6BR for 600 yd F-class questions

[barrel-nut]

Hey fellow Savage shooters! I've been absent from the forum for a while, but am happy to be back and I have a few questions for those of you who shoot F-class or have any experience with the 6-BR at ranges out to 600 yds. I'm interested in putting together such a rifle, to shoot for fun initially and in F-class eventually, if I can get it to shoot well enough. My questions are:

barrel length- 26,28,or 30"?

Profile- varmint or bull? Is there really much accuracy improvement to justify the extra weight of a bull profile?

Twist seems to be standard at 8"??

Favored brands? Considering CBI, Shilen, or McGowan prefits.

If I go with something really heavy like the 30" bull, will it be necessary or wise to bed the first 2-3" of the barrel to help support it?

This will be mounted on either a Model 12 VLP single shot small shank action (which I already have) or a large shank target action ( which I'm thinking about buying). Either way it'll be mounted into a Hart Long Range Target laminated stock from Stocky's, which has pillars but no bedding block. Any advice from the long range gurus out there? Caliber is already decided, at either 6BR or possibly 6 BRX. Tired of the .308 for now. Time for something milder, and hopefully more accurate.
Any and all help/opinions are welcome.

[kschilling]

I've had some time with a 6BRX. My wife now shoots it. Great platform. I simply mounted it in a BVSS stock. Runs 105 Berger's all day long. It's a 26 in Pac Nor I bought used off those site. You enjoy the forgiveness.

[barrel-nut]

Thanks ks. I was leaning towards 26", probably in a bull contour

[bythebook]

I have a 28 inch full bull McGowen in 6br 1in 8 twist. I have shot it out to 1000 yds. and it does fine, the extra weight seems to make it easier to hold .

[stangfish]

Look at kreiger. Watched a fella shoot a 600 49X last month with a 6 dasher. Boring.

[barrel-nut]

Thanks bythebook, I was wondering if it would have the legs to do 1000. Now I know. Did you bed the first few inches of yours or not?
Hey stang! Does Krieger make a prefit? Would love to have one but that would be big $$$$, right? Kinda looking to stay south of the $350 range. Always wanted a nice cut rifled barrel though...

[bythebook]

Barrel-nut my Son has a 26 inch Criterion 6br 1-8 twist and he does real well at 1000 to 1100 yds. No neither one of these are bedded past the recoil lug. I have several McGowens and they all shoot great. I built both of our guns and we both shoot the same loads except the bullets, his likes 87 VMAX and mine prefers the 87 HPBT. I am going to work with the VMAX in mine a little more and I have some Bergers to try. I think the VMAX holds up in the wind a little better

[acemisser]

30 inch is too long if you go bull barrel.too much muzzle weight..tried it with a 308....

i like the bull barrels they take a little longer to heat up....and of course,longer to
cool back down as well.. 26 or 28 should do you very well....mine has the 8 twist and love the 68 gr
bergers..never tried it pass 300 though...good luck..

[nzshooter]

I use savage 12F's (6br and 6.5-284) for f class over here, they came factory with 30" bull barrels and as has been mentioned a heavy tube that long makes it very muzzle heavy, I ended up drilling 3 3/4 inch holes about 5-6 inches long in to the stock under the recoil pad, and cast lead to fill the holes with, it added around 2pounds of weight to the rear, that balanced the rifle a lot better and helped me shoot it better as well

The 6 br is a great little cartridge and easy to tune, I think it would do just fine for what you want to use it for

[medic08]

I have a very similar rifle with a 28" McGowan barrel only on a Stevens 200 action. It is in the Hart stock. I made my own pillars and bedded it to the recoil lug. It will shoot in the .3's and under with almost boring regularity with 75gr vmax bullets. I haven't shot it at any distance yet but I am sure it will do great. I have tested some 105 amax bullets also and they shoot just as well.

[barrel-nut]

Thanks to all who responded. I decided to do two builds, one for me and the other for my shooting partner, which is usually either my wife or one of my sons. Mine will be the Precision Target Action, right bolt left port, with Northland's lug and barrel nut, with a McGowen 28" 6BRX barrel, Nightforce 20 MOA base and titanium rings, Nightforce Competition 15-55x 52, Hart LRT stock in red/gray. Have all the parts on hand, just haven't had time to do the necessary work on the stock yet to be able to assemble it. The other one will be built on the 12 VLP-SS small shank action, with a 28" Criterion barrel, in 6 BR (still waiting on this one- Jim, are you listening? lol). It will also reside in a Hart LRT stock, this one in green/grey. Scope is yet to be decided.

