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6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

gregt

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Sep 17, 2010
175
0
54
Australia
Hi guys, I put up a few odd posts about this rifle and stock but I put everything together into one post and thought you might be interested. I'm from Australia and tactical matches are just starting to take off here, I shot my first one back in May and learnt a lot about what I would need to be a little competitive in these matches.

My first thought was a 260AI or a 6.5x47 but I came across a barrel already chambered in 6BR and threaded to suit a Howa with only 40 or so rounds through it so it was too good a deal to let go. I swapped the barrel for some milling work so it was pretty much cost free.

I've got a machine shop so I made a chassis for the Howa to fit the AICS skins, I made it as light as possible given I planned to use it in these sort of matches.

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I had a 223 Howa that had done a fair bit of work and the barrel was getting a little second hand so it donated its action. I'd never had a barrel off a rifle before but I read a fair bit about it so I made up a barrel wrench that fitted around the front of the action and the recoil lug.

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The barrel was ultra tight so I stuck it in the lathe and cut a relief just in front of the action to unload the threads, the barrel spun off no problems after that.

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I cleaned and measured the action and it was lovely, everything was square and straight so it needed no work, the lugs were both bearing evenly so I didn't worry about lapping them. I did need to open up the bolt face to take the BR case. I stripped the bolt down, set it up in the little CNC mill and opened the bolt face to the right diameter and skimmed a couple of tenths of a thou off the face just to ensure it was square.

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Then I measured up the barrel tenon and chamber position using a go-gauge and depth mic, everything seemed fairly close so I screwed the barrel into the action and gave it a test.

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Seeing I only had a go-gauge, I made some shims from .0025" paper and used them with the go-gauge.

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With no shim the bolt closed easily, with .0025" it was firm to close and with .005" there wasn't a hope of closing it. The headspace came out at .002", not too bad for a barrel that was chambered to suit another action, Howa must machine these things pretty well!

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Once I knew the headspace was right, I modified the original 223 extractor claw to work with the 308 case head size. A little trial and error got it working fine so I cleaned and reassembled the bolt.

I set the barrel up in the lathe on a soft spigot and centre so I didn't damage the crown or chamber and gave it a polish, then engraved the caliber into it. I had a typo on the engraving but once it's cut, it's too late so I've got a 6 milimetre instead of a 6 millimetre. (Aussie spelling)
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I gave it all a clean then put it back together again.

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Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

I'd heard a couple of horror stories about getting the 6BR to feed from a magazine and I tried a couple of different setups, finally I settled on the plastic AI mags from my 223, I opened them out to let the BR rounds feed up and shortened the feed lip to let them pop out a little earlier. About an hour with a die grinder and porting roll and a smooth file had them working beautifully, I can fit 7 rounds in the mags, 6 is probably more comfortable, that's fine as 5 would have been enough though I am going to make some single stack 10 round mags for it where the follower only pushes on the case but they're some time in the future.

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Here's a video of it feeding (if it shows up)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAZ6-X5i-vo

So far I've put around 200 rounds through it and I haven't had it misfeed or jam up yet, it feels as smooth as the 223 was.

I did end up milling the bolt handle and making a bigger knob for it, it was a little tight extracting with the factory knob and with the wider stock and bigger scope, there wasn't a lot of room to operate it.

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I topped the rifle off with a Warne 20 MOA rail, Leupold QWR rings and a Vortex Viper PST 4-16x50 FFP mil/mil scope. I'm very impressed by the scope, it's very good mechanically and I was using it today to spot for a mate at 500m so the optics are far better than the price would indicate!

I've done a bit of load development over the last week or so and have got it pretty much sorted using the 108gr Berger bt's and 30.2gr of 2208 powder with the bullet seated .010 into the lands. I'm getting 2960 FPS out of the 22.5" barrel and it's shooting .2-.3MOA out to 500m which is as long as the local range is. I've got a couple of matches next weekend out to 800m so it will be interesting to see how it goes!

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I hope this is of interest to some of you, I'll let you know how it shoots next weekend

Cheers,
Greg
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

i lke the part where he said "I've got a machine shop so I made a chassis for the Howa to fit the AICS skins" lol, its hard to understand why its not that easy for AI to do for everybody. and yes i understand how much it costs for new stuff and one offs, im just saying
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

Excellent looking work!

One piece of advice though, if you're going to use this for practical matches, don't seat your projectiles out into the lands. Otherwise, when you have to unload from the action (chambered) condition you risk pulling the case out and leaving the projectile stuck in the rifling, plus a crap load of powder behind in the chamber/receiver area. I've seen it happen, and it isn't pretty...

Find a jump load that works, even if it is marginally less accurate. Reliability over accuracy in the practical world..
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

Thanks guys! Dr Scholl, that does make perfect sense. I'm heading to the range on Friday hopefully so I might load some up a couple of thou off the lands and see how much difference there is.

