6 Dasher on a Tikka load development etc.

slipknot

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Over the winter I decided I wanted to dive into one of the 6 BR variant calibers namely Dasher. I was hesitant to build on my Terminus Zeus action so since my Tikka T3x CTR 6.5 CM barrel had over 3000 rounds on it I decided to use that. Also the Tikka sits on a KRG Bravo chassis as opposed to the Zeus on an MDT ACC chassis so I will have a lighter rifle to go along with the lighter recoil. It turns out after balancing the finished rifle adding weights it is almost 3 pounds lighter which helps my 60 y.o. worn out body. I had I.C.E. rifles Keith Baker do the job for me once I got the old barrel off the Tikka. He trued up the face of the action and installed a Hawk Hill barrel 1-7.5 twist 26" with an APA muzzle brake. It came out really nice and it was a pleasure working with Keith. I had all the new components for it by the time the rifle was done, a Forster 6 Dasher full size die, 600 Lapua BR brass I had sent to get hyrdoformed by DJ's brass service which came out outstanding, not one flaw, and 1000 Berger 105 hybrids along with some Varget. I fired off some cases 3 times and sent them to Harrel's dies for a matching full size bushing die. New bushings from Short Action Customs, a LE Wilson dasher die for seating, and an arbor press and expanders from 21st century. Ready to go I loaded some rounds and it seemed everything I tried shot well. I am not that good at load development so not sure how to approach it once the barrel has sped up. Well I settled on 31.1 grains of Varget at 50,000 off the lands. It has decent ES and SD and half moa groups of 5 at 100 yards. Good enough for PRS shooting.
It took me a while to get ten rounds to feed well in my magazines. I had 2 BR conversion kits for my Accurate mags but my mags did not have binder plates in the front so I made some out of a plastic fishing lure case and glued it in there then sprayed the whole inside with silicone and swapped the spring around the other way. Now they work. I have some MDT BR mags as well but those did not feed 5th or 6th round they started to dive, I gave up on messing with feed lips but when I took them apart I saw some more space to slide the spring forward and that pretty much did the trick. Not quite as reliable as the Accurate mags but they work.
I shot matches with the new brass and did OK, less recoil than 6.5 CM and it is noticeable so I can stay on target easier. I still have a lot to work on myself but that is an improvement saving me a bit of time on stages. I now have almost 500 once fired brass so I was doing some testing of Hornady 110 A tips thinking I may not be able to find Berger 105's for a while. Those grouped 3/4 moa and worse ES and SD but that might be due to also being 50,000 of the lands. I might someday try more up close to the lands but I just scored 1200 105 hybrids so I am good for a while.
I am thinking as long as these are shooting well at 31.1 grains of varget at about 2874 fps , I might as well keep it there and may get good barrel life out of this load.
 
Alderbrook NH goes out to 1105 yards or more. I haven’t traveled to any of the 2 day pro events anywhere out of New England where they sometimes go farther.
Learning wind reading is next for me to make more long shots. I have been working on that but there is so much more to it all it seems.
It is a fantastic cartridge.
 
Nice
How far do you stretch out for P.R.S?

The 6mm variants are pretty interesting.
here is a good article on this topic - among others.

i think the 6x47 Lapua looks more interesting, but the 6BR is also fine. and, obviously, without reloading station all that is a pretty much no-go.
 
2 of my friends went from 6.5 x 47 lapua to 6 x 47 lapua, one noticed the reduction in recoil, the other did not. Both better shooters than I as far as how often they land in the top ten. The one that did not really notice less recoil was asking me about the Dasher but he is hesitant worried about not feeding from a magazine in the Terminus Zeus 3 lug action. I have a Zeus also with a 6.5 CM barrel on it, I was worried about feeding issues so that is one reason I built this dasher on my Tikka. It cost me more because of the truing of the face but I like it.

6BR is a fine cartridge and I know many that shoot it in both PRS and other longer range stuff like f class etc. It is easy to load for and shoot bug holes.

That article covers quite a bit, it covers the latest 6 ARC but it doesn't mention the 6 GT.

Ya if you are going to shoot often and for precision, reloading is pretty much necessary.
 
6 Hagar was another one I think was making its way around.

Seems like the short,fat cartridges with long necks and longer, higher b.c. bullets are the way to go.
I never heard of hagar

Yes 6 mm in a short case packs a lot of punch accurately for sure.

I'm not in the camp that goes smaller like .223 or .224 because spotting those hits at 8-900 yards or more can be tough on some of the steel we shoot.

I'll be loading up some Dasher tonight
 
i was always curious about that part - as long as we are on this topic - how do you read and assess the wind 1000yds away?
 
It sure is not easy and I am learning every time. Guys spend a lot of time on their binos or spotting scopes studying conditions, watching trace, looking at vegetation and most important observing mirage. Checking mirage and seeing which direction the waves go and how much they lean left or right at around 3/4 of the way to the target will clue you in on wind calls. We don't get real crazy winds here usually but can get them from different directions. 1-2 mph is not doing much so you can probably hold left edge and spin drift will give you maybe a tenth mil and be on target. If there is grass out at 1000, see which way it is bending over and by how much. There is a lot to it to calculate.
I usually take an educated guess based on Kentucky windage more or less, so if I spot the miss, I then adjust. If I am lucky with my guess then that is great and I follow up, but I have had that change shot to shot if the wind dies or picks up that is when it gets frustrating. It is hard or impossible to spot misses if there is no dirt or rocks behind the plate and only greenery or trees. This is why managing recoil is important, we are not shooting paper with guys pasting sighters on shots for us.
My brother told me to take my spotting scope and practice reading the mirage.
I think I will go do that in a few.
 
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