I was very fortunate to be able to score four boxes of Lapua brass, a set of Whidden dies, a brick of Rem. 7 1/2 BR primers, and a small assortment of 6mm target bullets, all at the same time, and all on sale, to feed my new builds. Now if I could only get my hands on some Reloder 15 or Varget.. Have any of y'all tried Alliant MR 2000 in a 6BR or BRX?

[rpierce]

Barrelnut,
Once you find some varget, berger 105 hybrids, and cci 450 you should be good to go. Bob Sebold and my brx shoot 33.3 gr of varget. Its accurate enough that getting 10s at 600 is disappointing when its not too windy. Have fun shooting extremely small groups.

[barrel-nut]

Thanks rpierce. I could get used to that kind of disappointment! :) Unfortunately, for the time being, I'm just gonna have to stick to the components I have on hand due to the seemingly everlasting "shortage" of anything handloading-related. I have small quantities of Varget and Reloder 15, but probably only enough to get a good load worked up. I did just get an 8lb can of Alliant MR-2000, which is supposed to have a similar burn rate as Varget and 15, but yield slightly higher velocities, and meter easier. Haven't gotten to try it yet, as I just got my dies in yesterday and I ordered the wrong bushings. :( And my rifle's not completed anyway- lots of larger fish to fry around here lately- It never ends it seems sometimes. But I'm hopeful that I can make something work with this powder as I have a bunch of it, and it seems to be one of the most-available ones lately. What about the Remington 7 1/2's? Again, I got those because they were available. I do generally prefer CCI's in large rifle primers (I have zero experience with small rifle primers). But I have found standard Remington LR primers to be very accurate in my .308 loads, but also very unreliable; as in a high rate of no-fire "duds". Like usually 1-2 per 50. I hope the 7 1/2's are more reliable.

[rpierce]

I hear ya with the component shortage. Sometimes you gotta use what you have. I haven't tried the Remington primers in my br or brx. I switched over to the 450's after finding out they worked great in my br barrel. I had a brand new brux barrel chambered in 6br. With 7 rounds down the barrel I shot 5 back to back 5 shot groups at 600. The largest group was 1.7 inches. Load was 30.3 gr of varget, cci 450, and 107 sierra .012 off. I never did get to try the hybrids in the br as by the time they came out I had started only using the brx. Let us know how the load development turns out for you.

Ryan

[HAMPS]

Barrel-nut,

What needs to be done to the Hart LRT stock to use the Savage Target action? I too am building a right bolt left port single shot action but in 6.5-284. Are you only going to run two actions screws or fill in the blind magazine and add the middle pillar or ??? Thanks for your input.

[barrel-nut]

I'm going to fill in the magazine cutout with a spacer (probably glued-in plywood) and then bed over it with Devcon for extra support, but probably won't bother with installing the middle pillar. I just don't have the proper tools to do a real clean installation. So I'll try it as a two-screw first. My action alone fits perfectly in the unaltered inletting. If you were to use the supplied factory recoil lug, and a varmint contour barrel, you wouldn't have to do anything to it except bolt it in and go shoot. With mine, I'm using a larger recoil lug, and a bull contour barrel. Both will require relieving the stock in their respective areas for proper fit.

[HAMPS]

Thanks for the reply. Please keep me posted as to how it turned out. Would be able to post or send me photos after it is complete?

[HAMPS]

Barrel-nut,

Another question. Looking at the picture of the Hart LRT stock on Stockey's site, it looks like there is a milled area on the right for a right side eject but not one on the left for my right bolt left load/eject action. Is this true? If so is there enough clearance or will more modifications be needed?

[barrel-nut]

I'm pretty sure there is enough clearance. Ive already assembled and headspaced the action and the bull barrel. So I can't set the barreled action back in there until I do the necessary wood butchering, which I don't look forward to cause I've never done it to this extent. So I can't say for sure but I don't remember that clearance issue being a problem. When I get a chance to finally finish this build I will definitely post pics. I've been putting it off, because of more important issues I'm dealing with, but I need to just make time and finish this one.

[barrel-nut]

I found a picture of my stock. The cutout that I think you are seeing is in fact a cutout for the bolt release, not the ejection port. http://img.tapatalk.com/d/14/02/03/e2evuvyr.jpg
If you can enlarge the pic I think you can see it. The ejection port should sit right along the top edge of the stock, regardless of left or right. See brasse's thread entitled "how much free floating needed?". He has an excellent picture of a similar, but not exactly the same, stock with a standard action in it, and you will see what I mean. I'd post his pic here but I'm not sure if that's a good idea without permission.