X-Caliber 6mmAR

[Highbrow]

How is the ejection pattern with Reloder 17? That is a fairly slow powder for the 6AR. I use Varget and have a hard time getting enough in the case.

[Herzo]

Throwing fairly gently @ 4 o'clock. I arbitrarily set the Superlative gas block at about 50 percent and have had no reason to adjust it. Varget does not seem to be appropriate for the 6mm, but for some reason the substantially slower Reloder 17 seems to be giving me good velocities. I suspect that it performs better in the longer barrel.

[Herzo]

I did a quick comparison of RL17 & Varget on QuickLoad. Results are interesting. RL17 is ~13 percent denser than Varget & has 11.5 percent more energy by weight. It also is running nearly 15 percent higher pressure when the bullet exits the barrel. Explains a lot.

[mopar_4life]

How does RL 17/ Varget compare to RL 16?

[mopar_4life]

I?m curious to see how QL sees it

[Herzo]

Just a quick review shows RL 16 will require a heavily compressed fill in order to attain similar pressures to Varget/RL 17. Neither Varget nor RL 16 attain the velocities of RL 17. Just as a note, my comparisons are based on a 107 grain SMK @ magazine length.

[mopar_4life]

Maybe H4895 is better? I just would like to find a temp stable powder that would be good. Maybe I just need to buy QL and see

[soloelcap]

This cartridge is based off the PPC case. The powders for the 6PPC with heavy bullets work, Varget and CFE being about the slowest. I'm not sure how you would figure that RL16 and RL17 would be good choices? Read through the threads on this variant, CFE, 8208, H4895, PP2000 are the go to powders. For long range work nobody I know is shooting anything above the 105 Hybrids in match rifles and not loading to magazine length either. You really don't need QL just look at what others are using.

[Herzo]

I understand the comment about RL17, but when dealing with a 28 inch barrel, I have plenty of time to take advantage of the slower powder. Additionally, RL 17 seems to provide an additional 75 - 100 fps at lower peak pressure over any of the other powders that you list.

[mopar_4life]

My barrel will also be very long. 26 inches with a +2. Gas system. Slower powders might be good for me also. I just like the Temp stable powders.

[Herzo]

Finally have found time to see what I can do with my setup. Loaded a range of RL17 behind a 110 gr SMK and a 105 gr Nosler CC. All loaded 0.010" off the lands.
All 5 shot groups were less than 1" with the Nosler producing a 0.68" @ 2680 fps and the SMK making 4 shots in 0.48" @ 2835 fps(!) - a called flyer opening it up to 1.02". No pressure signs were seen.
Before going much further, I am going to work on my rest - (what I have now does not nest well) and swap out my trigger to one with a 1.5# second stage. Then I need to work on me.

[Lemonaid]

Nice job and I am looking forward with interest to additional reports! How many grains of RL 17 were in your test loads?

[Herzo]

28.5 gr to 30.0 gr. I'm convinced that the longer barrel allows a full burn of the RL17 while keeping the pressure down. Weather permitting I'll run about 4 loads @ 200 yards tomorrow.

[mopar_4life]

Fantastic, how did it go?

[Herzo]

Nothing really outstanding, everything was 1 moa with 1 load at 3/4 moa. Looking for 1/2 or better. Installed a Hyperfire trigger with a 1-1/2# second stage but didn't really get it broken in. Trigger has real promise, but it was inconsistent- that may have been part of the problem. Came home and dry fired it a few hundred times, it is feeling more predictable.