My First Outing With My New 6BRAI

[Ccrider]

First, thanks to Alex Wheeler for building me a very nice rifle and all of the information that he has shared along the way. Second, thanks to all of you other guys that have unselfishly answered my relentless questions with wise and informative answers. I am afraid to try to name everyone because assuredly, I would leave someone out.

Alex completed my 6Brai over a month ago but I have been too busy at work to even shoot it until today. I am starting out using Alpha brass, H4895, 205 primers and Bart’s bullets. It may not be necessary, but the first firing I am seasoning the brass, and also fireforming, more or less, since you need to bump the shoulders back prior to firing.

Defiance Rebel Dropport action; Lederer barrel; Wheeler LRB McWalnut stock; Delta Stryker scope. I was shooting at 100 yards and, as my Dad would say, It was as hottera bleacher seat in Hades!” Man I miss Him.

Ok. It did not happen if you don’t post pictures so here they are:

View attachment 1274312You

 

[KenOath]

2910 looks good…..

 

[sandwarrior]

E. 2900 looks the best if they are all 3 shot groups.
B. 2880 looks good.
D. 2882 looks good as well.

B. over on the right, 2930 looks really good too. Esp. the second row. 2926

 

[Ccrider]

2910 looks good…..

Yes. I don’t know how much I can take from fireforming the brass and it’s a new barrel. I sort of feel like it’s going to shoot well at round the 2950 node.

 

[Ccrider]

Yes. They are three shot groups at 100.

 

[KenOath]

If you overlap 2900, 2910 , 2934 they all print in a similar location on target, what I like to see in final testing to pick a stable load..I’ve found the BRA FFs are very accurate….

 

[Mikemci]

I would move the front scope base forward, 2 or 3 notches, in the rail.
Looks like you have a good shooter, there!

 

[Ccrider]

I would move the front scope base forward, 2 or 3 notches, in the rail.
Looks like you have a good shooter, there!

I meant to do that. Thanks for pointing it out. I read about scope flex after I mounted this scope in the rings a couple of years ago.

 

[Ccrider]

If you overlap 2900, 2910 , 2934 they all print in a similar location on target, what I like to see in final testing to pick a stable load..I’ve found the BRA FFs are very accurate….

30.36 at+.003 is running 2926 also impacting the same horizontal plane as 30.22,

You and @SPJ are right. I hope the barrel holds up after fireforming. It is starting off a lots better during firefoeming then the Dasher I have been fireforming.

 

[boltfluter]

Looks like you have several good nodes to choose from. Very nice!

Paul

 

[Bc'z]

That's a beautiful rifle, looks like its gonna be a great shooter.
What really struck my eye was your chair, it has notches in the arms for leaning cleaning rods, cutouts for cleaning supplies, and lots of padding for comfort during long sessions at the bench.

 

[Mark W]

You and @SPJ are right. I hope the barrel holds up after fireforming. It is starting off a lots better during firefoeming then the Dasher I have been fireforming.

I think you’ll be just fine. In my experience it takes a little work to get a BRA to shoot as well as they do while fire forming, but it will get there.

 

[BartsBullets]

First, thanks to Alex Wheeler for building me a very nice rifle and all of the information that he has shared along the way. Second, thanks to all of you other guys that have unselfishly answered my relentless questions with wise and informative answers. I am afraid to try to name everyone because assuredly, I would leave someone out.

Alex completed my 6Brai over a month ago but I have been too busy at work to even shoot it until today. I am starting out using Alpha brass, H4895, 205 primers and Bart’s bullets. It may not be necessary, but the first firing I am seasoning the brass, and also fireforming, more or less, since you need to bump the shoulders back prior to firing.

Defiance Rebel Dropport action; Lederer barrel; Wheeler LRB McWalnut stock; Delta Stryker scope. I was shooting at 100 yards and, as my Dad would say, It was as hottera bleacher seat in Hades!” Man I miss Him.

Ok. It did not happen if you don’t post pictures so here they are:

View attachment 1274313View attachment 1274312View attachment 1274314You View attachment 1274315View attachment 1274316

Aren’t those Some of the rejects AKA Culls that I sold you for fireforming???

Bart

 

[Ccrider]

Aren’t those Some of the rejects AKA Culls that I sold you for fireforming???

Bart

Yep, they are the culls. Looks like they fly pretty straight. You actually marked the box “JUNK”. One man’s junk, another man’s treasure?

 

[BartsBullets]

Yep, they are the culls. Looks like they fly pretty straight. You actually marked the box “JUNK”. One man’s junk, another man’s treasure?

No telling how good it would have shot with decent bullets!

 

[Ccrider]

No telling how good it would have shot with decent bullets!

Yep, and you driving.

 

[Ccrider]

Picking up on this. Have not had much time to play. Did get in a little time.
First, I decided to test the Bart Hammers. I decided to try .003 into the lands based on my first 100 fireform rounds. The barrel did not seem to like them at .003 and was not consistent. I retested 29.72 and 30.72 but they did not repeat


I debated whether to try touch or .009 into the lands. Both looked good during fireforming. I decided .009 since I have had several barrels that seem to shoot there. Late in the afternoon and the target was actually disappearing at times due to the mirage. Definitely not my best trigger pulling but the barrel seems to like .009 much better. I stopped at 30.3 due to poor visibility and I wanted to be sure that my results were reliable. Hope to shoot through 31.3 tomorrow.

 

[Ccrider]

Finished the .009 groups. Looks like to me that the barrel has sped up some. Now maybe it will settle down. The low node seems to be 2900 to around 2925 and the it blows up. I think it comes back in around 2990 but am not sure. The last three groups did not make sense to me. I am guessing the barrel needed to be cleaned. I did not see pressure signs with the 30.3. I will likely shoot up a little higher just to see what happens. My guess is that the groups will tighten up at 30.5 around 3050 fps of I don’t see pressure.

 

[ChrisNZ]

Geez, be careful not to wear the barrel out testing

 

[Ccrider]

Following up on this post. 330 shots down the barrel now with some quality time spent wit Bart Hammers. 70 shots fired are Lapua fireform loads.

Long and short of it is that I decided that the node was around 29.9 and 30.4., depending on the seating depth chosen. I also notice that my fireform loads pushed hard into the lands shot well. So, I decided to test 15, 20 and 23 into the lands at 29.9 and 30.4 powder charge.

30.4 shot well at 15 and 20 in. And started to open up at 23 in. So, I picked 17 into the lands as a fair compromise between 15 and 20.

Next I wanted to see how wide the powder charge window was so I loaded 30.0, 30.2 and 30.4, 17 into the lands.

30.0 looked about like 29.9 did- out of tune with a lot of vertical. 30.2 was back in tune and 30.4 repeated nicely. I will try 30.5 just to see what happens. 30.2 17 in gave me zero es for three shots with a mv of 2948. Rarely have I had three shots with the exact same mv. Better still, they all went into a nice tight hole. 30.4 gave me an es of 3 and mv of 2972. A nice right group in the exact same place on the target as 30.2.

I tried a smaller neck bushing with 30.4. Hit the same place in the target but the group opened up a bit to about .19.

Last, I am having some problems with Alpha OCD brass but will not get into it until I hear back from Alpha.