Football fans and Harley guys like to show their loyalty with branded stickers on their cars and trucks. Why shouldn’t benchresters do this same? Well now this is possible for fans of the 6mmBR, PPC, and 6mm Dasher cartridges. These small but ultra-accurate cartridges have set the “gold standard” for rifle precision. Now you can “represent” your favorite chambering — but in a subtle way that won’t spook anti-gunners on the road (or draw unwanted attention from the local constabulary).
PMA Tool offers Euro-style, black-on-white, oval stickers that look cool on your car, truck, SUV, RV, or camping trailer. As PMA says: “Let your shooting buddies know what you shoot, while leaving your non-shooting neighbors scratching their heads.” Place the stickers in the corner of a rear window or slap ‘em on a bumper. They also look nice on a range box or plastic rifle case.
There are currently three sticker versions, “6BR”, “PPC”, and “Dasher”, priced at $5.95 per sticker. PMA Tool may produce stickers for other chamberings if there is sufficient demand. What other cartridge types would you like to see? Perhaps generic “6mm”, “6.5mm”, and “7mm” stickers?
In the spring of 2004, IBS 600-yard benchrest competition was born. Piedmont Gun Club in Rutherfordton, NC was one of the three initial ranges across the country to host this new competition. Bridgeville (DE) and the Bench Rest Rifle Club of St. Louis (MO) were the other two. 600-yard benchrest was the brainchild of several IBS and club officers, Dave Tooley and Joe Goforth among them. The idea was to have a new competition at a distance far enough that short-range cartridges would not dominate, but not so far that the new mid-range discipline would duplicate 1000-yard competition. After initial “test matches” at 500 yards, in late 2003, officers at Piedmont Gun Club decided to push the targets out another 100 yards. That was the beginning of the 600-yard benchrest game.
IBS 600-Yard Match at Piedmont Gun Club (June 8, 2013) Report for IBS by Sam Hall Piedmont Gun Club is a legendary venue in the 600-yard Benchrest game because so many records have been set at this range. Throughout the 600-yard seasons at Piedmont Gun Club, June has been one of the best months for shooting small groups and high scores. Most all records have been shot there in the summer months of June, July, and August. And speaking of records, more records have been set, broken, and re-broken at Piedmont than all other IBS 600-yard ranges combined! I know of 29 separate records that have been set by just three shooters. Joel Kendrick, Terry Brady, and myself, Sam Hall. Many, many more records have been broken there also.
After a couple of rainy days, the weather cleared up for our June 8, 2013 match. It was to be one of Piedmont’s IBS 600 Yard “Shooter of the Year” points matches also. 35 seasoned veterans showed up… plus a new shooter, Jimmy Norman. There were high expectations for more records to fall. Although the weather was fair with sun and the occasional cloud, a light wind, switching from right to left, kept any records from being set this day. Many small groups were shot in the morning in the Heavy Gun session, but the switching wind picked up in the afternoon during the Light Gun competition and the groups showed it.
Thomas Parker Wins HG with a Rem-Actioned Rifle
The day started with Heavy Gun shooting first at 09:00 sharp. The wind was very light from left to right at 2-3mph with temps about 70 degrees. Thomas Parker showed us that a Remington actioned benchrest rifle can still whip the all-out custom “Race Guns” in the hands of a good shooter. Thomas won the Heavy Gun overall placing first in score (193) and second in group (1.965″) for four targets. Note: a group Agg (or aggregate) is the 4 target groups added together and averaged (divided by four). Sam Hall snuck in the small group of the day 0.986″ to help him win the HG Group Aggregate with a 1.820″. This was the only first place that Thomas did not capture. Thomas shot the standard 6mmBR cartridge, pushing Berger 105gr Hybrid bullets. His rifle featured a Remington 700 action, Brux barrel, and a custom wood benchrest stock.
Watch Heavy Gun Winner Thomas Parker Shoot at Piedmont
Mike Hanes Captures Light Gun and Sam Hall Takes the Two-Gun
After the Heavy Gun segment concluded, as always, a great lunch was served by a local church group. Lunch is held in Piedmont’s new club located just beside the 600-yard range.The club house also has bathroom facilities for men and women, a kitchen and large banquet room. Light Gun (LG) started just after the break for lunch. The winds had picked up to 5-8 mph and switching left to right now. Temps were 80-84 degrees for the rest of the day. Groups were sure not as good as they were in the morning for Heavy Gun. Mike Hanes (2012 IBS 600-yard Shooter of the Year) had small single target group of 1.423″ in LG to help him win LG Group Agg with a 2.371. Mike had second place in score with a 184 to help give him the “Overall” LG win. Mike was shooting a custom 6mm Dasher “Race Gun”. It featured a BAT dual port action, Shehane fiberglass ST-1000 stock, Jewell 2 oz. trigger, Brux barrel.
Sam Hall won the Two-Gun Overall with 8 rank points. Thomas Parker finished second in the Two-Gun with 29 rank points with Steve Jordan finishing a close third with 30 rank points. Sam said the match was great, and he invites readers to join the fun: “Come on out to Piedmont with us and give 600-yard benchrest a try. I guarantee you will be welcomed and will have a great time!”
