Starting Load- 6br 68 grain bullets

[AndyW]

I will be recieving my 6br from my gunsmith soon and am looking for suggestions for a starting load. Here is the info: 1-12 twist barrel, 26" varmint contour barrel, .269 neck, lapua brass, Trued remington action. This gun will be mostly a varmint rig with some paper punching. I just ordered some Berger 68 grain varmint bullets and looking for a good starting point. I plan to start .015 into the lands.I have a Stoney Point tool to figure out where to seat the bullet. I believe my gun will have approx. .065 free bore as I told my smith which bullets I plan on shooting,65-80 grain). Not sure which primers to start with and I have a pound of varget to start with. I plan to fire form my brass during break-in, after I have some formed brass I will get more serious with load development. From what I have gathered on this site I could not go wrong with CCI primers and 30 grains of varget. Looking for some assistance and pointers from some of you guys to help out a newbie.

Thanks in advance

Andy.

 

[ReedG]

Hi Andy:

My setup is a little different than yours: 1:14 twist, .270" neck. So you might build pressure a little quicker. My best-ever load for 68-gr. Bergers,Danzac coated) is 34.0 to 34.4 of Varget. I recommend you start at 32.5 and load in .5 gr. increments up to 34.5 and see what your setup likes. I load 3 of each seated at the lands, then take the best load or two and load another series and vary seating by .005" from .010" off the lands to .015" into the lands. Three of each varying the powder,15) and three of each varying the seating,18) will only take 33 rounds and this will clearly show a preference and then you can fine tune and shoot some 5-shot groups with the good loads. Varget is hard to beat in the BR case, but 31.5 to 32.0 gr. of Benchmark also has some promise.

I use CCI 400 primers and have tried most all the others. They are very consistent and reasonably priced.

Good luck, and keep us posted.

 

[AndyW]

Thanks for the reply. Curious as to what kind of velocity you were getting with that load? I plan to start with the CCI BR4 primers.

 

[ReedG]

Hi Andy:

Sorry that I never got back to this post and didn't see your question. My load testing is done over a Chrony and I make no claims to its accuracy compared to the $1,200 models but it gives me the info I need and I love it. I really don't care if a bullet is going 3,321 or 3,318 fps as long as it groups and has good consistency.

My 68-gr. bullets with Varget shoot the most consistently when pushed at around 3,350 fps and in my barrel the higher loads of Varget will do that.

I have only done preliminary testing with Benchmark in the 6 BR but the 32.5 load was running about 3,300 fps. My best Benchmark loads were with 55-gr. Sierra BlitzKings which will run at about 3,550 fps with good consistency. I never did much with the factory bullets because I built my 6 BR for benchrest shooting and use custom bullets in the 65-68 gr. range.

Have you got your rifle yet?

 

[expiper]

Hi Andy....try around 30gr of n-133 with fed 205...good upper window load...with 66-68gr "botique" bullets..Roger

 

[AndyW]

I picked up my rifle this week. I have loaded 20 rounds for break-in, all with 70 grain SMK'S. Once I have some fire formed brass I will get serious with the load development. I have 70 grain SMK's, 68 and 80 grain Berger's and 75 grain Vmax to shoot from this gun. My plan is to stay with the Varget and see which bullet works the best with this powder in my gun. I want to stay with the Varget because of the claim of it being a very temperature stable powder. I have had the stock Remington trigger worked down to about 1.5 lbs, but decided to order a jewell trigger. Should have that in about a week or so. I will keep you all posted once I get a chance to shoot it, nothing like work to get in the way!