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6 x 45
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A wildcat of a 223 Rem necked up to 6mm giving a very excellent WIND GUN. The 58 gr VMax, Sierra 55 gr Spitzer, and the Nosler 55 gr Ballistic tip all work equally well in my converted Rem 700.
Below is an article I wrote and was published in Varmint Hunter Mag.
Another wildcat of the .223 Rem (5.56 x 45 mm NATO)
The 6 x 45
A few months ago I wrote about another wildcat of the .223 Rem (5.56 x 45 mm NATO), the ECONOMICAL 20 PRACTICAL. This wildcat falls into the same realm. But on the other side of the scale. Bigger instead of smaller. Why bigger? Using heavier 6mm bullets the 6 x 45 is better in the Western wind.
A couple shooters from Virginia came out to shoot prairie dogs a few years back and one shot a 6 x 47. Like a lot of summer days in Colorado it was very hot and windy. Although we found a tree to set under to escape the sun, few and far between in the high desert. We couldn’t escape the wind. Most of our shots were cross-wind. We weren’t going to leave that tree and its shade, so we made do. I wasn’t doing to bad. But the wind was giving us some problems, except for the one guy with the 6 x 47.
I had put away my 22 KHornet an hour or two before and changed to a .221 Fireball with 35 VMax bullets. I was using a mil dot scope and had to hold 3 to 4 dots into the wind allowing me to shoot out to around 200 yards. Anything beyond 200 yards was wasting ammo. About 200 yards away was my truck with a .223 AI and a 22-250 Rem, both with rounds loaded with 55 VMax. But I just didn’t want to walk the 400 yards in the sun to get one. At the time the 22-250 was the biggest varmint rifle I had, and it heated up way to fast when the sun was beating down and the temperature was over 100 degrees.
But that guy with the 6 x 47 kept popping dogs at 300, 350, and a few even farther away. He didn’t miss much. Finally I ask if I could shoot the 6 x 47 a couple times, he paused, and then said “OK”. Being from the East and not shooting many rounds a day, he only had about 150 cases with him. He had been loading them at night in the Motel to be able to shoot the next day and he wasn’t in a hurry to shoot them up. The first shot I took was at about 250 yards and I just missed into the wind, I held too much. Surprised, I placed the cross hairs for the next shot just on the wind side of the dog and took the shot, dead dog. He was loading the 58 VMax. With the heaver weight and the better ballistic coefficient the 6 x 47 held the wind much better.
Several months went by and I had kept the thought of that 6 x 47 in my head. Up to this point in time I only had 22 caliber rifles, 22 KHornet, 221 Fireball, 222 Rem, 223 Rem, 223 Rem AI, and a couple 22-250 Rem. Staying with the 22 caliber I started looking for a WIND GUN. I picked up a real nice 22/308 custom rifle in a Remington 700 short action when a gunsmith in Colorado Springs, Colorado passed. It shot great, BUT, and their seams to always be a BUT, it heated up fast and used a lot of propellant. Sold that to a groundhog shooter in Pennsylvania and far as I know it worked out great for him. I don’t know why but I picked up a 220 Swift. Shot it for awhile and turned it into a 220 Swift Ackley Improved, same problems, only hotter. Then I turned one of the 22-250 Remington into an AI, same problems, but it didn’t heat-up quite as bad as the 220 Swift AI, and took a little less propellant. I stayed with the 22-250 Rems and 22-250 Rem AI as my WIND Guns for a couple years. But I wasn’t happy. I couldn’t shoot more than 20 rounds on those hot high desert days or the guns would get way to hot. I would switch back and forth with the two and make do. I was spending a lot of time waiting for a gun to cool down to shoot. On some of those days I could have easily shot 300 rounds a day, so I was loosing trigger time.
I was talking with one of my shooting friends one day and we got talking about shooting in the wind. I told him I wasn’t happy with the 22-250 Rem and 22-250 Rem AI as my WIND GUN, he said “Use a 6mm”. He also just happened to have a 6mm PPC, Ruger M77, dies, cases, and loaded ammo for sale. That started my ‘6mm phase. The 6 x 47 popped back into my head because of the cost of the 6 PPC brass.
Around that time I also got started into the 20 Practical using 5.56 x 45 mm NATO brass to make my cases. Several manufactures make 223 Remington brass, it’s easy to find. Lots of times you can be at an open range and find brass all over the ground. Brass can be bought for $.05 to $.12 at gun shows and get all one manufacture. Too use for varmint shooting that is all you need.