Piedmont Gun Club — Home of the Record-Breakers
Piedmont has seven IBS 600-yard matches a year from March though September. Five matches are IBS “Shooter of the Year” matches where IBS points can be accumulated. Piedmont also has its own Shooter of the Year. All Piedmont’s 600-yard matches count toward it. They give a very nice standing trophy to the winner at the end of the year. Attendance at Piedmont for 600-yard competition is usually 30 to over 40 shooters. Most guys are regulars and have been at the 600-yard game for years. The competition is tough! I have heard many shooters say that shooting at Piedmont is like shooting at the Nationals every match. The atmosphere is very friendly though. We welcome new shooters. There is always someone there to help you when needed, whether it be a fellow shooter or range officer. On many occasions I have witnessed a fellow shooter lend his own rifle to a new shooter who wants to give it a try, someone who forgot ammo, or had equipment failures.
Not only does Piedmont Gun Club have IBS 600-yard competition, but the Club also hosts several other shooting disciplines. Piedmont has a 50-yard pistol range, trap and skeet range, 25-50-75-100 meter small bore silhouette rifle range and 50-600 yard rifle range. Piedmont hosts NRA Smallbore Rifle and 22 Cowboy Silhouette matches in March and ending in October. Piedmont also hosts three IBS 100/200 yard VFS (Varmint For Score) Benchrest matches a year including a NC State match in September 2013. They have 16 covered benches at their VFS range and 16 separate covered benches for their 600 yard range. Tommy Williams is the Club President and also is match director of the 600-yard matches to boot! Piedmont Gun Club is located in the beautiful foothills of western North Carolina.
Hardware Choices — Sam Hall Talks about 600-Yard Rigs
Over the years, 600-yard equipment has evolved. We now have a good idea of what works the best in 600-yard competition. Several varieties of long-range stocks work well so long as the geometry of the key surfaces in the fore-end and butt are parallel (or very close). Custom actions are desirable, with dual port (right bolt, left load port, right eject) or drop-port for faster shooting. The standard 6mm BR or any of its improved versions seem to be equally competitive and accurate at 600 yards. You’ll want a match-grade, stainless barrel, 26-30 inches in length, with a 1:8″ to 1:8.5″ twist rate (depending on your bullet and velocity).
Do you really need a true Heavy Gun? Both Mike Davis and I experimented with true Heavy Guns in 2007. Mine was a 61-pound, 6 Dasher built with a Shehane Aluminum Maxi-Tracker stock. Mike shot a 50-pound, 6 BRX in a massive, aluminum Bruce Baer stock. Both these “true heavies” (Mike’s and mine) had dual-port BAT actions and Brux 1:8″-twist barrels. Mike set the HG 4-target group aggregate record that year with a 1.467″ Agg and I set the HG 4-target score record with a 197. These true Heavy Guns shined when the mirage and/or wind were really bad. If they are tracking back on target well, you can rip off 5 shots in mere seconds! That said, I don’t think a “true heavy” is needed to be competitive.
Folks have certainly experimented with exotic equipment in the 600-yard game. But, for a new shooter it is good to know that fancy, ultra-expensive rifles are not necessary to win at 600 yards. You can shoot one rifle and do just as well as the man with several long-range rifles. You don’t need a separate rifle for Light Gun and Heavy Gun. Just look at what Richard Schatz has done over the years with one rifle. As the saying goes, beware of the man with one gun! To boot, matches are still being won with affordable, factory-actioned rifles. Never count out a skilled shooter with an accurate Remington- or Savage-actioned benchrest rifle — he may beat you! That was the case at our most recent match at Piedmont.
The 6mm Dasher is based on the 6mm BR cartridge with the shoulder blown forward about 0.100″ and “improved” to 40°. Case capacity is raised to about 41.0 grains. This allows the Dasher to drive 105-108gr bullets comfortably at 2970-3000 fps without over-stressing the brass. A popular load used by many successful Dasher shooters is 32.5 to 33.0 grains of Reloder 15, CCI 450 primers, with 105gr Berger VLDs, .010″ in the lands, or Berger 105gr Hybrids .015-.020″ off the lands (jumping). At the upper end this is a “warm load” and should only be used with fire-formed brass. Norma 203B is very, very similar to Reloder 15, and may be more readily available in the near future. As with any load, start 10% low and work up.
You may also have good luck with Hodgon Varget powder. Forum Member Rodney Wagner recently shot a spectacular IBS-record-setting 0.349″ five-shot group at 600 yards. Rodney was loading 32.5 Grains of Varget with CCI 450 primers and Berger 108gr BTs seated about .020″ off the lands (jumping). In preparation for fire-forming his Dasher cases, Rodney used a .257 expander to create a false shoulder on his case necks. This helps stabilizes the case with a good “crush fit” when fire-forming, but other methods of forming Dasher cases (including hydro-forming) can work well also.
