1/2 MOA Rifle Report Part 2
by J. A. Smith

Well I am back with the continuation of the Remington Varmint rifle
story. Let me tell you this thing, at the least, has been an
interesting experience.

After working up some loads and searching for 6mm Rem. factory loadings
to try, this hasn't been easy. So I'll start at the beginning with the
fireforming and breaking in the barrel.

I'll save you the brass preparation details and just tell you all was
tended to as to weight, concentricity, etc.

Starting with 100 Remington cases I primed them with Federal Gold Medal
primers and a charge of IMR4831 2grs under published maximum with
Sierra 80gr bullets. All were seated to touch the lands. Then I
proceeded to clean the bore, and it's been my experience that you could
probably fire 250 rounds nonstop and still have an easier time cleaning
the bore to spotless than when new. I don't know what Remington uses in
their barrels, but what fun, right?

After some 100 patches the rifle and I were off to the range. Breaking
in a barrel is somewhat fun, it gives you a chance for some practice
and I need it as much as anyone. I was very surprised with this thing;
the first ten were almost all centered in one hole about .75in except
for three fliers that were maybe a .25in outside. Very pleasant
feelings of the self gratifying type came over me. I finally got a
hummer as far as a factory rifle will hum.

Then we started in the 3 shot groups strings, one of those went .274,
the worst fell .981(hmmm). But the carbon and copper fouling was worse
than I've ever seen. A knowledgeable gunsmith told me Rem's barrels are
soft and don't need broken in? Same thing with the 5 shot groups. Worst
of those was 1.083(shooter?) and the best went .411" so much for
shooter consistency.

Back to the factory ammunition, have you ever looked for 6mm Rem at
your local dealers shelves? I was limited to Hornady Light Magnum, the
plain vanilla Remington offerings of 80 and 100gr, and the somewhat new
Premier Varmint from Remington. Hornady isn't going to be making 6mm
Remington anytime soon.

The Light Mag has been discontinued due to Frontier not producing brass
and Hornady wont use Remington brass so far. Don't worry
non-handloading varminter's, Remington Premier Varmint is as good as
anything you can get. And this is where I will end this with a little
run down of the stuff.

Remington Premiere comes in a 75grVMax bullets that are green instead
of the usual red. Didn't get the chance to chronograph the stuff but it
blows up small varmints as well as anyone could hope. Here's the chart
of groups(all 5 shot)
Box 1 Box 2 Box 3
Grp1 .68" .94" .23"
Grp2 .79" .72" .48"
Grp3 .57" .63" .52"
Grp4 .89" 1.13" .52"

One more thing for anybody who hasn't invested in a good one piece
coated cleaning rod like those from Dewey of Parker-Hale and a good
bore-guide you owe it to yourself to do so. I see a lot of guys getting
into the high volume shooting thing at the range and a lot of them
aren't using them. Not doing so will damage the throat on your rifle
and the solvent that seeps back will get into your bedding and turn it
into goo. I have made myself a victim of both and would rather go
without cleaning then push a two piece aluminum rod you get in those
cheap kits with no bore guide.

Till next time.