Axeman, the chassis is a pretty basic bit of gear to machine up, I'm doing one at the moment for a short action Savage and the major dimensions stay the same, it's only the inlet and mag and trigger pockets that change. I can set a chunk of alloy up in the 4th axis of the mill and just let it go for the majority of it, then change the bits that need to be changed to suit a specific action. I'm going to build a 260AI on a Savage action soon so I thought a Savage chassis is something worth doing. I'm just waiting on an action to make a start.

I've dumped the lightening on the buttstock piece, it makes it a little flexy and realistically it only saves a few grams, it just looks a bit cooler.

I'm looking forward to getting everything coated on this rifle, at the moment I feel like I should be driving a metalflake lowrider to the range and hang a few big gold chains around my neck while I'm shooting
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Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

Thanks mate, I shot an F-class match with it yesterday at 800m, mainly to get an 800m zero for a tactical match today. The first group of 10 scored a pretty dismal 44/60 as I spent a few of those shots getting zeroed. The second 10 scored 56/60 so it's definitely a shooter. The 4 points lost were due to my lack of wind reading skill.
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

That is really neat, and very impressive. I always thought a reliable feeding 6 br/6 dasher would be a great comp rifle. Nice to hear good things about the Howa action as well. Makes me think twice a 700 for my next build.
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: AXEMAN</div><div class="ubbcode-body">i lke the part where he said "I've got a machine shop so I made a chassis for the Howa to fit the AICS skins" lol, its hard to understand why its not that easy for AI to do for everybody. and yes i understand how much it costs for new stuff and one offs, im just saying </div></div>

That is just awesome work. I agree with Axe, the casualness of saying "so I made a chasis for the Howa" is very understated. Followed with an aww I just throw a bar of stock in the 4 axis, no big deal it does all the work.

Makes me realize I took the wrong SH*T in school!

madd0c
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

Thanks fellas, The chassis really is a pretty simple thing to make, it does help to have the gear sitting in the shed to do it though. madd0c, I think I took the wrong stuff in school, if I took the right stuff I could have probably just bought an AW to begin with!

I shot a tactical match with it today. The caliber is awesome, the scope stays on target without even trying, it shoots a lot flatter than my 308, 6.7 mils at 800m from a 100m zero. I also realised that I'm the limiting factor now, not the rifle. I really need to get some practice shooting unsupported!

I ended up scoring 252 and 330 something won the day. last match I scored 130 something and 260 won the day so it's a big improvement.

I finally nailed down my next rifle I'm starting on shortly. It's using a Stiller left hand action (rapid fire left handed with a right handed rifle is hopeless), a Lilja 6.5 barrel and 260 AI is looking pretty good at the moment.

On another note, that Vortex scope is absolutely brilliant. I changed from a Zeiss Conquest on my last rifle and I wouldn't change back. For the money (or even a fair bit more) it is a top bit of gear!
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Cegorach</div><div class="ubbcode-body">That is really neat, and very impressive. I always thought a reliable feeding 6 br/6 dasher would be a great comp rifle. Nice to hear good things about the Howa action as well. Makes me think twice a 700 for my next build. </div></div>

Amen, if not a custom action, I'd want a Sako or Howa/Vanguard myself.

Nice rifle and report.
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

gregt,
Great write up, nice work. I man-handled a Howa once and thought, wow, what a smooth action! This would make a great rapid fire action.
I'm wondering, are the AI skins available after market? Where did you get yours?
So is that a wombat or Taz on the bolt knob?
I share your enthusiasm for the Vortex, I have the same exact scope on <span style="font-style: italic">my</span> 6BR Tac/XTC rig (w/Eliseo RTS stock). I also like the AI .223 mags for the 6BR. I also like the 10 rnd. .308 w/mod for the 6BR when I need more rnds. per mag... we have a 600 yd. mover stage and high cap mags are helpful.
Again, excellent write up, nicely done
 
Re: 6BR tactical match rifle- start to finish

Thanks mate, I snap up any skins I see for sale and stick them aside for when I need them or want a colour change, they're just regular AICS skins. I bought a set of AW ones recently but they look pretty easy to modify to suit.

I'm going to grab some of Pete Lincoln's new skins when he has them in stock and give them a try, AI skins are a pain to get in Australia and with this ITAR stuff, not many US shops are keen to send them here.

It's a Wombat on the knob. When I made it I thought it looked a little plain so I trimmed the end flat and drew it up and engraved him on there. I raise orphaned wombats, they are one of the coolest animals around, plenty of attitude!

How do you find the Elisio stock to use? I'm not a big fan of the look of tube guns but then I'm not a terribly experienced shooter so I'm not really in a position to make an educated decision about how they work.

There's another tactical match in a few weeks not too far from here so I think I'll drag it out and give that one a go, then another match in December here. In the meantime I'm going to shoot some f-class matches and some dot drills to get my skills a bit better. This is my first go at a custom rifle and I'm hooked now, it's a great way to spend a weekend in the workshop!