Robert Hoppe, one of the top 600-yard shooters in the country, was the 2009 NBRSA 600-yard champion. In 2007, shooting a 6 Dasher, Robert nailed a 0.5823″, 5-shot group. At the time it was the smallest group ever shot in 600-yard registered benchrest competition. In 2008, John Lewis shot even smaller with an IBS Heavy Gun, but Robert’s 0.5823″ still remains the NBRSA 600-yard record, and we believe it is the second smallest group ever shot at 600 yards (in registered BR competition) by a 17-lb class rifle. Robert has been very successful in the 600-yard game, and is one of the best 600-yard shooters in the West. He knows how to wring the best accuracy out of the 6mm Dasher cartridge. Here Robert offers some tips on load development and tuning for the 6mm Dasher.
The NBRSA has wrapped up its 600-yard National Championship, with the 1000-yard National Championship taking place today and tomorrow at the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center. Richard Schatz, one of the greatest 600-yard shooters of all time, topped over 40 talented shooters to win the two-gun overall title. Richard, we’re told, also won the Light Gun Division. Forum member Terry Balding (aka “Terry”) won the Heavy Gun Class. Terry drove all the way from Wisconsin to compete in the match. We’ll publish more details as they become available. If any of our readers have more photos from the match, or a list of final results, please send them along. Here’s Richard receiving his trophy from match director Craig St. Claire:
by Robert Whitley After Accurate Shooter published the July 31, 2010 Daily Bulletin feature on 6mm BRX Myth-Busting With Bob Crone, further research reveals that there’s more to tell about the BRX, its origins, and its original specifications.
6 BRX Myth-Busters Follow-Up Challenge
I wanted to obtain a print reflecting the true original dimensions of Bob Crone’s 6mm BRX reamer. I hoped to verify the head spacing of the reamer to be .100″ longer than a 6mm BR, and I also wanted to see how Bob’s original print compares to 6mm BRX match reamers currently considered to be the “standard in the industry”.
Recreating the Original 6mm BRX Reamer Print
Clymer Precision was contacted to obtain a print of Bob’s original reamer. Todd Wilms, the current owner of Clymer Precision (and a heck of a nice guy as well) went back in the Clymer archives and pulled the records of the dimensions of Bob Crone’s 6mm BRX reamer. Todd then entered them into Clymer’s current reamer drawing program and has generated a current drawing reflecting the original 6mm BRX reamer. The print (see below) confirms the head space of the 6mm BRX to be .100″ longer than a 6mm BR (i.e. 1.267″ min at a shoulder datum diameter of .350″).
Comments on Bob’s 1996 Clymer Reamer
In many ways, the print dimensions are very close to what is currently recognized as the “standard in the industry” for 6mm BRX reamers, however in other ways there have been some definite changes:
A. Body Diameter: A chamber body diameter of .470″ is still in wide use today with 6mm BRX reamers (that’s measured .200″ forward of the bolt face). The current Lapua 6mm BR brass has a web diameter very close to this diameter and one should be wary of trying to tighten this dimension. If anything, running a little looser (like the .4708″ dimension similar to that used with the 6mm Dasher) would not hurt the performance of the 6mm BRX cartridge a bit.
B. Shoulder Diameter: Bob’s original reamer had a shoulder diameter of .4609″ (the same as a 6mm BR Norma), however many current 6mm BRX reamers now use a .460″ shoulder diameter which helps avoid overworking the brass there if readily available commercial dies are used.
C. Max Chamber Length: Bob’s original print had a “max chamber length” of 1.570″ (the same as a 6mm BR Norma), however many of the current 6mm BRX reamers have shortened this up a little. This is because, when 6mm BR brass is fire-formed into 6mm BRX brass, typically the brass shortens. Indeed, this author’s 6mm BR brass shrinks in OAL from around 1.555″ to around 1.547″ when it is fire-formed to 6mm BRX brass. A max chamber length in the range of 1.560″ – 1.565″ is seen often with 6mm BRX reamers these days.
D. Neck Diameter: While Bob’s reamer has a .262″ neck, this has for the most part given way to either a .269″ (sometimes .268″) turned neck, or a .272″ (sometimes .271″) no-turn neck, with the neck diameter typically selected based on the actual dimensions of the brass to be used.
E. Throat Angle: Bob’s throat angle was one and a half degrees, which seems to be standard and in wide use today with the 6mm BRX.
F. Freebore: Bob’s freebore length was 0.00″ because his smith used a separate throater to set the throat length Bob wanted for specific bullets. These days, a built-in freebore in the range of .104″ – .125″ seems to be very common with 6mm BRX reamers. Freebore in that range is seen by many as a good choice for the readily available 105- to 108-grain 6mm bullets.
6mm BRX — Real World Specs
Here are measurements on Robert Whitley’s 6mm BRX brass, as fire-formed, full-length sized and ready to load in a no-turn chamber.
