6mm Gay Tiger has land - 24hourmpfire

Authors note: In my How I got to Precisn Rifle seri of articl, I discsed my journey to precisn rifle petn and my var rifle builds. In my last article, I mentned buildg a petn rifle the new 6mm GT liber. In this article, I discs the 6mm GT liber and my rifle build. My next article will discs loadg for the 6mm GT. Stay tuned!As wh all thgs, precisn rifle shootg isn't immune to evolutn – pecially wh s growg populary. First, was the .30 libers, then went to the 6.5s, and now we're all about sendg 6mm bullets faster and faster. 6.5 Creedmoor got necked down to 6mm Creedmoor, 6.5x47mm Lapua got necked down to 6x47mm Lapua, and PRS petors even started g benchrt rtridg like 6mm BR Norma. Except for the Creedmoor class of rtridg, you will be rtricted to handloadg, and the 6BR ma that relatively simple: throw some Varget behd a 105 gra bullet, and you're off to the rac, sort GENESIS OF THE 6MM GTThe BR was not signed to be shot out of bolt-actn rifl but meant to be sgle-fed. That led to improvements like 6BRA(Ackley Improved), 6BRX, and the 6mm Dasher more recently. The improvements to the se sign njunctn wh modified AICS magaz wh 'BR Spacers' were supposed to fix the feedg issu. However, by all acunts, the rtridge was still ficky a repeater at bt, and gettg qualy brass was Gee Gardner of GA Precisn and Tom Jabs of Vapor Trail set out to fd a middle ground between the BR, s variants, and the Creedmoor for petn e. The goal was to shoot a 105-115 gra high B.C. projectile at speeds up to 3050 fps wh low reil and sgle-dig standard viatns, specifilly g Varget (Other powrs like H4350 work jt as well, or some s better). Origally was a heavily lubed 6.5x47 Lapua se sent through a full-length sizg die, trimmed down on a mi chop saw, and lastly, turng the neck. If that were the only optn for brass, I would be out jt bee of that. Fortunately, there are two offergs for brass: the more affordable Hornady ($0.75/pc) and the more expensive Alpha Munns ($1.25/pc), both wh small rifle primer and standard flash all of that a pot and mix up, and what you get is the 6mm GT. Contrary to popular belief, GT do not stand for "Gay Tiger," although GA Precisn's marketg team has leaned to that pretty hard. It was jt a cince that beme popular around the same time as Tiger Kg. The GT stands for Gee and Tom, sorry to disappot. I personally like Gay Tiger better; brgs some character to the COMPONENTSSce this is gog to be my petn rifle, I knew gog to this build was that I would be g the MDT ACC chassis as the base. For the actn, I end up choosg Black Heart Internatnal, which is a rebrand Stiller Tac-30. In other words: a ctom Remgton 700. It me wh a benchrt trigger on that was crisp but too light. I replaced wh Geissele's Super 700; I'll speak more about that a ltle b. We ed a Bartle heavy varmt barrel and an Area 419 Hellfire brake topped off wh a Lpold Mark 5 HD Super 700 is a one-stage or two-stage trigger that pre-set at 3.5 lbs. The Super 700 n adjt to 8 ounc, though Geissele do not remend gog below 2 lbs. for safety reasons. Changg to a sgle stage was givg me issu wh the over-travel adjtment. It felt more like a rollg trigger analogo to the Three-Gun and Rapid-Fire triggers om Geissele. I was almost ready to get rid of and move on to a Trigger Tech Diamond. After gog back and thoroughly readg the directns, I was able to tweak the over travel adjtment jt enough to get a very crisp 15 oz sgle-stage BUILDI'm not gog to go too -pth here. My gunsmh, Bill Marr (, 782 Ctom Gunworks), did a full wre-up on that uld be read here (). We spun the barrel up, I went home, assembled the rifle, and went to the BREAK INI had 100 rounds load up wh 108 Bergers and 105 Lapua Scenar-Ls wh a uple of different powrs – N140, Shooters World Precisn, H4350, Staball 6.5. Most of the shootg was done to get the first firg out of the way so more precise load velopment uld be done. A uple of arbrary safe charge weights were sent downrange 10 shot groups while cleang between rounds for five rounds, then every three rounds for 15 rounds, and lastly, every five rounds for 15 rounds. The remag 60 rounds were shot, and the rifle was thoroughly cleaned ten shot groups at 100 yards wh no load velopment showed a lot of promise; they were all sub-ch, while a few were the ¾ ch range. This ma me exced to beg actual load velopment.RESULTSThe wng powr end up beg N140, which is sentially Varget, which is why I chose s absence. Luckily the world is slowly gettg back to normal, and powr is gradually beg more available. The 108 Berger BT Target are gettg phed at roughly 2975 fps, and the 105 Lapua Scenar-Ls are gettg phed around 3030 fps wh SDs the mid-low sgle digs. On average, the groups are ½ ch but regularly unr the .400-ch mark.I am pleased wh the accuracy and precisn performance of the 6mm GT. But did fulfill s promise to improve on the Dasher? You bet. There have been no feedg issu, the reil is light and smooth, and wh the low powr charg, barrel life should be well beyond the 2,500 round range.I plan to swap stuff the brake to the Area 419 Hellfire Match, sentially a 4-port versn of the Hellfire. Along wh that, I would like to add a Trigger Tech Diamond when I fd one on sale. Lastly, I will add some MDT weights to the chassis to balance out and help mimize the reil to almost nothg. I will be shootg this rifle for the remag two match for the 2021 season and will wre a follow-up to this once the season is over.CLOSING THOUGHTSSo do I thk the 6mm GT is a gimmick that will be fotten about for somethg new and improved wh a few seasons? No. The GT is here to stay. Stay tuned for my next article, where I take a ep dive to loadg the 6mm GT!ABOUT THE AUTHORWilliam Maxwell currently serv the Uned Stat Army. After returng om his first ployment 2015, he started buildg firearms and foced heavily on pistol and rbe trag. In 2018 he fell to the rabb hole of precisn rifle shootg. He spends his ee time petg, reloadg, edg digal ntent, and wrg. He n be reached via Instagram @maddmaxxguns.