Post by Bullshop on Dec 29, 2017 10:02:48 GMT -7
When I was a kid growing up in NY state over six decades ago my family lived in a dairy farming rural setting where all the men and boys of every family hunted deer. Our school had a rifle club and boy over 16 years old that qualified for a big game hunting license were allowed the first day of big game season off from school. This was common rural American life and the setting I grew up in.
When I turned 18 years old I took my hitchhiking thumb a few dollars in my pocket and a positive attitude touring America because Otisville NY was too crowded for me and as I told my very worried Dad as an American citizen I was part owner of the country and as such I wanted to see it before I decided what part of it I would choose to live in.
It didn't take me long to realize that the vast open spaces of the north west is what I longed for. It didn't take long for me to start in the logging industry as the woods is where I liked to be and being single I could live and works there with simple modest means.
As a kid growing up as did all country boys then I trapped in winter for coon, muskrat, and fox so had some introduction to the fur market. When in the west I discovered I could combine my passion for shooting with fur harvest and turn a profit doing something I really enjoyed it was a passion that continues to burn in me so many years later. When I got to the point that I was learning much about hunting fur for profit and at the same time indulging my other passion with long range precision shooting I began to develop an understanding of what was needed by way of calibers and cartridges to do the job at peak efficiency not only in ballistic performance but also in maintaining peak quality of the fur for the highest possible market price.
In my learning curve I tried about everything considered a varmint cartridge and some that went beyond varmint up to big game in my search for THE BEST fur harvesting caliber and cartridge. After trying about everything from the 17 Rem to the 7mm Rem mag I decided that 243/6mm was about the best compromise for caliber. As to chambering early on before wildcatting became much more simplified I settled on the 6mm/244 Rem. The 6mm served me well as a combination fur and big game caliber. During big game season that would include elk I would use the same rifle and have all bases covered weather fur or meat. I eventually even settled on one load for all my hunting with the 6mm which utilized the Hornady 100gn BTSP bullet pushed to the limit of the cartridge which before personal chronographs were available we were told was about 3000 fps but in reality was doing good to break 2900 fps.
Since those early days availability of powders, bullets, barrels scopes, and about everything shooting has surely improved. As I began to develop a much greater understanding of internal and external ballistics and the market kept offering more options I discovered the surplus market that made milsurp contract over run powders available to the civilian market. This to me was a little slice of heaven because it drastically reduced component cost so I could shoot more for less. It was at this point that I realized that I could utilize the very cheap very slow burning surplus powders in my preferred caliber and by wildcatting to a larger case could not only achieve the ballistics of my chosen cartridge but improve on them by a good margin, something in the neighborhood of 300 fps.
To fit enough of this very slow burning surplus powder under a 100gn bullet to get the improved ballistics the case had to be substantially larger than the standard 57mm Euro case that the 6mm Rem is based on. Since my thought line is always to keep it cheap and keep it simple the right choice for a case that provided all the room needed the 30-06 seemed to be the obvious choice as it fit all necessary criteria cheap, available, and for 6mm cal roomy.
It has now been a long time since the 6mm-06 has become a well respected friend and hunting partner so much so that I just assume that by now everyone has come to the same conclusion as have I and that everyone owns at least one. It is for this reason in defense of my old friend the 6mm-06 that I am here tapping keys today. In searching for load data it became clear to me that my old friend is not well received by many of the talking heads for the industry. In fact they have mostly expressed negative opinion toward my friend. They comment such things as OVERBORE , and BARREL BURNER and NO BETTER THAN STANDARD in ballistic performance. But not even one of these opinions has considered my point of view in component cost. Each has offered basically the same loads with the same canister powders with about the same results. It seems to me maybe they were pressed into a monthly deadline for publication and went into the assignment with pre conceived notions and didn't really explore all the potential of the cartridge.
With the very slow surplus powders still at very attractive prices like currently around $70.00 for an eight pound keg and delivering ballistics that would make Roy Weatherby proud how can you not take notice. When using such slow burning powders in small bores to get the performance longer barrel length are required and 26" should be considered a minimum and 28" even better to extract another 100 fps from the long slow push. As for barrel life I feel due to the pressure time curve of the really slow burning powders that there is very little difference in usable barrel life from standard chamberings in the same caliber such as the 243 Win and the 244 Rem since those chamberings in factory ammo and with suggested re-loads use powder burn rates that are substantially faster so have a shorter pressure time curve that puts peak pressure closer to the chamber and is where a barrel burns out.
So as is usually the case I am going against the grain of conventional wisdom in support of my old friend the 6mm-06. As has been the case my whole life I tend to think outside the box and for it have often been slapped down by reality but equally as often have been rewarded beyond to possibility of conventional thinking. In the case of the 6mm-06 I feel there has been a reward for defying conventional wisdom and utilizing surplus powder that perhaps the standard industry would rather we didn't know about.