Base to shoulder = 1.170″
Base to neck/shoulder junction = 1.333″
Overall case length (fired 2x and re-sized 2x) = 1.547″
Shoulder diameter (resized) = .459″
Diameter .200″ forward of base (resized) = .470″
Neck diameter loaded = .269″
As part of the NBRSA Long-Range Nationals conducted this week in Sacramento, an F-Class Benchrest match was held Friday, April 20th, with great success. Why have a benchrest match for F-Classers you might ask? Well, this provides a new activity for F-Class shooters whose 22-lb F-Open and 18.15-lb F-TR rifles would not otherwise qualify under the NBRSA 17-lb Light Gun limits. Having more opportunities for more folks to shoot is always a good thing, we believe. With the success of this event, it looks like “F-Bench” matches will become more commonplace in the future. Jerry Tierney, our “field correspondent” in Sacramento, tells us that the NBRSA plans to approve F-Class Benchrest competition as a regular discipline. This will formalize the rules, targets, and course of fire.
At Friday’s F-Class Bench match, the shooting was all done at 1000 yards, from the covered shooting line at the Sacramento Valley Shooting Center. The event consisted of two, 1000-yard matches with a time limit of 30 minutes each and unlimited sighters. Shooters were divided into three relays: one firing, one scoring, and one in the pits. That division of labor kept everyone active throughout the day. All three relays in the first match shot in VERY mild conditions. At the start of match two, the wind came up from the left.
Hoppe Wins F-Class Bench Match
The winner was a familar face, Robert Hoppe, racking up 387-11X with his 6mm Dasher. Runner-up, just one point behind, was Gary Noble (386-11X). In third place was Shawn Greene (383-13X). Robert is a heck of a shooter. He still holds the NBRSA record for the smallest 5-shot group ever shot in a 600-yard NBRSA benchrest match. Robert drilled an amazing 0.5823″ group in 2007 to set the NBRSA Light Gun record. Five years later, he’s still on his game.
The NBRSA Long-Range National Championships continue today and tomorrow with the Sloughhouse 1000 two-day match.
Match results and photos by Jerry Tierney, who shot the match and finished 6th with 383-8X.
This past weekend, Forum member Ron Boyd shot a 1.462″ five-shot Light Gun group at 1000 yards in an IBS benchrest match at the MidWest Benchrest Club in Yukon, Missouri. Ron shot a 6mm Dasher with Bartlein barrel and PR&T stock. Ron’s 1.462″ group is 0.065″ off the existing IBS 1000-yard Light Gun record. Ron’s group also happens to be .011″ smaller than the current NBRSA 1K Light Gun record, 1.473″ shot by Bill Schrader in 2002. (But this is not counted by the NBRSA since Ron shot in an IBS match.) Ron’s group was shot in the first relay of the day, in good conditions. The group had three (3) shots clustered in under one-third inch (0.03 MOA)!
This is truly a spectacular achievement. We think this has to been one of the smallest five-shot groups ever shot at 1000 yards, and probably the smallest ever with a 6mm cartridge. At 1000 yards, 1 MOA is 10.47″. This means that Ron’s group measured in at 0.1396 MOA! To give you an idea of how small Ron’s group really was, at left is a 1.462″ circle shown at 100% scale, along with a quarter at 100% scale.* The circle represents the center-to-center distance of Ron’s five shots at 1000 yards. Total vertical dispersion was just under 1.2″ for five shots. The vertical for the top four shots (measured with OnTarget software) was just 0.398″! Shown below is a flat-bed scan of the actual target. Notice the tight cluster of 3 shots touching. That’s a dime in the photo added for scale.
Ron Boyd’s 6mm Dasher Load Ron loaded a stout charge of Long Range Match surplus powder with Spencer 103gr bullets seated about .010″ OFF the lands. The bullets were “right out of the box”, NOT pointed. This powder has burn-rate characteristics very similar to Alliant Reloder 15, and Ron used his regular RL15 charge, adjusted by half a grain or so. Ron was using no-neck-turn “brown-box” Lapua 6BR brass formed into the 40° improved 6mm Dasher case. The unturned, loaded case necks measure about 0.2695″, yielding .0015″ total clearance in a 0.271″ chamber. The brass used for the 1.462″ group had seven previous firings. Ron anneals his brass after every firing using a Benchsource annealing machine. Ron told us: “The Benchsource is the greatest annealing machine there is, as far as I’m concerned.” Ron ultrasonically cleans his brass and then tumbles his brass after the ultrasound process. He does NOT use an internal neck lubricant. He does NOT uniform his primer pockets and he does NOT ream his flashholes. Ron believes this load was running “right around 3000 fps”, but he has not chron’d it yet using the new Bartlein barrel.
Ron Boyd’s 6mm Dasher Light Gun
Ron’s 17-lb Light Gun featured a BAT SV Action, Bartlein 30″ 1:8″ twist, 0.237″ land barrel, and Precision Rifle & Tool “Hammerhead” benchrest stock with 5″-wide wings in front. This stock weighs 4 lbs 1 oz. with an aluminum butt plate and is about 36.5″ long with integrated rails on the bottom of the “wings”. Ron’s friends Rich Griffin and Jerry Kloeppel did the chambering and bedding. Ron recently put the Bartlein barrel on the gun. Ron estimates that the barrel had only 40 rounds through it when it produced the 1.462″ group. Ron tells us: “This new barrel is great, and the 5″ PR&T stock really works. I luckily pulled the trigger at the right time.” Ron told us that this rifle shot in the high ones/low twos at 100 yards during testing.
