jackie schmidt
New member
I finally got all of the pieces together for the 6mmBeggs, and headed for Tomball early yesterday Morning. Conditions were pretty bad, 10-15 mph switchy winds, the kind that makes shooters hate Tomball.
Before I give a report on the range experience, let me give a few thoughts on the set-up.
As Gene said, Hornady did make a minor mistake in that they did not make the decapping pins the correct size. I did not catch this, and when I tested the die at my shop, I "crunched" the pin. After getting it all apart, I took the spare pin that they just happenned to furnish and turned it down to .059. Problem solved.
The next item is the reamer its self. As a machinist, I feel like I can give some insight into using a reamer of this design.
The vast majority of reamers we use now have relative straight bodies. After the reamer advances a substantial amount into the chamber, it cuts very little on the body. But with the Beggs, which retains the same steep taper as the parent 220 Russian, the body of the reamer continues to cut quite a bit on the body for every small advancement into the chamber. Just be careful, use plenty of cutting oil, and be careful not to get to aggresive with the feed.
After I fired the cases once, I checked the headspace length of my fired cases. I gave the Rifle .002 over the go gage that Gene furnished me. The face to shoulder length, (headspace), increased about .005 over a necked up and turned 220 Russian Case. With the shell holder just kissing the base of the Hornady Die, the shoulder on a fired case was "bumped" back .002. This was just right.
I started out with N133, just to see what it would do. I filled a case with 27 grns, and velocity was only an average 3200 fps. Lots of verticle. I steadilly went up, untill I had as much 133 as I could get into the case with my 8 inch drop tube and slow trickle. That is about 28.4 grns. That still yielded only an average 3270 fps. Accuracy wasn't bad, but not what I was looking for, even in the stiff conditions. I played with the seating depth, and showed little improvement.
I decided that 133 is just a tad slow for the capacity of the 6mm Beggs. I pulled out the 4198, and decided to just start with 27 grns.
Good Grief, The first shot went 3425 fps. Since I had loaded up five, I decided to shoot a group, as that case came out with no aparent problems. The group I shot, in a predominate ebbing and flowing tail wind, was about a .130. But, I decided that there was no use in shooting this, because common sense dictates that about 70,000 psi was being produced for a case this small to push a 68 grn bullet that fast. No use going there at this time.
So, I backed down to about 25.5 grns, and started working up. I seemed to have about a bullet hole of verticle untill I got the velocity at about 3350. I played with the seating depth, and decided that the 4198 did not like as much jam as 133 likes with the Barts Ultras. I took it back to about .005 in, and it shot a couple of nice groups, in the "high one" range. I added a few tenths, to 26.3 grns, and accuracy was what I was looking for, with an average 3360 fps.
I shot one more five shot group, and nailed a nice mid to high "one", fighting the tough conditions the whole way. (along the way, I did loose several shots to the condition, but they went exactly where the wind pushed them).
I then decided to shoot a ten shot group, as time was running out for the day. I had 8 shots in about a .150, even called everybody over to look before I screwed it up. The ninth shot popped high, adding a bullet hole to the group. The simple fact is, I miss-read the velocity of that tail win, as it was changing quickly. The tenth shot, for all purposes, went into the first eight. I was really disgusted, but upon reflection, the conditions were just not conducieve to shooting really small 10-shot groups. Or, at least, not for me.
Conclusion. The 6MM Beggs shoots just like a Benchrest Cartridge, which is no surprise. While I did have to fight the tough conditions all day long, I did shoot some outstanding groups The big surprise was how little trouble I had with the mechanics of the set-up. I had 12 cases that I shot all day with, a total of about 100 rounds. The Hornady Die performed great, sized the cases perfectly, and I never had one extraction problem, or "click" at the top of the bolt stroke. The cases only grew about .005 over the entire day of shooting, which was about 9 firings on each case. I consider that average. The primer pockets all are still nice and tight, and the cases look good.
Before, there was the idea that the 220 Russian in it's natural state would have extraction and growing problems when fired at the pressures that Benchrest Shooters use. If today is an indication, Gene has solved this problem.
One note, even though the Rifle was performing like a Benchrest Rifle, the SD's and ES's were not that good, showing that I could still fine tune things to a better tune. Also, I thought I had some N130, which would seem to be the ideal VV powder for this case, but I didn't. But this was just one day, I hit the ground running, but this is new territory for me.
Next week end, I plan on changing the chamber and my seating die to accept a non neck turned case. This will be a .273. I am anxiously wanting to see how it performs right out of the box.
As for the particulars for the set-up. I was shooting my Rail Gun with a .237 4-groove Krieger Unlimited 1.450 barrel that I chopped about 2 inches off of the chamber end, treating it like a new 20 inch blank. The bullets were Barts Ultras. I made the seater by taking a 6PPC Redding Competition Seater and making a new sliding chamber to fit the Beggs case. ..........jackie
Before I give a report on the range experience, let me give a few thoughts on the set-up.
