I've been playing with my new 6ppc, and it seems that the loads the benchrest boys are using are a might bit hot for my gun.

Would someone be willing to run the 6 ppc through Quickload for me (26" barrel, 70 gr. and 55 gr. bullet)? I'd like to see what powders come up tops, and what a reasonable starting charge would be.

I suspect it might be something as slow as Varget, rather than the n133 the benchresters use (my action nearly locks 3 grains under their "normal" loads). TIA, Dutch.

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For evil to prosper, good men must do nothing. (Burke)

Hi Dutch!

Mabye i can give you some ideas "manually"

A 26" barrel on a 6PPC is a weeery long barrel. I useally cut my LV barrels to 22,5" and still get plenty of speed. Over 3300 f/s with 68 gr bullets. The shorter barrels useally give a bit better accuracy than the long ones. What kind of barrel/twist do you have?

One thing many shooters don�t really know about when they hear about the hot loads benchresters use are the way the cases fit the chamber in a BR rifle. If you start out with fresh cases and fireform them cearfully they will stand a lot more abuse than a case that are treated like one reloaded for a hunting rifle. The way I se it proper fireforming and headspace is critical when hot loads are used.

H 322, N-133, N130 and Norma 201 are some powders that will work wery well in your 6PPC with bullets that a 1-14 twist barrel can handle. I suppose you have tried the Sierra 70 gr. MK. It�s a really good bullet that will give you very good results, not all that far from what you get with the handmade benchrest bullets. My best five shot group with this bullet at 100 m is .115". I used 25,5 gr N-130 in SAKO USA cases.

Most benchresters that use really hot loads full length size the cases after every fiering. This is done in a die that are very close matched to the chamber and the amount of sizeing is wery small, but still FL. I have fired 6 PPC cases well over 50 times with really hot loads and FL sized them every time without loosing a single case.

If you have a resonably smooth barrel and use Lapua .220 cases I think you can use a load around 27-28 gr of N-133 with 70 gr bullets and get a good case life. Make sure you use good primers in the PPC. Fed 205, CCI match or Remington 7 1/2 are some I like to use.

Good shooting.

Stefan.

Dutch,

Sent via email, lots of questions -- I'm not familiar with the round.

Maybe somebody on the small bore page would have actuals?

Don

Stefan,

Do you normally have the bullet on the lands, or do you want a little jump?

If it's on the lands, the pressures are higher, aren't they?

Don

Stefan,

Thanks for the suggestions. This rifle is a single shot falling block with a 1 in 12 Shilen Match barrel. It is not a bench gun, though I hope it will be accurate -- hence the chambering. I went with the 1 in 12 to be able to shoot Gerards 62 gr. 6 mm bullet for small deer, and the 85 gr. XLC.

Being a falling block, it doesn't like pressure (frame stretch, I suppose). The 26" barrel is there for balance, primarily. Besides, it is much easier to cut a piece of than it is to put two inches back on .

I've tried TAC, which seems to work, but the charge weights the importer quoted were too high for this rifle: the starting weight was plenty already. Next on the drawing board are Benchmark and Varget, with 70 and 80 grain bullets, just to see what they'll do.

Since this is a single shot, I will have to size the cases a bit more than in a similar rifle with a more positive lockup. The price you pay for being different, I suppose. In any case, I have no interest in seeing how hot I can load: just wanted some help after the first couple of loads I tried turned out much warmer than I had expected. I ended up pulling 40 loaded rounds -- no fun.

Don -- got your stuff. Thanks a million. Gotta get that Quickload -- the wife doesn't really need that new scope, does she?

Dutch.

Dutch,

Her eyes are probably sharper than yours anyway. I seem to remember my ex missed nothing!

Don

Don.

Some barrels like the bullet in the lands and other a bit of jump, i useally never have more than .015" jump. The pressure rise a bit if you put the bullet right up against the lans but not as all dramaticly as some claim. If the bullet is loaded against the lands marks half as long as they are wide use to work fine.

Dutch.

You have a point in the fact that it�s easyer to cut than add barrel length, it�s a lot cheaper to cut than add as well

I understand that you don�t want to load hot loads in your falling block. The fact that many bencresters use hot loads is simple, high speed cuts the wind well. It have a high price though, barrels burn a lot faster when the last bit of velocity is used. I�m pretty sure that you will get good results with your Shilen at lower V/0 to. Actually the 1-12 barrels I have seen in BR didn�t shoot best at top V/0. If you looking for maximum case life i would not push the shoulder back more than .001" when you resize. Ask your gunsmith to make you a headspace gauge (if you don�t have one allready) so you can keep track of the amount of calibrating on your cases.

I like the Barnes X bullets but i don�t like the amount of copper they leave in my barrels. I have tried 75 gr. X in a 6 PPC with a 1-12 barrel. I had a really hard time to get all the copper out.... I tried them moly coated in my .308 Win as well, same result. A long session with cleaning and scrubbing. For small deers (roe deer)I have good experienses with Sierra 85 gr MK and Hornadys 70 gr SP.

Good luck with your falling block!

Stefan.

Stefan, I have become quite fond of the coated versions of the x-bullets. They seem to be less picky about loading, and they do not foul as bad. They sure put the game down (I'm five for five, with less than 30 paces traveled combined, deer and elk). You might want to consider trying some. Dutch.

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For evil to prosper, good men must do nothing. (Burke)