PR&T Hammerhead Stock (catalog photo)
*The circle and quarter should appear “true size” when viewed at the most common monitor resolution. If you are running a higher resolution on your monitor, the illustration will appear small than actual size.
Tim Claunch (aka tclaunch) recently put on an amazing display of precision shooting. At an MSSA 600-yard Benchrest Score match in Memphis, TN, Forum member Tim shot six targets in a row, with an average 5-shot group size of 1.677″. Tim’s stellar performance began with a two-target shoot-off for club Shooter of the Year honors (he won). Then Tim shot four more targets as part of the club’s regular 4-target score match. NOTE: this is NOT an official six-target match result. The actual match that day was four (4) targets only, and Tim’s Agg for those four was about 1.8″, still darn impressive. No one is claiming any records here. Still give credit where credit is due — Tim put together six targets in a row, in competition, averaging 0.267 MOA for all six. Tim’s small group (of the six) was 1.351″ and his large group was 2.088″. That shows amazing consistency. This is spectacular shooting by any measure*.
Tim tells us: “I can check off one of the items on my ‘bucket list’ now — shooting a sub-two-inch Agg. We shot our monthly match here in Memphis at our awesome MSSA range. Though this was a score match, and the first two targets were part of a club shoot-off, I wondered about the average group size of all six. We measured all six targets I shot in sequence on Sunday. I was some kind of happy when I saw it was a 1.677″ 6-target average. That Bartlein and the .140″ FB BRX reamer are a good match. I used Varget with Berger 105gr VLDs and CCI 450 primers. I had never Agged under two inches before in my life (the 4-target Agg was 1.8″). Sure was nice to do it at home the first time.”
Tim shoots a 6mm BRX Light Gun with Shehane ST1000 Tracker stock, Borden Rimrock BR action, and Bartlein 6mm cut-rifled barrel. He uses a Leupold 45X scope in Burris Signature Zee rings sitting on a +20 MOA rail. Tim jokes: “People might laugh at my cheapo Burris rings. Well I guess those Signatures hold zero just fine.” Tim tried a power-booster lens on his Leupold for a while, but this altered eye relief, producing the occasional smack in the forehead. Not surprisingly, Tim removed the booster.
Borden Action with Dwight Scott Bolt and Firing Pin Upgrade
The action is a Borden Rimrock BR dual-port. “This action is smooth, and it allows me to rip ‘em when the conditions are good. For these six targets I shot fast.” The Borden action has some interesting mods: “The firing pin and bolt body were re-worked by Dwight Scott. He has a weight of pin to power of spring he worked out with Tony Boyer. I could tell a significant difference in performance.”
For better target resolution, click the gear-shaped icon and select 480p playback.
The stock is a Shehane fiberglass ST1000 Tracker bedded by TM Stockworks (Tom Meredith). The metalwork was done by Stephen Hall of Dyersburg, Tennessee. Tim reports: “I can’t say enough about this highly-talented guy. He’s a great smith and a great point-blank benchrest shooter himself. I’ve had four chambers cut by him and couldn’t be happier”. The barrel is a 1.250″ straight contour, finished at 26″. That’s a bit shorter than you’ll find on most 600-yard rigs these days, but Tim wanted some weight off the nose so he could add weight to the butt to balance the gun better (and still make weight). Tim raves about this Bartlein barrel: “Readers should not give up on maybe that next barrel being the one barrel a guy gets in a lifetime. I have tried all the cut-rifling barrel-makers, but I’ve recently gone to Bartlein. Based on my ratio of great-shooting barrels to average barrels I am there to stay.”
Tim’s Accurate Reloading Methods Tim’s reloading procedures could rightly be described as the “relentless pursuit of perfection”. After two firings, once “the brass has settled down and conformed to the chamber”, Tim anneals his cases. He then re-anneals after EVERY subsequent firing. The brass he shot at the MSSA match had eight firings, so it had been annealed many times. Tim uses current-generation (blue box) Lapua 6mmBR brass, and he lightly turns his necks for an 0.269″-necked chamber. Tim points his bullets, but does not trim them: “These were pointed, no trimming, just point and shoot. I have shot a few of the new Berger hybrids, but I keep going back to the Berger VLDs.”
Superior accuracy, Tim believes, requires ultra-consistent neck tension. Tim uses a K&M arbor press with a force gauge. If the needle shows any notable variance in seating force, Tim will pull the round apart, run a mandrel in the neck, resize the neck, and re-seat the bullet. If the bullet still doesn’t seat smoothly, he won’t shoot the round for record. Tim is also particular about seating depth: “I measure every loaded round base to ogive using a comparator. All my match ammo is held to plus/minus .0005″ (i.e. one thousandth total spread) in base to ogive length. Yes, this is possible if you anneal regularly and monitor bullet-seating force carefully. If you can’t hold .001″ [base-to-ogive] tolerances with good bullets, that’s probably because of inconsistent neck tension.”
