THE HANDLOADING BENCH
6mm NORMA BENCH REST (Part 5)
A 1-9 twist lets you use nearly all 95 to 108gn match bullets although, as noted in the table, some have a Sg value (Coefficient of Stability) that veers down towards being marginal, even under standard ballistic conditions. Generally, these stability levels would only drop into problem zones that start to increase group sizes (or worse) in the very coldest winter conditions that we would normally experience in the British Isles but could more easily affect North American and other users who are likely to shoot through very much colder and drier air in their winters.
It’s also worth mentioning some rarer Berger designs here showing how much this company has tailored products to individual niches. Firstly, one you’ve likely not heard of before – the Match [Varmint] High BC- FB, the ‘FB’ bit being ‘Flat Base’ and the bullet shape that of a VLD with the boat-tail rear section cut off and replaced by a flat- base. Although designed mainly for the US ‘Varmint’ shooter, the heaviest (88gn) version has racked up a fair number of American 300-600yd bench rest competition wins in the 6BR and its BRX, DX, Dasher etc offspring.
66 and 88gn Berger HBC-FBs on the left alongside a 105gn VLD.
This led Norman Clark Gunsmiths Limited to commission Berger Bullets some years back to produce them in ‘Match’ form with a smaller diameter open tip (meplat) so that they could be legally sold to British target shooters. I bought up the last of the ‘Match 88s’ recently to use in a 1-10 twist 6BR-DX as an alternative to the usual 1-8/105 combination seen in our 600 yard BR matches at Diggle and we’ll see how they do here.
I don’t think the HBC-FBs caught on in their home market and Berger only lists three models now, all in its ‘Match Varmint’ range at 66gn (G1 BC 0.277 / 1-13 twist); 69gn (0.291/12) and 88gn (0.391/10). These bullets are listed in QuickLOAD incidentally under the ‘LD’ (Low Drag) designation, not HBC-FB.
A more recent innovation, one so new it isn’t to be found in either QuickLOAD or even on Berger’s own website, is an 87gn Hunting VLD, that is the original thin-jacketed version, with G1/G7 BCs of 0.412/0.211 which operates happily in a 1-10 barrel. Norman Clark has them in stock, but they’re barred to target shooters unless, or more hopefully until, the current ludicrous British legal distinction between ‘expanding’ and ‘non-expanding’ bullets is done away with. As well as being a potentially ideal multi-purpose bullet
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