As Gene said, Hornady did make a minor mistake in that they did not make the decapping pins the correct size. I did not catch this, and when I tested the die at my shop, I "crunched" the pin. After getting it all apart, I took the spare pin that they just happenned to furnish and turned it down to .059. Problem solved.
The next item is the reamer its self. As a machinist, I feel like I can give some insight into using a reamer of this design.
The vast majority of reamers we use now have relative straight bodies. After the reamer advances a substantial amount into the chamber, it cuts very little on the body. But with the Beggs, which retains the same steep taper as the parent 220 Russian, the body of the reamer continues to cut quite a bit on the body for every small advancement into the chamber. Just be careful, use plenty of cutting oil, and be careful not to get to aggresive with the feed.
After I fired the cases once, I checked the headspace length of my fired cases. I gave the Rifle .002 over the go gage that Gene furnished me. The face to shoulder length, (headspace), increased about .005 over a necked up and turned 220 Russian Case. With the shell holder just kissing the base of the Hornady Die, the shoulder on a fired case was "bumped" back .002. This was just right.
I started out with N133, just to see what it would do. I filled a case with 27 grns, and velocity was only an average 3200 fps. Lots of verticle. I steadilly went up, untill I had as much 133 as I could get into the case with my 8 inch drop tube and slow trickle. That is about 28.4 grns. That still yielded only an average 3270 fps. Accuracy wasn't bad, but not what I was looking for, even in the stiff conditions. I played with the seating depth, and showed little improvement.
I decided that 133 is just a tad slow for the capacity of the 6mm Beggs. I pulled out the 4198, and decided to just start with 27 grns.
Good Grief, The first shot went 3425 fps. Since I had loaded up five, I decided to shoot a group, as that case came out with no aparent problems. The group I shot, in a predominate ebbing and flowing tail wind, was about a .130. But, I decided that there was no use in shooting this, because common sense dictates that about 70,000 psi was being produced for a case this small to push a 68 grn bullet that fast. No use going there at this time.
So, I backed down to about 25.5 grns, and started working up. I seemed to have about a bullet hole of verticle untill I got the velocity at about 3350. I played with the seating depth, and decided that the 4198 did not like as much jam as 133 likes with the Barts Ultras. I took it back to about .005 in, and it shot a couple of nice groups, in the "high one" range. I added a few tenths, to 26.3 grns, and accuracy was what I was looking for, with an average 3360 fps.
I shot one more five shot group, and nailed a nice mid to high "one", fighting the tough conditions the whole way. (along the way, I did loose several shots to the condition, but they went exactly where the wind pushed them).
I then decided to shoot a ten shot group, as time was running out for the day. I had 8 shots in about a .150, even called everybody over to look before I screwed it up. The ninth shot popped high, adding a bullet hole to the group. The simple fact is, I miss-read the velocity of that tail win, as it was changing quickly. The tenth shot, for all purposes, went into the first eight. I was really disgusted, but upon reflection, the conditions were just not conducieve to shooting really small 10-shot groups. Or, at least, not for me.
Conclusion. The 6MM Beggs shoots just like a Benchrest Cartridge, which is no surprise. While I did have to fight the tough conditions all day long, I did shoot some outstanding groups The big surprise was how little trouble I had with the mechanics of the set-up. I had 12 cases that I shot all day with, a total of about 100 rounds. The Hornady Die performed great, sized the cases perfectly, and I never had one extraction problem, or "click" at the top of the bolt stroke. The cases only grew about .005 over the entire day of shooting, which was about 9 firings on each case. I consider that average. The primer pockets all are still nice and tight, and the cases look good.
Before, there was the idea that the 220 Russian in it's natural state would have extraction and growing problems when fired at the pressures that Benchrest Shooters use. If today is an indication, Gene has solved this problem.
One note, even though the Rifle was performing like a Benchrest Rifle, the SD's and ES's were not that good, showing that I could still fine tune things to a better tune. Also, I thought I had some N130, which would seem to be the ideal VV powder for this case, but I didn't. But this was just one day, I hit the ground running, but this is new territory for me.
Next week end, I plan on changing the chamber and my seating die to accept a non neck turned case. This will be a .273. I am anxiously wanting to see how it performs right out of the box.
As for the particulars for the set-up. I was shooting my Rail Gun with a .237 4-groove Krieger Unlimited 1.450 barrel that I chopped about 2 inches off of the chamber end, treating it like a new 20 inch blank. The bullets were Barts Ultras. I made the seater by taking a 6PPC Redding Competition Seater and making a new sliding chamber to fit the Beggs case. ..........jackie
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