Secret of Success — Improved ‘Bench Manners’ and Gun Handling
Tim had a personal break-through not so long ago that improved his accuracy dramatically. Previously he got down on the gun, and would use some cheek pressure. But he noticed some erratic horizontal in his groups. Tim changed his shooting position, getting his head completely off the stock. The change worked: “After cleaning up my ‘bench manners’ and getting my head off the gun, my groups started shrinking. It was a real eye-opener.” Tim shoots with minimal hand contact (“just touching”) on the stock, and he doesn’t pin the gun to the stop. Tim explained: “I run the gun up to touch the stop before each shot, but I don’t use any shoulder pressure. I don’t push on the gun at all.”
You can learn more about Tim’s amazing six-target display of accuracy in this Forum thread. Registered Forum members can post questions about Tim’s rifle and the shooting conditions, and Tim will answer them when he has the opportunity.
* Just for comparison sake, the NBRSA official Light Gun 600-yard, 6-Target (30-shot) Agg record is 2.092″ (Robert Hoppe, 2006). The IBS official Light Gun 600-yard, 4-Target (20-shot) record is 1.6068″ (Sam Hall, 2011). The IBS does not list a LG 6-target Agg record for 600 yards.
Forum member Skeeter has a 6mm Dasher falling block varmint rifle. The Dasher case is based on the 6mm BR Norma cartridge with the shoulder blown forward about 0.100″ and out to 40°. This gives the Dasher roughly 3.5 grains added capacity compared to the standard 6BR.
Last year, Skeeter needed to form 300 cases for varmint holiday. Skeeter decided to fire-form his brass without bullets. This method avoids barrel wear* and saves on components. There are various ways to do this, but Skeeter chose a method using pistol/shotgun powder, some tissue to hold the powder in place, Cream of Wheat filled to within an 1/8″ of top of the neck, and a “plug” of tissue paper to hold it all in place. Shown below are cases filled with a pistol/shotgun powder charge topped with Cream of Wheat and then a tissue paper plug.
To ensure the case headspaced firmly in his Dasher chamber, Skeeter created a “false shoulder” where the new neck-shoulder junction would be after fire-forming. After chamfering his case mouths, Skeeter necked up all his cases with a 0.257″ mandrel (one caliber oversized). Then he used a bushing neck-sizing die to bring the top half of the neck back down to 0.267″ to fit his 0.269″ chamber. The photo below shows how the false shoulder is created.
After creating the false shoulder, Skeeter chambered the cases in his rifle to ensure he could close the bolt and that he had a good “crush fit” on the false shoulder, ensuring proper headspace. All went well.
The next step was determining the optimal load of pistol powder. Among a variety of powders available, Skeeter chose Hodgdon Titewad as it is relatively inexpensive and burns clean. The goal was to find just the right amount of Titewad that would blow the shoulder forward sufficiently. Skeeter wanted to minimize the amount of powder used and work at a pressure that was safe for his falling block action.
Working incrementally, Skeeter started at 5.0 grains of Titewad, working up in 0.5 grain increments. As you can see, the 5.0 grain charge blew the shoulder forward, but left it a hemispherical shape. At about 7.0 grains of Titewad, the edge of the shoulder and case body was shaping up. Skeeter decided that 8.5 grains of Titewad was the “sweet spot”. He tried higher charges, but the shoulder didn’t really form up any better. It will take another firing or two, with a normal match load of rifle powder and a bullet seated, to really sharpen up the shoulders. Be sure to click on the “View Larger Image” link to get a good view of the cases.
The process proved to be a success. Skeeter now has hundreds of fire-formed Dasher cases and he hasn’t had to put one bullet through his nice, new match-grade barrel. The “bulletless” Cream of Wheat method allowed him to fire-form in a tight-necked barrel without neck-turning the brass first. The only step now remaining is to turn the newly Dasher-length necks down about .0025″ to fit his 0.269″ chamber. (To have no-turn necks he would need an 0.271″ or 0.272″ chamber).
Skeeter didn’t lose a single case: “As for the fire-forming loads, I had zero split cases and no signs of pressure in 325 cases fire-formed. Nor did I have any misfires or any that disbursed COW into the action of the firearm. So the COW method really worked out great for me and saved me a lot of money in powder and bullets.” To learn more about Skeeter’s fire-forming process, read this Dasher Fire-Forming Forum Thread.
*Skeeter did have a fire-forming barrel, but it was reamed with a .269 chamber like his 10-twist Krieger “good” barrel. If he fire-formed with bullets, he would have to turn all 300 necks to .267″ BEFORE fire-forming so that loaded rounds would fit in the chamber. Judging just how far to turn is problematic. There’s no need to turn the lower part of the neck that will eventually become shoulder–but how far down the neck to turn is the issue. By fire-forming without bullets now he only has to turn about half the original neck length, and he knows exactly how far to go.