I started asking around on a coupe forums about the 6 x 47. I found out the brass for the 6 x 47 was made from 222 Rem Mag. You want to talk about expensive and hard to find brass, that was it, almost non-existent. Several people talked about and shot the 6 x 45 for what I want to use it for, prairie dogs and other varmints. Shooting under windy conditions.
In the pic below I’m shooting rockchucks in Idaho with my 6 x 45 in a farmers alfalfa field. My back was better and I shot 28 rockchucks that day.
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My next problem was what platform to build it on, Ruger, Remington, Savage, or custom. I had a Remington 700 SA SPS in 223 Rem that just didn’t shoot real great, good, but not great. That was my choice, just because I had one. All that I needed was a 6mm barrel and have my gunsmith re-barrel/re-chamber to 6 x 45. A member of a forum I was on solved that problem. He sold me two take-off Super Match 6mm barrels from a bench rest shooter. He had changed them out because they had stopped shooting in the 1’s and 2’s (less than 300 rounds through each). One will be my 6 x 45 and the other a custom 6mm PPC.
From another friend I bought 1,000 223 Remington’s (R-P) for $.07 each, what a deal. I used my Redding 223 Remington Bushing Die set so I didn’t have to buy a set of dies. I took the expander ball from an extra 6mm PPC die set, used a .264 bushing, and I had my sizing die. I purchased a 6 x 45 Redding seater die off of the same forum.
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Checking the brass I found around 80 percent appeared to be once fired, the rest were questionable. I annealed them all and sized all the brass using a small base Redding die in 223 Remington. One, it would make it easier to expand the 223 Remington neck to 6 mm (which many said annealing wouldn’t be needed). Two, after sizing all the brass I should have the same neck tension (a plus for ease of loading and accuracy).
Most folks that reload avoid annealing like the plague. It’s not really that hard, just use some common sense. Good annealing can be done with everyday items found around the house. All that is needed is an empty coffee can or metal pan, a propane torch from your local hardware store, and a portable drill with a socket to hold the brass to spin it. Several methods on how to anneal can be found on the internet according to how deep your pockets are.
I use a stud that fits in my drill, to hold a socket size for whatever case I’m using to spin it in the flame. Use a 3/8 socket for 223 base brass (.378), a 7/16 socket for PPC base brass (.441), and a ½ socket for 308 base brass (.473).
Fill the coffee can ¾ full of water to drop the hot brass into to cool it down.
I secure my propane torch in a box with something around it to keep the torch upright, most of the time bags of bullets. When annealing you don’t touch the torch, just the flame. With the drill on medium speed, spin the brass in the flame where the shoulder first starts at the neck, at an angle with the shoulder, for about 6 to 8 seconds or until the brass first turns blue under the flame. I use the one thousand one, one thousand two counting method. At the one thousand and sixth count the brass just starts to turn, by the one thousand and eighth, it has turned blue under the flame. Drop your brass in your can of water, the case is annealed. Some folks call this the messy method. You will have to get the water out somehow and get the case dry before you can do anything else.
Another method I just started using is the dry method. When the case turns blue under the flame, drop it in a aluminum pan to cool. A word of CAUTION the pan will get very hot after 50 to 100 cases. Whatever is under that pan will get hot too.
Annealing extends the life of your brass and improves accuracy, somewhat, or so it has been said. I don’t shoot MAX loads to expand my primer pocket. So my brass has a chance to split before the primer pocket expands. With the cost of new brass now days, I want my brass to last a very long time. The short stubby cases, 6 and 22 PPC, 6 BR and 22 BR, and the 221 Fireball seam to need annealing more often, some every time. I anneal every 2 to 4 firings or when resizing the expander ball pulls through the case neck with little effort. The expander balls job is to expand the case neck out after the case has been sized 1 or 2 thousands tight when the case is at the top of the resizing stroke. But again some folks do not use a expander ball. A mandrel is used by the bench rest group. If the case is fire harden it will not size down that 1 or 2 thousands. The expander ball will pull through the case neck on the down stroke with little effort and the bullet will not be tight in the case neck when seated. When reloading and seating a bullet a pressure should be felt when the bullet is seated. This is known as the “Neck Tension”. If the case doesn’t size properly, the case isn’t gripping the bullet and it may let the bullet slide into the case. If the bullet seats to easy, a RED FLAG should go up. That’s usually the first sign your brass needs annealed. The second is when the necks start splitting. Pull that bullet, dump the powder back into your powder measure, set that case aside, and consider annealing the rest of your brass.
