6gt
- Thread starter Dthomas3523
- Start date
Probably from the warm to hot load I used; 34.5 of varget with 109s. Stage 5 I had a bad ejection where the case didn't eject, ran the bolt forward, spent case and the new round bonded with each other in the feed ramp. I was going for a clean stage 9/9 on that stage of 12 possible points. With that stuck case i wasnt able to clear it before timing out. Thankfully that was last stage before lunch.
Found one of the GAP guys and we looked at the bolt. The extractor was very loose. Worse they had felt. Another shooter was running a tempest and had a spare extractor.
Thought that fixed the issue until the 2nd stage of the afternoon. Cases wouldn't eject. Had to finger each one out. Also found I was missing high. Checked with a chrono real quck; 2978 with the 109, up from the 2875 in the morning. So hot.
Found this time the ejector was flush with the bolt face. We got the roll pin out but ejector wouldn't fall out. After some persuasion it came out. Along with a little piece of brass shaving.
Probably from the load I was using. Was told to try 32.8gr with the 109s. Did a 5 shot group of 32.0-33.0 this evening. 32.2-32.4 gave me single digit SDs and nice little groups. Stripped the bolt today and got a little flake of brass out.
Huge thank-you to Caleb, Luke, and Zach for the help and coaching this weekend.
Berger. Zero was good Saturday. But these loads, looks like i need to come up 0.1 and maybe 0.1 mils right.
Load is 1.9670" base to ogive. Varget, BR4 primers, virgin Alpha OCD brass.
Attachments
Anyone got any suggestions for hunting bullets for 6GT? would 109 Bergers work for white tail at ~300y?
I have heard great things about Bergers for hunting. That being said, I've had less than stellar results with the 105 Hybrid on a few crows, and the 130gr Hybrid (6.5x47) on coyotes. You would expect huge wound cavities, large exit holes, and quick deaths. Unless you hit the CNS, that hasn't been the case for me.
When the bullet tumbles and comes apart just right, it is devastating. The problem is that you are relying on a terminal reaction that the bullet was never designed for. Oblong holes (tumbling) make massive exit wounds...but when you thread the needle between two ribs and ice-pick wound an animal you are in for a rough time tracking.
I've since abandoned all OTMs for canine removal in favor of the ELD-Ms. I shoot deer with the Nosler Ballistic Tip, SST, and ELD-X. They all work great, and also work great on smaller critters.
My choice should I be in your shoes is the 103 ELD-X, or 95gr NBT. Even a 90-100gr soft point out to 300 yards will be adequate enough accuracy wise, and give reliable terminal performance.
Thank you very much for the thorough reply. I use 223 for coyotes just because it’s easier with a semi especially this time of year when 2-3 come out at once, but I trust my 6GT out a loonngggg way. I have shot it in simulated hunting conditions over clear cuts at my club this spring and gotten consistent hits in varying weather conditions out past 550y. Obviously animals move, flight time, etc but having a flat shooting rifle to cover these clear cuts is going to be pretty exciting. I just didn’t trust OTMs for the reasons you mentioned.
I have used ELDX in 6.5 and it’s unusual. I’ve killed everything I’ve ever shot with it, usually dropped it in its tracks from coyotes to deer to 250lb boars. But I’ve never had a pass through. It’s like they just detonate inside the animal. I don’t know if I’d use one on a heavier animal like Moose but despite the lack of pass throughs ive been very impressed with how they immediately drop everything.
I think 6mm ELDX would be fine for my purposes. I’ll load some up and give them a try. Do you happen to have a pet load for those bullets with 4350 or RL16?
Open Tip Match. SMK, Hybrid, Scenar etc...
All of them have had spectacular kills for me, and spectacular fails.
Thank you very much for the thorough reply. I use 223 for coyotes just because it’s easier with a semi especially this time of year when 2-3 come out at once, but I trust my 6GT out a loonngggg way. I have shot it in simulated hunting conditions over clear cuts at my club this spring and gotten consistent hits in varying weather conditions out past 550y. Obviously animals move, flight time, etc but having a flat shooting rifle to cover these clear cuts is going to be pretty exciting. I just didn’t trust OTMs for the reasons you mentioned.
I have used ELDX in 6.5 and it’s unusual. I’ve killed everything I’ve ever shot with it, usually dropped it in its tracks from coyotes to deer to 250lb boars. But I’ve never had a pass through. It’s like they just detonate inside the animal. I don’t know if I’d use one on a heavier animal like Moose but despite the lack of pass throughs ive been very impressed with how they immediately drop everything.
I think 6mm ELDX would be fine for my purposes. I’ll load some up and give them a try. Do you happen to have a pet load for those bullets with 4350 or RL16?