Montana 1K benchrest shooter Leo Anderson has set a pair of astounding multi-match Light Gun Score Agg records. These are “records for the ages”. This season, Leo’s 6-match Score Aggregate was 99.5 (99,99,99,100,100,100), while his 10-match Score Aggregate was 96.8 (84,94,95,98,99,99,99,100,100,100). That’s amazing consistency. Given how hard it is to shoot a single 100 score at 1000 yards, Leo’s Aggs are jaw-dropping. It will be a long time before these Agg records are broken (if they ever are). Leo set his 99.5 (6-match) and 96.8 (10-match) records shooting a 17-lb rifle chambered for the 6mm Dasher. The Lawrence barrel was chambered by Montana gunsmith John King and Leo did the stock work himself (starting with a Shehane MBR Tracker).
99.5 Six-Match Agg and 96.5 Ten-Match Agg at 1000 Yards
Leo set these multi-match Agg records at the Deep Creek Range near Missoula, Montana. Tom Mousel, another record-holding Montana shooter reports: “Our Agg season is now complete here in Montana. Leo ‘Legend’ Anderson has broken both the 6-match and 10-match score aggregate records. He hasn’t just broken them, he has smashed them, with a couple Aggs that are truly remarkable. As a fellow 1000-yard competitor, I fully understand what it takes to grind out a quality Aggregate. What Leo has done this year is the most impressive thing I think we might ever see in the 1000-yard benchrest game. Leo is one of the best of the ‘good guys’, and also, in my opinion, Leo is the best 1000-yard shooter to ever grace our sport. You’d have to check with Leo, but I believe these are his 14th and 15th world records in his career. Leo also holds our Club record for Light Gun group and score, when he drilled a 3.476″/100 back in August of 2008″. (See photo below)
Record-Breaking 6mm Dasher Light Gun Specs
There’s nothing really exotic about the 17-lb Light Gun with which Leo set his score records. The stock is a laminated Shehane MBR Tracker with some modifications by Leo to make it track better. Leo altered the angle of the toe to match the forearm and modified the taper of the sides of the buttstock to ride better in the bags. Pillar-bedded into the stock is a Stiller Viper Drop Port. Leo loves this action. He says it is very fast to operate and the flat bottom makes it easy to install in the stock. In addition, the Viper action works well with his preferred CCI 400 primers: “I can run stout loads of H4895 with the Viper without cratering the primers. Some guys with other factory and custom actions have problems with the CCI 400s which are not as hard as the 450s.”
The 29.5″, 5-groove, 0.237″ land, HV-counter barrel was crafted by Lawrence Barrels. Based in Lewiston, Montana, Lawrence Barrels currently makes mostly AR barrels, but Leo says they make great cut-rifled tubes: “I currently have Lawrence barrels on both my Light Gun and my Heavy Gun. These Lawrence barrels both shoot great. I think they are the equal of the best examples from top barrel-makers such as Krieger and Bartlein.” Leo has tried straight-contour barrels, but he prefers some taper (similar to a Krieger #17 contour): “In my experience, tapered barrels seem to shoot better, at least in a 17-pounder. The gun is less nose-heavy and tracks better.” The barrel on Leo’s record-setting Light Gun currently has about 900 rounds through it.
For optics, Leo runs a 12-42x56mm Nightforce BR model with NP2DD reticle. Leo tells us: “the NP2DD reticle is my favorite and I have great confidence in the Nightforce. We tried it side-by-side with a big name European-made high magnification scope, and the Nightforce was visibly better. At 1000 yards it had better clarity, better sharpness, better resolution.”
Record Setting Dasher Recipe: Berger 105gr VLD, Hodgdon H4895, CCI 400, Lapua Brass
While many top 6mmBR and Dasher shooters use Varget or Reloder 15, Leo prefers Hodgdon H4895, which has a slightly faster burn rate. Leo tells us: “Right now, the H4895 and CCI combo is giving the best accuracy, and it’s a clean combination. I’ve shot a lot of Reloder 15, but the H4895 burns so much cleaner.” Leo’s load is running around 3050 fps, but “he’s not too concerned with what the chronograph says — when we tune our loads we go by what shows up on the target.” Leo is loading a bit more than 32 grains of H4895. (Editor’s NOTE: This load is for fully fire-formed Dasher cases ONLY. It is NOT safe to use in a 6mmbr with 105s.) Leo’s favorite projectiles are the “thin-jacket” Berger 105gr VLDs, pointed with a Whidden pointing tool. Leo turns his necks with a K&M neck turner.
To save on barrel life, Leo fire-forms his brass using a separate barrel. He prepares the brass with a false shoulder, then fires the cases loaded with pistol powder, cream of wheat and low-density plug in the end. He tried forming case with pistol powder alone, but that required much more powder and didn’t produce results as good as the cream of wheat method.
