On thursday Gene, BYF42 paid me a visit in Las Vegas and we met up at the Desert Sportsmans range. I brought my GMA actioned .600Ok which weighs 12 lbs and the dreaded .600NE Heym bolt action. The .600OK has a very efficient muzzel break and a great stock designed to move straight back! The Heym is muzzel heavy with no break and the worst stock design imaginable.I cobbled up some loads of 168gr of IMR 7828 over my lathe turned 750gr Crayola bullets and 900gr Woodleighs and DKT's. We had a ball shooting the 750's with the usual exclamation! Wow thats not bad at all! followed by the 900's. Went through about 12-15 rounds between us. This load goes 2150 fps at this altitude from my 26 inch 3-groove gun.
Next was the .600NE Heym with EXACTLY the same load! Gene did great surviving 2 shots though the gun, which ended up at 1:00 o'clock high each time. I then stepped up and fired one. In My humble opinion the recoil of the Heym is at least TWICE as bad as the .600OK, very similar to having someone of Jeffe's size hit you smack in the chest with a 10lb sledge hammer as hard as he could! While the Heym is undoubtably capable of shooting near 2400 fps loads, IMHO it would break bones at that level or otherwise injure the shooter irreparably. We are talking hospital time for sure! I have fired the .600OK at 2450fps and hit the limit of what I can take, but no injuries occurred and I'd do it again!
Gene shot the guns excellently and we had a great time making large lead deposits to the bank of Nevada! I'll post some pics when I get a chance.-Rob

You always said that Heym was brutal.

Michael458, despite his head re-implantation, is able to put plenty of 900grain projectiles down the bore of my AHR-built 600 OK.

What is the case capacity (gross water) comparison between the 600 OK and the 600 NE?
The 600 NE is close to 200 grains (193.9 grains by Ammoguide computation so it has to be bigger than that) vs. what for the 600 Overkill (not listed at ammoguide.com)?
Bigger for the 600 OK no?
Same loads in the two different cases?
The smaller case would give higher pressures and velocities.
Any estimateds or chronography on the two rifles?
No brake on the Heym, but the 600 OK had one? That could make a big difference when you are burning that much powder.
Do I smell some home cookin'?
Well that's OK for a proud wildcatter, understandable.

Maybe a comparison of stock designs could help explain why the Heym is so nasty to shoot?
IIRC, they wanted about 19K USD for this Heym 600 NE:
Besides looking kind of fat, what is recoil-sensation-inducing about this stock?
BTW, I see very little demand remaining for Heym 600 NE bolt actions, if indeed there ever was a market, when you can get a 600 OK at AHR.
I did see a Heym 600 NE once upon a time at Great Northern Guns in Anchorage, AK.
This one is SN 600-002. So they made at least two of them, still trying to sell the second one. Comes with a partial box of ammo, 19 of 20 rounds remain.

Rip- The water capacity of my Bertram .600NE cases is 197grs and the .600ok cases are 213grs. Not enough to increase pressure or velocity significantly. I used exactly the same load in both, no fudging! The barrel heavy feature of the Heym results in a rapid and very painful muzzle climb to the 1 o'clock high position every time, whereas the .6000ok comes straight back with no muzzle rise. The Heym is a very expensive POS in my opinion.-Rob

I can't say anything about a Heym, never even seen one. But I can attest to the handling ability of CCMDocs 600 OK on the GMA action. It's easy. I am now out of the low velocity test loads, and have moved to the medium velocity 2160--2200 fps depending on the bullet. This is ALL being done from the BENCH--it's difficult to do test work off the bench. I find Doc's rifle not easy to handle, but most certainly NOT out of control.

Rob is spot on, straight in line stock and bore, recoil comes straight back. You MUST have this in a big bore rifle of any sort, other wise you are going to get tremendous muzzle rise and hard to control rifles. All my Winchesters exhibit this same straight in line with the bore stocks, and are easy to control, and in almost all cases, everyone states "Wow, that's not as bad as I thought"---Same exact story as what Rob is relating.

I am loading now 170/WW 760. This gave me 2160 fps with the 900 BBW#13 and 2201 fps with the 825 BBW#13 HP. I have 5 other bullets loaded up with the same 170/WW 760, I think 900 Kodiak, 750 .615 GSC, I think Robs 720 Crayola as they call it, some other big 900 solid copper bullet (unknown), and something else I have forgot! I hope to finish this test today, tomorrow, or within the next day or so? Working on time!

Michael

I remember when the 600 Heym first came out. It listed at right around 10,000 dollars and that was years ago. I don't think the rifle looks all that bad. It the stock too straight? Why does it kick so much more than the 600 O.K. by AHR? It can't be just the muzzle brake. thanks

That rubber recoil pad on the Heym is way too narrow and feels like an axe-blade under recoil. My .600ok uses a F990 pad and is much thicker to better distribute the recoil forces.IMHO the muzzle break add the most recoil reduction. These guns have a low frequency sound signature compared to a 300 Weatherby for example and I don't notice any sound increase with the brake on or off. If you take the muzzle brake off, the recoil gets much worse, but it's still far better than the HEYM because it comes straight back. I won't even think about shooting the Heym with a scope on it!-Rob

Rob,

My shoulder aches just from reading this!

George

GeorgeS-

How do you think I felt??? Seriously though, thanks a lot Rob, I had a blast!!!! It was really nice meeting you, looking forward to being out in your area again!! Thanks again!!!