hello all,

well here's my deal, maybe, if i choose to do it.

my uncle had a 25-06, it was no good. he took it to a very good gunsmith, the same one that helped me reload for my .223.
anyhow, the gunsmith rechambered and rebarreled his old 25-06 and made it into a 6mm-06. he also made some reloads for my uncle.
my uncle shot the rifle and says it's accurate, but he does not see himself reloading for it at all. he could buy reloads from the gunsmith, but he does not care to.
he offered to sell it to me since i am getting into reloading.

so, my question is--is it worth having? i did some research on the round and did not come up with much info at all. i read some where that it is a "Barrel Burner"--is that true? what's the expected barrel & throat life? i would like to have it as a deer rifle, i would expect that there would not be that much recoil?
is there some special die you need? i looked for a 6mm-06 die at midwayusa and midsouth and did not see one, maybe i am missing something?

thanks for any info, sg

I have a .243superrockchucker.....same thing (almost) as a 6mm-06.....and it shoots very little faster than a 6MM Remington. It's also close to a .240 Weatherby.

Load some 100 grain bullets in it and bambi will tip over easily.

Burning barrels is largely a matter of shooting them while hot.....
Keep your loads reasonable and it'll give you a couple thousand rounds and more.

I'd never build another one as I'd opt for the 6MM Remington and a standard round doing the same thing (nearly) as the wildcats!

Dies are available from RCBS anbd Hornady as a special. Hornady is a bit less costly!

Is it worth having?.....Yes....but at a reduced cost to recoup the cost of dies.

I had my own wildcat. It was about 10grs larger than the 6-06. I pulled the barrel and used the action for another project. I was burning a lot more powder to get very little gain over a 6mm or 243. If I wanted a 6mm I would build a 6mm load it to 65,000 and run with it.

If the rifle is a good deal it would make a good deer rifle. You just burn more powder to get to the same place. If you take care to cool the barrle it would last a lifetime for deer.

As to die you are probably talking custom or bushing neck sizer

1) Is it wort having? Absolutley!

2) Barrel Burner? It has a high expansion ratio of powder capacity to gas and any cartridge in this group; 223 WSSM, 240 Wby, .257 Wby, .264 Win Mag, 7 STW, etc has to be shot in a manner not to over-heat the barrel.

3) Barrel & throat life? Long if taken care of.

4) Recoil? zero, zip, none

5) Send five fired cases to Redding, RCBS, Hornaday, etc and they will make your dies. This is the best way to do it even if you have a standard cartridge anyway.

Buy it and enjoy it. You won't see one in every camp.

you won't see one in every camp--LOL!! i'm quite certain very few hunters have heard of the 6mm-06. myself included before i spoke with my uncle.

so, is it better to use 25-06 brass or 30-06 brass for the 6mm-06.
also, when i looked it up at midwayusa, i got 6mm-06 springfield. is that the same as 6mm-06?

great replies so far, please keep them coming, sg

resize from .25-06 brass....by far the best!

I'm not sure there is a standard 6MM-06 like there is a 338-06. Shoulder angles vary.

You know the smith that chambered it....ask him what the dimensions of the chamber are.

quote:

i got 6mm-06 springfield. is that the same as 6mm-06?

In theory yes. But, like vapodog said only your smith knows for sure(tight neck, shoulder angle etc?). At the price listed for dies on Midway you can just about get a set of custom and now worry about it. Send in several fired cases and Hornady etc will build a set of dies to match your chamber.

For sure use 25-06 brass. Neck it down and fire.

I ummed and aahed a long time about 6mm06 or 6mm284 or 243AI before finaly going standard 243 with a 26" barrel. Performance is impressive and all I really need especialy as I prefer 85 and 90gr bullets.

If I were considering a 6mm06 it would have to have a 26" barrel as a minimum, I would use it to launch 105gr bullets at top 6mm rem 100gr velocities at small to medium sized deer in big open fields

Ha Ha Not seeing one in every camp is a good thing.

As the guys have already suggested, use .25-06 brass and check with the gunmaker if possible. Once you know your chamber specs, the 6mm-06 Springfield from Midway might work.

quote:

Originally posted by steven g:
...so, my question is--is it worth having?