Shooting Fast — the Importance of Smooth Tracking
Leo tells us that you need a great-tracking rig to be competitive in the 1K game these days: “Some guys are getting 10 shots downrange in 20 seconds or less. It takes me about 30 seconds.” To shoot that fast, the gun needs to track perfectly so you can just slide it back and stay on target. “If you want to shoot fast, everything’s got to be working right — and your stock really needs to track well. If you’re chasing the knobs on your rest, you’re not getting [your bullets] down range.” Leo says the stock’s geometry must be “near perfect” in order for the gun to come back to the same spot shot after shot.
Leo Anderson’s Advice for New Long-Range Shooters.
We asked Leo if he had any advice for shooters new to the long-range benchrest game. Here are some of his thoughts:
1. Pick a Winning Cartridge – Leo thinks the Dasher is just about perfect for a 17-lb rifle: “Any more cartridge than that, you have too much gun movement. Something in the Dasher range is the perfect size. We shoot the Dashers around the 3050 fps node. Even with the 6-6.5×47 you’re just burning more powder, and at the higher node, the gun starts rocking and things start getting away from you.”
2. Get Good Equipment Right from the Start – “Go ahead and bite the bullet and buy good stuff right off. Too many guys try to get off cheap in the beginning. They end up buying two or three guns as they upgrade. You save money in the long run by buying good stuff in the beginning.”
3. Practice, Practice, Practice – “We get a lot of practice in the process of tuning and load development. We put in the time — on things like bullet sorting, case prep, load tuning.”
4. Keep Pushing for Perfection – “A lot of guys get a load that seems pretty good, and then they get lazy. Don’t be content when you get a 6-inch group at 1000, because the gun might shoot a LOT better. I’ve got Aggs in the five-inch range.”
Leo reports: “Here’s our ‘secret’ 1000-yard range out in the sticks where we do some spring tuning”.
The 6mm Dasher is based on the 6mm BR cartridge with the shoulder blown forward about 0.100″ and “improved” to 40°. Case capacity is raised to about 41.0 grains. This allows the Dasher to drive 105-108gr bullets comfortably at 2970-3000 fps without over-stressing the brass. A popular load used by many successful Dasher shooters is 32.5 to 33.0 grains of Reloder 15, CCI 450 primers, with 105gr Berger VLDs, .010″ in the lands, or Berger 105gr Hybrids .015-.020″ off the lands (jumping). At the upper end this is a “warm load” and should only be used with fire-formed brass. Norma 203B is very, very similar to Reloder 15, and may be more readily available in the near future. As with any load, start 10% low and work up.
After Accurate Shooter published the July 31, 2010 Daily Bulletin feature on 
Hoppe Wins F-Class Bench Match
This past weekend, Forum member Ron Boyd shot a 1.462″ five-shot Light Gun group at 1000 yards in an IBS benchrest match at the 
This is truly a spectacular achievement. We think this has to been one of the smallest five-shot groups ever shot at 1000 yards, and probably the smallest ever with a 6mm cartridge. At 1000 yards, 1 MOA is 10.47″. This means that Ron’s group measured in at 0.1396 MOA! To give you an idea of how small Ron’s group really was, at left is a 1.462″ circle shown at 100% scale, along with a quarter at 100% scale.* The circle represents the center-to-center distance of Ron’s five shots at 1000 yards. Total vertical dispersion was just under 1.2″ for five shots. The vertical for the top four shots (measured with OnTarget software) was just 0.398″! Shown below is a flat-bed scan of the actual target. Notice the tight cluster of 3 shots touching. That’s a dime in the photo added for scale.
Ron Boyd’s 6mm Dasher Load
Ron loaded a stout charge of 
Tim’s reloading procedures could rightly be described as the “relentless pursuit of perfection”. After two firings, once “the brass has settled down and conformed to the chamber”, Tim anneals his cases. He then re-anneals after EVERY subsequent firing. The brass he shot at the MSSA match had eight firings, so it had been annealed many times. Tim uses current-generation (blue box) Lapua 6mmBR brass, and he lightly turns his necks for an 0.269″-necked chamber. Tim points his bullets, but does not trim them: “These were pointed, no trimming, just point and shoot. I have shot a few of the new Berger hybrids, but I keep going back to the Berger VLDs.” 
Montana 1K benchrest shooter Leo Anderson has set a pair of astounding multi-match Light Gun Score Agg records. These are “records for the ages”. This season, Leo’s 6-match Score Aggregate was 99.5 (99,99,99,100,100,100), while his 10-match Score Aggregate was 96.8 (84,94,95,98,99,99,99,100,100,100). That’s amazing consistency. Given how hard it is to shoot a single 100 score at 1000 yards, Leo’s Aggs are jaw-dropping. It will be a long time before these Agg records are broken (if they ever are). Leo set his 99.5 (6-match) and 96.8 (10-match) records shooting a 17-lb rifle chambered for the 6mm Dasher. The Lawrence barrel was chambered by Montana gunsmith John King and Leo did the stock work himself (starting with a Shehane MBR Tracker).
