Bhw 6x6.8 issues

varminter .223

Active member
This Barrel has never shot anything to my liking. I've recently been messing with 60 Sierra hollow points and 70 Sierra blitzking. It shot really well with 55 varmageddon hollow points when the barrel was good and clean but it seems with the 55s and 70s it will basically put four touching then religiously throw a fifth just over an inch out of the group. The seventies it will throw high or low the 55 it will throw left. The 60 seem like they would shoot really well but then would randomly not shoot well.
I also have a 25x45 that will do this with the 70 blitzking. It will randomly shoot four touching and then throw one right or it may just randomly shoot like crap. Buy crap I mean 1 and 1/2 to 2 inches center to center.
I've changed Optics and I'm going to revisit the 70 blitzking in the 6 x 6. 8 but it's been frustrating. Has anyone else fought such an issue with the poly three barrels or any other barrel I guess.
I will also add my 8 twist 22 Nosler bhw used to shoot 53's wonderfully now it's strings them vertically no matter what I do and I think I've changed Optics to eliminate that as an issue. I've also recently changed handguards on most of my rifles do something with more clearance than the Matrix have trying to eliminate any barrel contact issues. Doesn't seem to matter if I use new brass, old brass or new freshly fire forned brass whatever.
My white oak 22 Nosler on the other hand shoots everything wonderfully and is not so sensitive.
 
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I think in order to diagnose some of this I might put the bobsled in and single feed some. It just seems to me that when a gun will put four or five in one hole and it really wants to shoot that there's some outside thing occurring such as oal changing upon chambering. However in a very stable hunting load I'm not sure even that should matter.
 
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Originally Posted By: Varminter .223This Barrel has never shot anything to my liking.A good barrel ought to shoot pretty much everything well, within reason. I'd replace it instead of chasing sunk costs.
 
I feel your pain. Mine does the same thing you are speaking of and I can't even begin to get it to group 58's which is depressing. I am going to focus on the 70 SBK's and when I get fed up it will get a rebarrel.
 
29.7 ar comp
450 primer
Hornady brass
2.275 ish
70 blitzking
Shoot 4 really well and 1 high or low.
If I go to a Remington 7.5 it turns into a shotgun group.
If I go up anymore and powder it blows the group out.
If I go longer on coal the group suffers.
 
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Ive got a 16" 6x6.8 and light bullets didnt shoot worth a flip. The best load so far is 85gr Sierra #1350. It doest string its just nice consistent groups.
I bought several thousand 55gr Nosler varmgeddons and i tried every load possibility and they are just shotgun patterns. So went to the 58 and 75 Vmax. settled on the 85 SGK and been happy.
 
Originally Posted By: NonnieselmanIve got a 16" 6x6.8 and light bullets didnt shoot worth a flip. The best load so far is 85gr Sierra #1350. It doest string its just nice consistent groups.
I bought several thousand 55gr Nosler varmgeddons and i tried every load possibility and they are just shotgun patterns. So went to the 58 and 75 Vmax. settled on the 85 SGK and been happy. You might have gotten one with a really short throat. I got 2 in a row like that. Sounds nice, but I had to seat bullets SUPER deep to avoid jamming into the lands, and that created compressed powder issues and restricted powders and loads and velocities and pressures. Plus mine was confirmed by BHW to have a non-concentric chamber on top of that. So, you might want to look into that.
 
Speaking of non concentric chambers... you know that ring that you get around the bullet around the ogive area.... I extracted a live round the other day and that ring was there but it wasn't in a concentric spot if that makes sense.... the ring was higher on one side and lower on the other which caught my attention.
 
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Speaking of out-of-spec short throats... Your extracted live rounds are showing marks from the rifling?
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Well that sure sounds familiar, my 6x6.8 looks like it has promise but is inconsistent like that. I know it has a non-concentric chamber because you can see it with the Lyman. I haven't worked with it near as much as you though, but it does shoot 85 gr sierras plenty well enough to kill deer with out as far as you should, so I'm probably going to let some kids use it for that.
 
Originally Posted By: varminter .223No not rifling marks. It's a ring.


I would bet that the ring is from your seating stem. Check run out on your necks.
 
No its a ring that shows up when the round is chambered. The 6x6.8s all do it. It's a scuff from going into the throat I guess.
 
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Originally Posted By: DiRTY DOG You might have gotten one with a really short throat. I got 2 in a row like that.

This is my problem with the 58's. Distance to the lands is 2.219"
 
Originally Posted By: varminter .223No its a ring that shows up when the round is chambered. The 6x6.8s all do it. It's a scuff from going into the throat I guess.

Mine doesn't.
 
Originally Posted By: riveratThis is my problem with the 58's. Distance to the lands is 2.219" Both of my bad 6x6.8 barrels were touching the lands at 2.175" coal with 58gr Vmax, resulting in crushed loads (with any weight bullet).
 
I talked to BHW's owner after I got 2 bad barrels in a row and got the ball rolling on figuring out what was going on. He said they figured out they had been using 3 PTG 6x6.8 reamers. 2 of them were sent in to be sharpened around summer/fall 2015. Apparently they were sharpened incorrectly, (perhaps to an older experimental reamer design? dunno), which resulted in short throats. Not all 6x6.8 barrels have this issue, but a bunch do, depending on when your barrel was made and which reamer they used. It's a known issue.
 
I can't remember exactly where a 58 Vmax hits the lands but I know we shoot them it 2.222.
I don't think that last two has to be there but that's just how I remember all twos. That puts us at somewhere around .020 off the lands.
 
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