Letting the bullet slide into the case will send the pressure sky high and maybe damage the gun and/or the person holding it.
I anneal fired brass, brass that HAS NOT had the primer taken out. This way when I full length re-size I’ll have softer brass to work with. Also when I tumble I’ll clean up where the flame discolored my brass.
After annealing, full length re-sizing, and tumbling. I trim my brass to the CASE TRIM LENGTH listed in my reloading books. With the 6 x 45 case it was 1.750 inches, same as the parent case 5.56 x 45 mm NATO/223 Remington. Most factory chambers are 20 to 30 thousands or much more over the MAX LENGTH published. Just to be safe from the manufactures point. If firing a round in a custom chamber, you need to know the chamber length. I just want my cases all the same length, it makes me feel better. I don’t want to be on a prairie dog town many miles from nowhere on a very hot day and jam a case in the chamber. The very least that can happen is to put the gun out of commission until it cools down. The worst, if I pulled the trigger, damage the gun, which would get ugly.
Once I’ve full length re-sized, tumbled, trimmed, and cleaned the primer pocket. My brass is stored in color coded plastic boxes. I use color coding and large print box ID because I have several calibers near the same look/size. Some can’t be mixed without dangerous consequences. A 222 Rem put in a 223 Rem chamber will blow the gun, I’ve seen the results. Others like the 22 PPC in a 6 PPC nothing happens, you just have bad accuracy, a .224 bullet bouncing down a .243 barrel. The biggest advantage of color coded boxes for my ammo is it helps me end-up in the field with the right ammo for the rifle at hand. More than once I’ve been with someone that arrived in the field with the wrong ammo for the rifle they have with them, or no ammo at all. It gets real hard to shoot prairie dogs that way. They either shoot my rifle and ammo or watch me shoot prairie dogs for a couple days, I’ve had both happen.
To start my loading and fire forming I used information I had received from different sources on the internet or guys that had been using the 6 x 45 for awhile. Knowing I’m going to only shoot paper targets and prairie dogs, high velocity isn’t my thing. Hot loads mean low barrel life. Besides, I haven’t found a prairie dog yet that can out run a bullet, low or high velocity. Usually lower velocity loads are more accurate from 100 to 300 yards, but now always. The heavier bullets do need to be pushed a little to maintain their accuracy at longer ranges. If prairie dogs go down out too 300 yards, I just move the truck.
My barrel is a 1 in 10 twist and it should shoot bullet weights from 55 to 70 grains with little problems. I started with the 55 gr Nosler Spitzer and Ballistic Tip, and the 58 gr Hornady VMax.
The first time shooting test targets, fire forming cases, I was happy.
The propellants I chose to use for the 55 gr Nosler Spitzer and Ballistic Tip, and the 58 gr Hornady VMax was:
Hodgdon Benchmark 25 – 26.5 gr
Ramshot TAC 25 – 26.5 gr
IMR 8208 XBR 25 – 26.5 gr
Not knowing where to start with my rifle, I used the 25 grs for fire forming and 26 grs as my starting loads using the 58 gr Hornady VMax and once fired brass. With the 55 gr bullets I used 26 grs as my starting loads and once fired brass.
I gave up on the 55 gr Nosler Spitzer right off the bat. They just wouldn’t group consistency under an inch at 100 yards. Even with once fired brass.
I have a lot of Ramshot TAC and Hodgdon Benchmark. So I loaded the rest of my cases (about 700) with about half of each using the 58 VMax bullet. With 25.6 grs TAC and 25.5 grs of Benchmark to an OAL of 2.260, for my rifle; all shots averaged around 3,000 fps. Most groups were around a half inch at 100 yds, well under MOPD (Minute of Prairie Dog).
The first two short trips out with the 6 x 45, I did good. The wind was up, around 15 to 20 mph, which is kind ‘a normal here in the spring. I kept my shots under 300 yards and didn’t miss too often. I even scored a double on rockchucks at around 150 yards, I was happy.
The pic below was shooting rockchucks in Idaho on one of those days when my back was giving me real problems. I only shot 5 rockchucks on that day, I could hardly walk.
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