Not for me.

quote:

i did some research on the round and did not come up with much info at all. i read some where that it is a "Barrel Burner"--is that true? what's the expected barrel & throat life?

As the others have said, it primarily depends on if you continue to shoot it when the barrel is hot. But, even if treated properly and cleaned often, the barrel life will be much shorter than a 243Win. Just the way it works.

quote:

i would like to have it as a deer rifle, i would expect that there would not be that much recoil?

It could make a pretty good Deer Killer "if" it is accurate with good bullets. However, the Entrance and Exit holes are small with 6mm bullets and that allows the Holes to plug easily by the innards moving about. So, if you end up having to Track them in dense underbrush, small Holes work against you.

Recoil is subjective, but if anyone can't handle the recoil from a cartridge like that, then they need to wait until they can.

quote:

is there some special die you need? i looked for a 6mm-06 die at midwayusa and midsouth and did not see one, maybe i am missing something?

I have no idea what those Dies cost, but they are typically a good bit more than a regular Die Set. You just have to search around the on-line Suppliers and see who has the best deal.

Let's say the Dies cost $100 and let's also say it cost you $10 to reload the Cases. I'd see how much the Gun Smith charges for his Reloads and do a quick Cost Analysis on a Total Cost for 10 boxes. If you have another rifle you practice with, then just check the Zero on this rifle each Deer Season, 200 cartridges could last a very long time.

The Cost Analysis done with consideration to how much you intend to shoot it, should make the decision easy.

Since I no longer want to hassle with Wildcats, and if I really wanted the rifle, then I'd take the money "difference" that I'd spend on Special Dies and have it re-barrelled.

If it is not a M700, I wouldn't waste my money on it to start with.

Best of luck to you.

What's all this hand wringing over dies? Just back some ordinary .243 Win dies the right distance off of the shell holder, using them as neck-sizing dies, and load.

If using it as a deer rifle, even assuming that you are in one of Texas' five-deer counties AND that you are a lousy shot who takes five cartridges for every deer, then your barrel will be "burned" up somewhere in the generation of your children's great grand-children.

You'll get little more out of a 6mm-06 than a 6mm Remington in terms of velocity, but then you don't really want or need much more. It is similar to a .240 Weatherby in speed and powder consumption, which makes it a pretty good Texas deer gun. Load it with 100 grain bullets that shoot accurately in it and go hunting.

My 6mm x .270 IMP with the 110gr or 115gr. Original Barnes' bullet was a great deer slayer. With other conventional heavey bullets it did not perform well at all.

To give you an idea; a 105 gr. Speer bullet came apart before it penetrated 2 1/2" or so. We finally got that deer with a 30-30.

If you get that rifle use well designed bullets. roger

Mark Dobrenski over at 24 hour Campfire shoots one of those alot and swears by it...

He use to post a lot more often over here, but I don't see him on as much anymore...

I still would take a 6mm Rem any day, on a long action over the 6mm/06... however, if the barrel is long enough, you can have the smith rechamber it down to 6mm Rem or 6mm Rem AI...

I haven't tried them on deer, but a lot of talk is floating around the net about Berger's match bullets being a very good bullet for deer....

IN my 6mm Rem on a long action, I can shoot 115 grain Berger Match bullets at 3250 fps MV.....

I am sure a 6/06 would do the same.... and that is not only a flat shooting round, but it has high sectional density, and I know it sure can penetrate thru wood! I have used it with some good success on 1,000 yd shoots.... it certainly is accurate... my rifle has a one in 7 twist tho.. but Berger also makes a nice 105 grain match bullet that stabilizes in my 243s with one in 10 twists...

quote:

IN my 6mm Rem on a long action, I can shoot 115 grain Berger Match bullets at 3250 fps MV.....

Seafire,
My "long action" .25-06 only reaches about 3150 fps with a 115 grain bullet. You must be using a whole lot of Blue Dot in that 6mm!

I would have said 6.5-06, but since it is already done, shoot it reasonably and use good quality bullets.

As you have probably gleaned from the other posts, one of the keys to barrel life is not overheating the barrel. Let it cool between shot strings, and barrel life will be what it should be.

