• Frank's Lesson's Contest

    We want to see your skills! Post a video between now and November 1st showing what you've learned from Frank's lessons and 3 people will be selected to win a free shirt. Good luck everyone!

    Create a channel Learn more
  • Having trouble using the site?

    Contact support

6x47L vs. 6 Dasher vs. 6CM

SleepDoc

Private
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 14, 2017
89
5
Indianapolis, IN
I am about to order a new rifle from PVA and can't decide on a final chambering. I know this has been discussed before and I have read the threads but I am considering 6x47L, 6 dasher, and 6 CM. I plan on using mausingfield SA, 26" 1:7.7 bartlein barrel, manners mini chassis with either AW or ARC mags. I plan to shoot either 105 hybrids, 108 ELD-M, or 110 SMK in lapua brass (no turning). My pros/cons I am most concerned about are malfunctions in loading and barrel life. I feel all are accurate and capable cartridges with the dasher considered "most accurate" of the 3 but I don't want to just be frustrated all the time if I can't get it to run well. With PVA dasher mag kits does this solve the feeding issue? I saw his video on his dasher feeding well. I will use it mostly for steel out to 1200 and some local club PRS matches. Help me decide which way to go so I can stop thinking about it and get my order in.
 
6 Creed is going to offer you the most flexibility in terms of overall performance with ability to get "cheaper" factory ammo.
6X47 is right there.
6 Dasher, I don't think the feeding 100% reliably is all dialed in just yet. Getting closer but not quite there, mag systems are really designed for feeding cartridges with slightly longer body then Dasher. Dasher would be fun, neat cartridge but I'd go 6 Creed (cheaper brass, factory ammo) or 6X47 for what you described for end use and minimize the putzing to have ammo feed smoothly from a DBM.
 
You have got the right builder for this choice. PVA is excellent in 6mm. He personally runs a 6 Dasher, but has made many many great 6x47s that I'm aware of.

I think if you are going to be running a lot of 110gr SMK, you might want either 6x47 or 6CM for the extra power. If you are going to be running the 105, go with 6 Dasher. Also, barrel life is a concern. If you are a fire 200 rounds a day type of guy, 6 Dasher is a better choice. If you are light shooter, i.e. 20 rounds a day, the other two are fine options.

In terms of the 'accuracy' of the three - you are not going to be able to shoot the difference for your type of shooting. 600 to 1000yd benchrest, maybe, but not steel to 1200 and local PRS matches.

I'm the 20 rounds a day guy and I have a 6x47 PVA. Hands down the most precise rifle I own/have owned. 1 hole groups with the 105s without much load development.

On the 6 Dasher magazine feeding - Josh's Dasher mag kits solve any issues, so this is not a concern.

Best of luck with your build. There are really no wrong choices here - just get the darn order in so you can get your hands on this fine weapon.

 
Last edited:
That's a tough one! I've been considering staying with 6x47l, going Norma F-class Dasher, or with 6mmBRA, for my Mausingfield. BTW Lapua 6BR brass is hard to come by right now which bothers me.

Earlier this year I saw two fellow competitors in my squad, both with Mausingfields, having malfunctions with 6 Dasher. One guy had them nearly every stage, the other much more rarely. This really concerned me. Asking the better shooter who finished pretty high in the standings about it he said he was doing 6x47 next.

I hate the barrel life of 6x47 but love the brass life and speed I get. Right now I'm getting 3172 fps average with 105 hybrid, that's square in the high node. It seems like I just had the barrel done and it's about time for another already. The killer ballistics and low recoil are appealing. Brass life is incredible, I just sized most of my brass again so 35 firings for most of them.

I'm a sucker for all out accuracy even though I probably can't take full advantage of it!!! Which is why I'm considering 6mmBRA the most. It's won a fair amount of records or wins this year in benchrest comps. One guy just shot a .461" 5 shot group/600Y at Manatee. It only uses 31 grains of powder and has a long neck so it stands the best chance of getting good barrel life. I figure if it doesn't work reliably in my rifle I'll have the barrel rechambered to 6x47 again, or get a Bighorn, or put the barrel on a single shot benchrest rifle, but I want a 6BRA bad right now, lol!
 
Last edited:
  • Like
Reactions: Boatninja
When you say 6CM are you referring to the 6 mm Creedmoor or the 6 mm Competition Match?

Me being a reloader and giving no fucks about store bought ammo I'd go with the 6 Competition Match. It blows all the others away in the velocity department and when loaded with the correct, slow burning powders it blows all the others away in barrel life too.
 
Dasher is great, but right now brass is almost impossible to fine (lapua 6br), unless you plan on using the norma brass (might be able to still find some). if so, you need to tell josh that's what you want as its a different reamer. if you do go with the std dasher, you will have to fireform. that will eat up barrel life, or you will be shooting a 6BR in local matches or whatever to start with. don't get me wrong, the BR is crazy accurate, even while fireforming, but it won't be the performace/load that you will shoot for dasher. just some thoughts for that. plus mag feeding issues (potential) without mag mods. then you have mags that will only work with the dasher. none of that is a big deal, just things to consider. if you have a pile of mags, no problem. if you only have one rifle, no problem. if you have limited mags and mult rifles that use the AICS SA mags, might be an issue.

