A New Load for the 6BRX

For over five years I have been shooting the 6BRX with great success and consider it to be one of the most accurate cartridges I have ever competed with. I have extolled it's virtues here on this blog and to anyone who expressed an interest in it. Fire-forming the parent Lapua 6BR brass is easy and is so accurate that I wouldn't hesitate to shoot in a major match while doing so. Up until recently I have used Varget exclusively but as you know its getting harder and harder to find any quantities of this fine powder.

A couple of months ago I stumbled on a post on 6br.com where the poster was extolling the virtues of using H-4350 in his 6 Dasher. Namely better throat life due to the expanded burn window and the same velocities as Varget. Well I happen to have a little H-4350 on the shelf so I watched with interest as the posts accumulated as more and more people chimed in (why does everyone use an alias??) It became evident that a number of folks were using long drop tubes and getting nearly 37 grs. in the little cases. Being a bit of a doubting Thomas I headed to the loading bench to check out these claims for myself.

Initial case volume tests proved that I could get over 36 grs in my cases by simply pouring the powder charge slowly down my funnel. The current seating depth of my Berger 105 VLD's easily accommodated up to 36.4 grs. with no "crunching". So being prudent I loaded up a set of twenty-five cases with 35 grs. to test in an upcoming 500 yard prone match. The results of that single string and subsequent testing proved that 36.1 grs of H-4350 yielded excellent accuracy and velocity equivalent to my Varget load (click HERE, HERE, HERE, HERE and HERE ) for my test results in five 60 shot matches.

To clarify some of the information presented here I have assembled a very short pictorial(click HERE) that visually illustrates some of my points. Better throat and or barrel life is an unknown at this point but should the current shortage of Varget continue I would not hesitate to use H-4350 as an excellent substitute.

In closing I would only add that my max test load was 36.3 grs of H-4350 and no untoward pressure signs were noted and were safe in IN MY RIFLE. Please exercise all caution and slowly work up to any of the listed charge weights as every rifle barrel is different.

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RCurtis