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Title says it all I guess. I'm thinking of building a 6mm BR, but the entire relm of 6mm is so confusing. 6mm Rem, 6mm BR, 6mm Norma on and on. What barrel? What dies? The dies I looked at were all extremly expensive. Is there a relatively easy way to begin in this caliber? What dies do you recommend? What twist barrel? What is the round called? 6mm BR? I've tried reading and reading but the more I read the more confused I get. Any simple explanations or advice?
Thanks....
what do you want to do w/ it 1st?
Target shooting, 100 - 600 yards occasionally, 100 - 300 often.
To start, there are many 6mm's around, the 6mm Remington is a long action cartridge similar to a 243 win. The 6mm BR (Bench rest) started its life as a silhouette pistol round, As Remington made pistols out of the 40x bolt action's. The new round was called the 6mm BR Remington. Later on in years someone thought about adapting the round to a rifle, and changing the twist rate. Because of the differences in a pistol and a rifle (IE bullet weight, powder chargers, pressure ETC.) they needed a way to prevent someone with a pistol chambered in 6mmBR Remington from chambering the rifle round. The solution was to make the neck longer so that it would not chamber, they called this new round the 6mm BR Norma. With that said the difference is the neck length and nothing else. The round has also been called the 6mm Br Remington Norma. On brass the Norma and Lapua will have the long neck, the Remington will have the shorter neck. You can chamber the shorter Remington brass in a Norma chamber without problems.
On dies there are many companies that makes dies and they don’t have to be expensive, my favorite is Forster. The build an affordable competition grade die, that rivals higher priced dies. Either 6mm BR, 6mm BR Norma, or 6mm BR Remington dies will work. RCBS dies are good, and they make dies as well. I am going to try out Hornady dies, as they seem to have the features of higher end dies, and at a low cost. Either way you should be able to get a die set for around $40.00. 4d or CH out of Mount Vernon Ohio will make just about any die you can think of for around $60 bucks for the set.
On barrels, it all depends on what you’re looking for, and the price you are willing to pay. Most factory savage 6mm BR barrels are large shank as they are mostly offered on target actions. ER Shaw, McGowan, Criterion, and Shilen, offer low cost chamberings. Your cut rifles barrels will be more money. On twist I would only recommend 2 for a 6mm BR either 1 in 14 or 1 in 8, IMO anything else is a waste. I would recommend a 1 in 14 for use with 65-70 gr bullets and shooting less than 600 yards, with preferring to stick with varmints and targets at under 300 yards. Now if you want to shoot heavier bullets to take advantage of the higher BC, and want to shoot out past 1000 yards, I would recommend a 1 in 8 twist barrels, it will stabilize bullets at 108gr and maybe heavier such as 115. It also would do well with the light bullets, and it is why out of the two for the average shooter I would pick it over the 1 in 14 twist.
there is website dedicated to 6mmbr and they got tons of information about benchrest shooting and cartridges, here's a link to 6mmBr page where you can find tons of information to start on your project.
http://www.6mmbr.com/6mmbr.html
I use combination of Forster Bench Rest 2-Die Neck Sizer Set, paid 70 bucks for it and Redding Type S Bushing Full Length Sizer Die 53 bucks, plus bushings about 13 - 24 bucks a piece. 6mmBR using small rifle primers and you want either CCI 450 or CCI BR4, I buy BR4 only.
Wow! Thanks guys. Exactly what I was looking for.
Tomorrow while I'm supposed to be working I'll re-read this and try to digest it all. Thanks again.