SEE POST #1,912 above for H4350 with the 105 Hybrids - I think that you should be pretty close with the 103 ELD-X.
My GT ran the 108 ELD-M pretty well with H4350, but it wasn't as good as the 105 Hybrids so I gave up on them pretty quickly. I guess I never took photos of my load development targets, but I had the best luck in the low 36gr range. I think (do not quote me until I can get home to check) I ran into pressure signs right about the time I hit 37gr.
Accuracy held at just a pubic hair over 1/2 MOA.
Just back off a grain for Reloader 16 and work up. In my 6.5 CM and 6.5x47 it is very close to my H4350 +/- about 1% charge weight range for accuracy...but does give a tad more velocity. YMMV.
I've tried searching and wasn't able to find anything so apologies if this has already been asked/answered.
Does anyone have any loads for the 115 Berger hunter?
Does anyone have any loads for the 115 Berger hunter?
I haven’t seen any yet at the places I order stuff. Looks like it’s going to be a tad higher than Alpha as well.
Lapua say autumn 2024 so I wouldn't expect to see any until at least September.
Does anyone have any experience with 6GT and 115 DTAC's? I'd be interested to hear how they perform in the wind and velocities.
It’s all me and my son run, DTACS and H4350. Do a search or shoot me a PM
I probably won’t have my barrel before then. Wonder if picking some Alpha is worth it?
Alpha is good brass. I have the non OCD brass and I have 4 firings in them so far and they are holding up well. I’d buy the OCD for sure but will also look for Lapua when I can.
When working at MHSA, a known customer created a spreadsheet comparing Lapua brass and Alpha brass. Alpha brass was much more consistent. Not that Lapua was bad, it certainly is good, but the Alpha he compared to Lapua was better.
Interesting. Any input on reamers? I see there’s SAAMI, GA Original w/ .120FB, .170FB…
112 Match Burner
34.2 gr Varget
BR4 Primer
Hornady Brass
25 rounds fired
65 degrees
5280 elevation
3.1 Mils @ 600 yards
21.5" 1/7.5 barrel
Min 2878
Avg 2895
High 2915
ES 36.5
SD 9.1
JMHO, but if you have a choice, go .170" FB...
I haven't had any real issues with the SAAMI/.120" FB, but it's pretty limiting if you want more jump. I've had to run pretty much everything (DTACs, MBs, A-Tips) from near jam to between .010"-.020" off (at most) to keep the bearing surfaces above the neck/shoulder junction (luckily, everything has worked/shot).
As an aside,
Awesome "Dasher wannabe/PRS gamer load":
26" 7.5T Proof SS comp contour prefit
32gn SWPR
CCI450
106gn A-Tip
Alpha Gay Tiger case
1.990" BTO
~2800fps @ 80degF, SDs ~5-6 over 20 shots
soft shooting, easy to spot, small groups, hammers downrange
Last edited:
Mine was cut with Alpha Munitions Legacy Reamer with a .120” freebore.
.010-.020 . . . Any recommendations on where I should start? I am just getting started reloading and have shot only the Hornady Match loaded ammo (till the primers kept piercing), so this is literally a starting point.
I usually find my lands using the Deep Creek method (just once when the barrel is new), and then I load as far off the lands as I can while still keeping the bullet's bearing surface above the case's shoulder/neck junction. In 6GT with a .120" FB and a long bullet like a 112gn Match Burner or DTAC, this doesn't leave a whole lot of room (maybe 10 to 20 thou off, no more), a lighter 105gn bullet might be more like ~20 thou off (maybe that's what was intended?).
Park it there and I bet it'll shoot.
With the .120" FB one can't really experiment with using more bullet jump unless they're willing to push their bullets deeper into the case and break the "no bearing surface below the junction" reloading rule/trope (which I've done, and it shot fine too, so the jury is still out on that IMO lol).
Hadn't seen anything on the 80 gr ELD-VT on here yet so here goes... Tried a couple of faster powder ladders with the 80s since it's also an 18" barrel for suppressed predator hunting and this was the most accurate load so far
I'm sure velocity is on the slow side (around 2910 according to load data) so I will probably continue working up to around the 35 gr area just to see if there's a higher sweet spot.
I'm sure velocity is on the slow side (around 2910 according to load data) so I will probably continue working up to around the 35 gr area just to see if there's a higher sweet spot.
I tried AR Comp, 8208 XBR & a few with Varget... AR Comp was one of the few I had on hand that showed 100% burn in an 18" barrel and it definitely was the most accurate of the 3. Gonna save the Varget & H4350 for the heavier stuff 
Last edited:
Thanks - I never heard of it, so I did not realize it was powder. Learned something new.
