SAAMI 1-12 rifling twist. It was my first accurate rifle, although reviewing my records and test targets reveals it wasn’t nearly as accurate as a fallible memory made it seem – a supposed ‘half-MOA number’ was actually three quarters-MOA capable if I’m honest, even if it turned out the odd half-inch or even smaller group. As time went by, I only used it on rare occasions as my interests veered towards long- range shooting, its slow rifling twist and 53gn bullets imposed severe handicaps at any distance beyond 300 yards.
M
Then F Class came along, shooting distances became greater still, the competition harder, even if a lot of scratch kit and a huge variety of rifles, cartridges and calibres were in use initially. There was no F/TR sub- class in those early days, putting the users of 308 Win, 223 Rem and similar cartridges at a disadvantage. Despite that, I shot the 223 Rem with 80gn bullets in a Southern Gun Co. straight-pull AR at any distance out to 1000 yards for a season or two and had a lot of fun.
Still, it’s all about putting holes into the V-Bull and, to adapt comedian Eric Morecambe’s line to orchestra conductor André Previn – “Look Sunshine, I’m playing all the right notes – but not necessarily in the right order!” I was hitting ALL the target rings but not necessarily the RIGHT ONE - in the middle - in longer range matches anyway. That was on the standard NRA two MOA bull design too, the one MOA V bull scoring six points in ‘F’.
With an increasing number of 6.5s appearing in matches, something better - for which read with more efficient external ballistics - was required but what? I’ve never been a great fan of 6.5-284 Norma and wanted something with decent barrel life and light recoil. While pondering this I chanced upon Peter Jackson, the McMillan stocks and sound moderator importer, at Diggle one Sunday and watched as he put bullet after bullet into that one MOA V bull 1000 yards away with this fat little cartridge - my introduction to 6mm BR Norma.
That’s what I want but how to get it? With the 700VS not earning its keep, an obvious solution was to have it rebarrelled. This was no simple matter thanks to the bolt-face being dimensioned for the tiny 223 Rem. case whilst the BR uses Peter Mauser’s 1880s vintage 0.473” nominal diameter case-head design - as nicked by our American friends for lots of cartridges since, starting with the 30-06.
65
y 6BR rifle started life 13 years ago as an early Remington 700VS (Varmint Synthetic) in 223 Rem. chambering with the standard
THE HANDLOADING BENCH 6mm NORMA BENCH REST (Part 6)
If I, or more relevantly Norman Clark, who was doing the gunsmithing, couldn’t get a swap-job Remy 308 bolt, the VS’s bolt-face would have to be machined out to the larger diameter but, that also removes the factory extractor. This in turn needs the bolt body to be further machined to accept Sako extractor parts – you get a better, stronger design but it’s not a cheap job.
Anyway, this work was in fact done and a 28 inch 1-8 twist ‘heavy target’ profile Border barrel chambered and fitted. I finally had my 6BR in long-throated Norma form. Well not quite yet! The fat barrel wouldn’t fit in the narrow fore-end of the VS stock, so a skim and re-bedding job was the answer which raised the barrelled-action a little, as well as increasing the effective bedding area. I’ll stress that Norman knows his stuff and all this was explained to me and priced in advance.
Sights needed upgrading too as the rifle had managed in its 223 period with a run-of-the-mill 3-12x44 scope with heavy duplex reticle. Norman fitted a Ken Farrell 20-MOA sloped Picatinny rail and I mounted a 6-24X50 Burris Black Diamond, a good quality mid-price 30mm body target scope, using Leupold QRW lever-rings that allow easy scope removal and replacement whilst holding zero.
Since then, the rifle has been successively adorned with the 8-32x50 version of the same scope and recently, a Sightron Series II 36X42 BR model as it has progressed from F Class rifle through general- purpose mid-range precision shooting tool to 600 yard benchrest ‘Light Gun’.
High-Fliers
If this were a fairytale, I’d have gone out, mixed it with the big boys and kicked ass at 1000 yards. Ah, if only life and competition shooting were so simple! In real life, the rifle produced some impressive groups off the bench in load development and testing but not consistently. Get down prone in an F Class match and things got worse, producing the shooting equivalent of the curate’s egg - only good in parts.
A nice consistent run of central hits would be unaccountably interrupted by two or three shots that dropped points all over the shop. Wind- reading mistakes aside, the issue was high fliers, two distinct vertically split groups appearing on the plot - sometimes apparently due to inconsistent rifle
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