THE HANDLOADING BENCH
6mm NORMA BENCH REST (Part 5)
80gn as well. Vihtavuori and Norma use the modern longer Norma version with up to 105gn bullet weights but only list their own powders of course and in Norma’s case the company’s own bullets.
Nosler’s ‘accuracy load’ for the 80gn Ballistic Tip is IMR-3031, a powder rarely mentioned in online guides and forums by users and its highest MV load uses AA-2520. Hornady doesn’t show accuracy loads but recommends Viht N135, a powder that hasn’t always worked for me in this cartridge and AA-2015
Small Rifle Magnum and BR primers are best. CCI-450 is a favourite.
The powders that are available in the UK and which are calculated to give the 95gn bullet MVs between around 3000 – 3100 fps and a range 150 fps lower for the 105 are listed in Table 2. Interestingly, many of those which are apparently very efficient in internal ballistics terms as shown by high calculated MVs – Alliant Reloder 17, H414/W760, H. BL-C(2) / W748, IMR-4320 – rarely if ever figure in the recommended loads you’ll find elsewhere suggesting to me that they don’t necessarily provide accuracy to match the MVs.
Looking at the loading manuals gave some pointers but not over many, one problem being that most American publications that include the cartridge
Forster BR (standard) seating die and a trio of previously made up ‘seating dummies’.
Seating dummies and COAL comparator on callipers.
(Nosler, Sierra, Hornady) stick to the original US SAAMI COAL of 2.200 inches as per the 6mm BR Remington version and often restrict bullet weights to
77
for light bullets which has. Sierra’s ‘accuracy loads’ use Ramshot X-Terminator, AA-2015, and Hodgdon VarGet for 80gn SPT/SBTs, 100gn deer bullets and the 107gn MatchKing respectively. The Accurate Arms powder seems a strange choice for 100gn as it’s a very fast burner. Viht recommends N140 for its 105gn Silver (moly) Scenar ‘accuracy load’ and N540 for the highest MV with the bullet – so not much consistency from these sources!
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104