Yessir, I still had 8 lbs of it sitting on the shelf from when I was trying some .223 bolt gun & AR-15 loads... Most folks use it for .223 stuff. It's supposedly very temperature stable powder and at one time was a lot easier to find than Hodgdon powders in similar burn rates. Glad I kept it around now!
Starting to see a new issue. I haven't adjusted my sizing dies in the last 2 runs. I am getting almost exactly 1.5-2 thousand shoulder bump.
After running through the Sizing die and mandrel, the cases will not drop into a case gauge. Its almost like the base of the case is expanding out. Has anyone else seen these issues? Probably have 10 firings on this brass , on the 5th barrel.
After running through the Sizing die and mandrel, the cases will not drop into a case gauge. Its almost like the base of the case is expanding out. Has anyone else seen these issues? Probably have 10 firings on this brass , on the 5th barrel.
Haven't gotten into my 2nd GT barrel, yet, so I haven't seen it there, but definitely seen it with other cartridges - especially when swapping barrels. Basically, the very bottom of the case isn't getting sized down and eventually expands just a bit.
The fix for .308 case head size cases is actually surprisingly easy (at least, it has been for me, in the past). Get a Lee .45 ACP U-die (undersize sizing die), take the decapping stem out of it, and run your cases through it. It's a carbide die for a straight wall pistol case, so it's just a sizing ring - won't bump your shoulders or anything like that (which is something that *will* happen with cartridges that have a small base die - to full size the base, you end up squishing your shoulders back a lot, too). Then do a normal sizing die pass.
Yeah, they are... And it depends on how the die works, vs your shoulder bump, too. If you've got a die that uses a neck bushing (or no bushing), and you set the die to only bump .001-.002, you might not be sizing the lower most part of the case... And I've even had this issue w/ SAC neck/shoulder bushing die sizing .25 Creed, so...
Also.... I can't find any data for this, and I don't have the tooling to measure it myself at the moment... but I suspect it's also possible that your chamber might expand ever so slightly through its lifetime (like, .001-.0015"-ish?)... and that's potentially enough to cause brass to no longer fit in a new chamber, even when cut by the same reamer (when we're talking tight match chambers, etc). I have absolutely no idea if that's a horseshit thought at all, just me conjecturing, so probably ignore it, but... <shrug>
Last edited:
I just picked up a 6gt proof prefit, is there any recommendations on a FL sizing die? I'm leaning towards redding type s dies, but if there is something better or as good for less coin I'm in. I'm probably going to get alpha brass since Lapua isn't out yet and I don't want to toss it after 4 firings with hornady.
This is what I bought.
www.gaprecision.net
Hornady 6mm GT die set w/ Microjust Seater
Hornady 6mm GT die set w/ Microjust Seater Hornady Custom Grade 6mm GT die set, with Microjust Seating Stem. (non bushing style) Hornady Item numbers: Custom Grade Die set # 041624C Microjust Seating Micrometer #044090 The full length si
www.gaprecision.net
I've used Type S dies but read people were pleased with the RCBS Matchmaster 6GT dies so I've got a set coming.
I'm in the same boat, I have type s dies for my 6cm and 338LM but I don't remember the sizing die being 260 lol. Maybe I'm being a cheap ass but I am considering the Hornady and the RCBS.
IIRC the issues were with the first run or 2 of brass, no problems with the newer OCD cases
I like to save money but I'm waiting on a backorder for Lapua brass so I'm obviously not too tight!
Try the cortina mandrel. It has a base that squeezes down the brass near the case head to prevent it from swelling.
It’s an expensive mandrel for but it’s coated and very slick.
I have these and the are a little rough...they don't scratch or anything like that just not smooth...I prefer the forster size with honed neck super smooth and they size the base a bit more than the other dies I have.This is what I bought.
Hornady 6mm GT die set w/ Microjust Seater
Hornady 6mm GT die set w/ Microjust Seater Hornady Custom Grade 6mm GT die set, with Microjust Seating Stem. (non bushing style) Hornady Item numbers: Custom Grade Die set # 041624C Microjust Seating Micrometer #044090 The full length si
Haven't ran a Dasher personally so I'll have to let someone that has run both comment on direct comparison... IMHO you can't go wrong with either, they're both extremely capable in the accuracy department and have great quality components available. The thing that appealed to me was that the GT was designed for .308 family AICS/AW mags and I already had AW mags on hand. Just didn't want to buy another batch of mags that were BR/BRA/Dasher specific or try to find spacer kits. IMO it kinda boils down to whether you're starting from scratch and buying all new parts or if you already have AICS or AW mags you can use.
What about the L.E Wilson sizing die? Anyone using one. I know there seating dies are good and I use there mandrel die and it has been great but I haven't heard much about the bushing sizer.