Also use stout bullets if you will shoot game with it. Scirroco and TSX and Partitions come to mind. The Speer 105 grainer also has some fans. At the velocities you can get with that caliber, anything less would be unethical IMHO as they would just as easily wound as kill.

LWD

If you want something that's "different" then go for it. It'll be an expensive toy compared to a comventional cartridge. And you'll never be able to get your money back out of it. It won't kill a deer any better than a myriad of other cartridges but it'll make a lot more noise doing it. Kinda like a VW with pipes.
Enjoy.

a lot of good info stated here, just what i hoped for.

well, i have decided against buying the custom 6mm-06 from my uncle.
i don't even know what he wanted for it.
i'm sure it would been expensive (too make up for the gunsmith work).
what interested me was:
-the accuracy potential!!
-mild recoil so i could see the shot through the scope.
what turned me off:
-could basicly do the same thing with a .243 or 6mm.
-small entrance and exit hole, just like a .243 or 6mm.
-possibly and probably real expensive dies.

so if i need to kill a deer with a rifle (i usually bowhunt anyway), i'll just use my dad's 7mm mag and put up with the recoil. all i have to do is mark a tree or bush where the deer was standing by before i shoot, just like any decent hunter would and should do. the recoil is a piece of cake for me (i'm 6-2/270lbs), i just like to see what's going on thru the scope--i get spoiled with my .223!!

thanks to all that replied, sg

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:

quote:

IN my 6mm Rem on a long action, I can shoot 115 grain Berger Match bullets at 3250 fps MV.....

Seafire,
My "long action" .25-06 only reaches about 3150 fps with a 115 grain bullet. You must be using a whole lot of Blue Dot in that 6mm!

46 grains of RL 19 is what gives me that MV there Stoney....large rifle primer.. usually CCI...

quote:

Originally posted by steven g:
...i'll just use my dad's 7mm mag and put up with the recoil. ...

Hey Steven, I know for sure you don't have to suffer from the recoil. Look in a Speer or Lyman manual and down-load some cartridges for his 7mmRemMag. And Hodgdon has a 60% of MAX Rule for H4895 that should get it down to a comfortable level.

You may need to change the Turret Setting just a bit, but that is why they have numbers on them.

Best of luck to you.

seafire and everyone else,

i have also been hearing very good things about the berger match VLD bullets for deer. like the 105gr ones for 6mm. they are supposed to mushroom very nicely just like the barnes triple shock. plus, the bergers have a greater BC. i have been told you get a real small entrance hole, but the exit hole is impressive.
anyone with experience with the berger VLD in 6mm-06? i may reconsider the rifle just because of that bullet. of course, i would have to find out the twist of the barrel which will be easy to do.

Steve,

If you want to stabilize the longer match bullets in 6mm, a twist of one in 9 will stabilize most... a one in 8 will stabilize anyone of them...

I have a one in 8 and a one in 7 on my two 6mm Rems....

A 6mm Rem, will give you pretty much what a 6/06 or 240 Weatherby will give... if it doesn't stack up, a 6mm Rem AI certainly will...

I don't see a need for an 06 case until you hit 25 caliber, and even then, I'd go with a 257 Roberts AI before a 25/06...

I was looking at a 6.5/06 or a 6.5x 284.. after a lot of research, I went with the 6mm Rem case necked up to 6.5 for a 6.5 x 57 Mauser...

the Rem or Roberts or Mauser 57 mm case, will do the same thing in 24, 25 and 6.5 bore that the 06 case will do, and do so while using less powder....

As Stonecreek pointed out above, he is getting 3150 fps out of a 25/06 with a 115 grain bullet...

in a 6mm Rem, I am getting 3250 with a 115 grain Berger match bullet.. smaller case, less powder, 100 fps faster MV.....that an 06 case is giving...

Hey Steve, There are a good number of threads on both Small Bore and Medium Bore about the Berger VLDs. Just use the "Find" button at the top of the page.

I've never shot one into Game, but I'm interested in what other folks have reported. Here is a thread where a guy used them and 2-of-5 did not perform as the Marketing Hype(?) would lead us to believe.

Obviously a small sample, they are not 6mm, and the Game was dead, but those did not work as the Marketing Folks at Berger said they would.

Best of luck to you.