slipknot
NES Member
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.
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.