I'll throw another one out there, 6XC. one of the best long range 6mm out there. very consistent barrel to barrel. longer barrel life than 6 creed (I have one of those too). brass is available and more are coming. Tubbs built it to shoot the 115, so the 105 and 110 are no problem either. I would look at a 7 or 7.5 twist barrel. brass is cheap too. OTM has it for $89/100. that's great for high end brass.
 
Last year 6.5x47L brass was unobtanium for a number of months...

My 700SA Dasher has been flawless with Magpul 5 rounders, both with formed Dasher and 6BR fireform loads.

YMMV...
 
Just curious - does the 6x47 have better barrel life than 6CM or 6XC? It seems like it should be more efficient to get a bullet to PRS speeds (smaller case capacity), but not sure how that translates to barrel life?


The 47 guys have to push harder to attain the CM velocities, and in my experience, they do just that. That has to negate some or all of the advantage of the smaller charge. Nobody is reporting super stellar barrel life with the 6x47 in general. The XC is just a smidge smaller than the CM, and how it’s loaded would be the decider for barrel life over the CM as well.

 
The 47 guys have to push harder to attain the CM velocities, and in my experience, they do just that. That has to negate some or all of the advantage of the smaller charge. Nobody is reporting super stellar barrel life with the 6x47 in general. The XC is just a smidge smaller than the CM, and how it’s loaded would be the decider for barrel life over the CM as well.

Gotcha. Makes sense.

 
I went through the same decision making process last year about this time. Landed on the 6 Creedmoor, and have been quite pleased with the decision.

I pretty much ran the 110gr SMK at 3100fps all season. It was phenomenal, holds the wind better then my 6.5. I swapped barrels at 1700 and1500 rounds, but they were all still shooting when I did. I'm at 1600 on my current barrel, and it's the beginning of the new season, so I'm going to shoot it through the spring to see how far it will go.

The 6mm Creedmoor is a very good round.
 
I like your choices here; you can run lapua brass in all (after appropriate modification/ fire- forming etc.) So I would say there is not a wrong choice between the bunch. Dasher is the sexy sweetheart cartridge this year - people talk about how easy it is to load for, kind of tempted to try it in the future; but in the end not a wrong choice between any of them.
 
First, let me say thank you for all the comments about the work coming from my shop. Thank you.

On the topic at hand... I've had all of the above and some more in 6mm. I have the Dasher for bigger matches where the max distance will get to 1200yards but most is inside 800 and I shoot a 6BR as a trainer in pretty much everything else. If it's a match limited to 800 or less I just shoot my 6BR. I am not a fan of fireforming but I tolerate the Dasher for what it accomplishes. If I was starting a Dasher project today for the first time I would use the latest batch of brass from Shiraz so I didn't have to fireform. Since I am 4 barrels and about 1100 pieces of formed brass invested into the Lapua chamber I have no plans to deviate from it except to shoot my 6BR.

I shot a 6x47 for 2 seasons and 4 barrels before switching to the Dasher and I loved that little round. It is super accurate, barrel life isn't awful (though it isn't a Dasher and certainly not a BR) and I did very well at a lot of matches with it.

With regards to reliability for the BR sized cases I have a few thoughts:

1) My TL3 and all the Mausingfields I built with it don't have issues save 1 Mausingfield. That 1 Mausingfield isn't running my mag kits, he's running a competitor's kit, and he also has a very early action that doesn't have some of the updates in the ejection port area. The current production models of both receivers do not have issues.

2) On magazines, the kits I make solve almost all the issues feeding for the other various receivers that guys are using with Dashers. The TL3 is so good with the CRF that my prototype TL3 lefty runs the ARC mags in unmodified form for both little cases... no issues.


I'm not a top PRS guy, I don't get a chance to shoot a lot of the matches. When I do get to them I generally finish in the top 25% or better. I did win the Mason Dixon series outright last year with a Dasher and this year I won 2 matches, including the Finale, with a 6BR... no feeding problems.

The MDSS matches were won as follows this year:

9 matches
(2) wins by a 6x47
(3) wins by a 6BR (2 mine, 1 another guy shooting a PVA barrel and mag kit)
(4) wins by Dasher

All the BR/Dasher wins ran my kits in the mags, all ran TL3's and every match was won by rifle shooting a PVA barrel. Personally, I was pretty proud of that.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Josh H
Don't worry about a Dasher not feeding well. I have 3 Dasher rifles and they all feed as well as any other cartridge I have used.

that being said, they have all been Bighorn actions, one TL2, two TL3s.

I did after two years of shooting Dashers just add PVA spacer kits to my AICS mags and frankly I'm pissed I didn't do it sooner. Not that I had feeding problems before the PVA kits but man they noticably smoothed things out.

if you don't like fire forming contact Hunts Long Range. Ryan hydroformes BR brass to your chamber. You can run full power loads, no muss, no fuss. I won the first match I shot using them . No wasting time, components and barrel life on fire forming.
 
I've had Lapua 6BR brass on backorder for 4+ months now from boolits dot com.
Dasher is fun, easy to load for, and accurate, but it's also the "new shiny", and everybody and their brother seems to be shooting it or wanting to shoot it. I'm looking to switch back to something a little easier to find components for, either x47 or just go back to Creedmoor. Good luck!
 
I remember a year and a half ago when I was considering "midsize 6s"...I ended up going Dasher because 6.5x47 Lapua brass was unobtanium.

Now, you can get x47L brass but Lapua 6mm BR brass is out of stock everywhere.

And the cycle continues...