sierra 95 grain TMK revisted.

[flatland1]

I bought four Krieger .236"bore 6mm blanks several years ago to contour into AR15 bbls chambered for the original 6RAT - sold three of them and kept one for my own AR build - they were all finished at 24". For SDMR matches, I ran S95MKs, since all stages required mag fed, semi-auto function. I also ran this rifle in a XC HP match where you must single load for 600yd slow prone stage, so used Berger 105 VLDs there. My loads & velocities are very close to those listed here with H4895, which seems to give best accuracy in this cartridge with CCI450 primers. I've also got a CZ527 7.62x39 carbine that I re-barreled in 6RAT, using a Krieger #4 sporter blank; turned the shank down to 1.090" to match the receiver dia, same as I do to barrels for the Howa Mini. Though I've done some magazine tuning for the CZ, it still doesn't feed as smoothly or consistently as the Howa Mini 6RAT I did using a 24" Bartlein 6mm light Palma blank. Since the Howa is a push-feed action, single loading ammo too long for magazine use is easy, and the next thing I want to accomplish with it is load development with a few different 105-107gr bullets. But 28.3grs of H4895/CCI450/Berger 90 BTHP has been such an accurate load for fire forming AA/Lapua brass that there hasn't been a lot of motivation to experiment with the S95MK or the tipped version of the 95, much less work on loads with the 105-107gr bullet. I threaded the muzzle of the Howa's Bartlein 5/8-24 for a TBAC CB flash suppressor/mount instead of the usual CB brake/mount so it won't blow my eardrums apart when I shoot it without the TBAC Ultra 7 mounted. It's in a McM Game Scout stock with DIP DBM, and is pretty easy to carry while trying to walk up a coyote. Kind of wish I'd have finished this bbl at 22" or even 20" to make it less awkward for carry with the Ultra 7 attached, but if it bothers me enough, I can always pull the bbl & shorten, then re-thread the muzzle. I've enjoyed this Howa Mini (and another one I just finished in 20 Tactical in a Boyds ProVarmint stock) so much that I very seldom get the AR15 RAT out of its case anymore.