Friends, I have a 27" barreled 6BR and am having trouble deciding on a PD bullet. I bought 900 55 gr Ballistic Tips 2nds for 45.00. The 58 gr Hornady V-Max looks really good but the heavier 65`s and 75`s might be best for mixed ranges or windy days. My barrel has a 12" twist and am limited to 80 gr bullets. Please help me decide as I am planning my very first trip this August. It will be a antelope/prarie dog hunt in northern New Mexico. Also what powders are working, I am going to try AA2015, AA2230, N135, and Varget. Any input greatly appreciated, Tim.

Do like a lot of others and have two loads for your gun. I use the 58 grain Hornady all of the time and if the wind is blowing hard and the ranges get long, I load my 75 grn hollow points. It's 5 clicks right and 3 clicks up from my 58 grn scope setting at 300 yards to my 75 grain setting at 400 yards.

Tim in Tn: You are a man after my own heart! I had a 6mm BR custom Varminter made for me in 1997! It has a 26 1/2" Hart SS barrel! I had the Rifle specifically chambered for the Nosler 55 gr. Ballistic Tip. It shoots the 55gr. Nosler Ballistic Tips really well and the performance of these bullets on Prairie Dogs and Rock Chucks is superb!
I would not hesitate to recommend them for your use.
A couple years after I got this Rifle (on a very rare whim) I tried some 68 gr. Euber custom bullets in the BR. They shot amazingly well and I thought to myself - I will give these bullets a try on Varmints. And by golly they perform really well in the fields and are quite frangible and I have not heard or seen any ricochets with these projectiles!
So you have two recommendations from me for your BR - the Nosler 55 gr. Ballistic Tips or the 68 gr. Euber customs.
My 6mm BR with the 26 1/2" barrel like H322 powder and Federal 205M primers!
Good luck on your upcoming combo Hunt and with your 6mm BR!
Hold into the wind
VarmintGuy

in my 6 ppc i like the 70 nosler BT's they seem to hold into the wind pretty good, and do make very dead dogs

Great ideas, and I thank you guys for the response. I am going to test the 58 Hornady and 55 Ballistic Tip and see which bullet wants to see New Mexico the worst. I am going to try the 80 gr Ballistic Tips, maybe as suggested as a second load. I have ordered the 77gr Laupa Scenars to try as well, just not enough time to test all these, but I`ll try!!!!!

My 6br has a 1/14 twist and uses 68gr match bullets but have shot some Gentner 65gr bullet also. My powder of choice is H-322,N133 and 8208. To be honest I've never shot anything lighter than a 65gr bullet so cann't comment much on them my only thing would be they may be somewhat shorter in lenght than the 68gr bullets. In my varmit rifles I have just one load per rifle and I'm good for about 300yds maybe alittle longer depending on conditions. I also shoot acouple of shorten 6brs and both those rifles also have 1/14 twist barrels and they are faster than the standard 6br. You might want to try http://www.6mmBr.com they have a world of information on the 6br. Well good luck.

Tom, how do you like the Gentners, I ordered 1000 of the 65gr boattail Blackhawks. I wasn`t sure how they would act on prarie dogs.

quote:

Originally posted by Tim in TN:
Tom, how do you like the Gentners, I ordered 1000 of the 65gr boattail Blackhawks. I wasn`t sure how they would act on prarie dogs.

I started to use them in a 6ppc first and got some pretty good groups. I've been using 8208 in the 6br's had to up it one click for the 65gr bullets I like the flat base bullets best and they are pretty good on varmits. I'm heading out this week and will give them a work out both in the 6ppc and 6br.

quote:

Originally posted by butchloc:
in my 6 ppc i like the 70 nosler BT's they seem to hold into the wind pretty good, and do make very dead dogs

I recently acquired a Sako 6PPC myself, and bought a box of 70 gr BT's last weekend. I put a box of Hornady 65 VMax's thru it but the accuracy wasn't good enough....for a PPC.
Would you mind sharing your load and seating depth from the lands? I've tried H322, H335 and Varget with the 65's.
I may try it out on gophers.

I favor Ballistic Tips for pdogs and have used both the 55's and 70's. Both are exceedingly accurate in my .243 HB, and surprisingly, the 55 may print just a tad better groups in my particular rifle. Nonetheless, I prefer the 70 because it appears to give more, shall we say, "transfer of energy" to the target, ie. greater shooter gratification through more air time.

I have a 8 twist 6 BR, PacNor barrel, 28" on a Savage action. I use three bullets in mine. 58Vmax, 70 Vmax and the 107 SMK. I use Varget for all loads and the 450CCI primer in Lapua brass. I need ot seat them hard into the lands, but accuracy is great. Had good luck with it in the past 2 years on dogs in SD.

Mike

Sounds like a fun trip.

In my 6BR, I use the 107gr. Sierra for Antelope due to the high winds associated with hunting these animals in the fall. I shoot an 8 twist BR so with your 1:12 twist you can probably get by with the Nosler 90 gr. or 95gr. BT. I shot these bullets OK with a 1:13 twist 6 Remington. They may or may not work in your rifle but keep in mind most western hunt areas for Antelope lie between 4000 and 7000 feed. The thinner air is often kind to slow twist rifles.

I find the 55gr. BTs to be a bit more destructive compared to the Hornady 58gr. bullets. My preference in the BR though is for 60 gr. Berger MEFs. These have maravelous accuracy and will blow a prairie dog into chunks. Using about 34.5gr. of Varget I achieve approximately 3800 fps in my 27" tube.

re5513