days. That will be a number you could call an average. I don't shoot competative BR but I do shoot. Believe me it is difficult to average .250 Bill

 

[straightshooter]

I agree with the 1/4" group theory. I have a 300 WSM with 110 gr v-max that will shoot 1/4" groups occasionally. Normally it will keep them under 1/2" if I do my part.

The reason for my interest in a nice shooting gun is my uncle got a HS precision in a 6.5-284. That gun will shoot! The worst group that we have shot with that gun is just under 1/2" and several groups in the 1/4" range,at 100 yards). We were using quality brass,Lapua) and sierra match kings.

We are starting some long range shooting,500 yards), and I would like to get a rifle that could shoot some groups at that range.

 

[billmo]

Right on. I have a 6 X 47 Shehane and my best 500 yd. group is a .991. I have shot several other groups that have been less than 2" but it is hard to do especially with no wind flags. But, heck I don't know if that would do me any good cause I sure don't know how to read them. Bill

 

[tiny68]

Back to the original question. A Savage M12 LRPV comes with a HS Precision stock and the 1:12 twist 6BR,not the 1:8 like the F-class gun). This may be an excellent platform to start your build with. In terms of the accuracy potential of the Savage 6BR, I encourage anyone to read Terry Brady's report in the July issue of AccurateShooter.

Quote: "Savage Shoots under 1/2″ at 200 Yards
With Terry’s handloads,Norma 203B powder, CCI 450s, Berger 105s loaded .010″ into lands), the Savage produced three-shot groups well under 1/2″ at 200 yards. That’s right, TWO hundred. Measuring off Terry’s photos, using our target measurement software, one of the 200-yard groups was a measured .350″ or 0.167 MOA."

I will freely admit I can't shoot these groups, but it is pretty amazing that this gun can. I have 3 Savage actions and several premium barrels that will agg in the 0.3s and 0.4s, but I guess I am just not enough of a shooter to get them in the 0.2s. I have a 30BR based on a Savage action that is agg in the very low 0.3s with Speer TNT bullets. I have some custom 30s on the way and I fell the 0.2s are reachable.

However, I can't shoot the 0.1s with the 30BR like the custom action guys.

Luck, tiny

 

[lukehalee]

I built a savage target action/SSS stock/shilen 6br for local unregestered br league action. Will shoot some 1's, but I am agging in the low 3's. Every week is the same story,,, couple of nice groups and a couple of fliers. Normally my fault with the wind or other errors, but I also have not had the time to put towards the load development that I need to help squeeze out a few hundreths. Every week I look at my cards, and recalculate throwing out my big mistakes or strange fliers, leaves thinking that the rifle probably has the potential to shoot mid upper 2s with a better driver. The level of shooting skill and load development between agging in the 2s and 3s is pretty large. Also keep in mind this is a 15lb rig which makes handling much easier than a 10.5 gun.