So there it is my defense of an old friend that has always treated me well. I am kind of funny that way in being loyal to old friends that have always been loyal to me regardless of what the rest of the crowd is saying. I have never been much for running with crowds anyway and the wisdom of another friend comes to light in what he once told me that, "" only dead fish go with the flow and live fish swim against the current""
When I turned 18 years old I took my hitchhiking thumb a few dollars in my pocket and a positive attitude touring America because Otisville NY was too crowded for me and as I told my very worried Dad as an American citizen I was part owner of the country and as such I wanted to see it before I decided what part of it I would choose to live in.
It didn't take me long to realize that the vast open spaces of the north west is what I longed for. It didn't take long for me to start in the logging industry as the woods is where I liked to be and being single I could live and works there with simple modest means.
As a kid growing up as did all country boys then I trapped in winter for coon, muskrat, and fox so had some introduction to the fur market. When in the west I discovered I could combine my passion for shooting with fur harvest and turn a profit doing something I really enjoyed it was a passion that continues to burn in me so many years later. When I got to the point that I was learning much about hunting fur for profit and at the same time indulging my other passion with long range precision shooting I began to develop an understanding of what was needed by way of calibers and cartridges to do the job at peak efficiency not only in ballistic performance but also in maintaining peak quality of the fur for the highest possible market price.
In my learning curve I tried about everything considered a varmint cartridge and some that went beyond varmint up to big game in my search for THE BEST fur harvesting caliber and cartridge. After trying about everything from the 17 Rem to the 7mm Rem mag I decided that 243/6mm was about the best compromise for caliber. As to chambering early on before wildcatting became much more simplified I settled on the 6mm/244 Rem. The 6mm served me well as a combination fur and big game caliber. During big game season that would include elk I would use the same rifle and have all bases covered weather fur or meat. I eventually even settled on one load for all my hunting with the 6mm which utilized the Hornady 100gn BTSP bullet pushed to the limit of the cartridge which before personal chronographs were available we were told was about 3000 fps but in reality was doing good to break 2900 fps.
Since those early days availability of powders, bullets, barrels scopes, and about everything shooting has surely improved. As I began to develop a much greater understanding of internal and external ballistics and the market kept offering more options I discovered the surplus market that made milsurp contract over run powders available to the civilian market. This to me was a little slice of heaven because it drastically reduced component cost so I could shoot more for less. It was at this point that I realized that I could utilize the very cheap very slow burning surplus powders in my preferred caliber and by wildcatting to a larger case could not only achieve the ballistics of my chosen cartridge but improve on them by a good margin, something in the neighborhood of 300 fps.
To fit enough of this very slow burning surplus powder under a 100gn bullet to get the improved ballistics the case had to be substantially larger than the standard 57mm Euro case that the 6mm Rem is based on. Since my thought line is always to keep it cheap and keep it simple the right choice for a case that provided all the room needed the 30-06 seemed to be the obvious choice as it fit all necessary criteria cheap, available, and for 6mm cal roomy.
It has now been a long time since the 6mm-06 has become a well respected friend and hunting partner so much so that I just assume that by now everyone has come to the same conclusion as have I and that everyone owns at least one. It is for this reason in defense of my old friend the 6mm-06 that I am here tapping keys today. In searching for load data it became clear to me that my old friend is not well received by many of the talking heads for the industry. In fact they have mostly expressed negative opinion toward my friend. They comment such things as OVERBORE , and BARREL BURNER and NO BETTER THAN STANDARD in ballistic performance. But not even one of these opinions has considered my point of view in component cost. Each has offered basically the same loads with the same canister powders with about the same results. It seems to me maybe they were pressed into a monthly deadline for publication and went into the assignment with pre conceived notions and didn't really explore all the potential of the cartridge.
With the very slow surplus powders still at very attractive prices like currently around $70.00 for an eight pound keg and delivering ballistics that would make Roy Weatherby proud how can you not take notice. When using such slow burning powders in small bores to get the performance longer barrel length are required and 26" should be considered a minimum and 28" even better to extract another 100 fps from the long slow push. As for barrel life I feel due to the pressure time curve of the really slow burning powders that there is very little difference in usable barrel life from standard chamberings in the same caliber such as the 243 Win and the 244 Rem since those chamberings in factory ammo and with suggested re-loads use powder burn rates that are substantially faster so have a shorter pressure time curve that puts peak pressure closer to the chamber and is where a barrel burns out.
So as is usually the case I am going against the grain of conventional wisdom in support of my old friend the 6mm-06. As has been the case my whole life I tend to think outside the box and for it have often been slapped down by reality but equally as often have been rewarded beyond to possibility of conventional thinking. In the case of the 6mm-06 I feel there has been a reward for defying conventional wisdom and utilizing surplus powder that perhaps the standard industry would rather we didn't know about.
So there it is my defense of an old friend that has always treated me well. I am kind of funny that way in being loyal to old friends that have always been loyal to me regardless of what the rest of the crowd is saying. I have never been much for running with crowds anyway and the wisdom of another friend comes to light in what he once told me that, "" only dead fish go with the flow and live fish swim against the current""
