Finished My 2024 Deer Gun. 18" 6 Creed

[SloppyJ]

Finally got this thing wrapped up today. My barrel showed up right around 8 weeks and was the last piece of the puzzle.

I'm beyond excited to start some load dev with it and see what's she's going to do. I have 108 ELDMs and 108 Bergers to test out. Planning on running H4350 in Peterson SRP brass. If I can squeeze 2850 out of it I'll be stoked.

Build List:
Left Hand Origin SA bead blasted from NSS
X-Caliber 18" Carbon bead blasted heavy contour
Manners LRH w/ mini chassis in scorched earth
Manners (Badger?) DBM currently
Trigger Tech Special Flat
NF NX8 2.5x20 Mil-C
Pictured with my Scythe but it will have my Dilligent Defense Wolfhunter on it more than likely.

I need to relieve the stock around the barrel nut and a TINY amount around the bolt handle in the down position to make it perfect. Plan on chopping the rail back half an inch as well.

Planning on running a Hawkins Hunter DBM and mag for season. I have a 22" PVA .223 for volume practice and having a bottom metal that accepts AICS mags is a nice touch when swapping them.

Anyway, I thought some of yall might enjoy the shorty 6mm action. To be fair, I'm a Rokslide convert from heavy 30cals and this is the first rifle that wasn't given to me that's smaller than that. I've had an absolute blast shooting the .223 so I'm sure I'll love this as well.

 

[TxLite]

Great looking build. Hope it shoots well for you

 

[Fever Buck]

Looks nice. Weight?

 

[Sadler]

Sweet looking rifle! I’m sure you’ll get 2850. My 16” is shooting the 109s at 2880-2900 with 42 grains of h4350.

 

[SloppyJ]

Sweet looking rifle! I’m sure you’ll get 2850. My 16” is shooting the 109s at 2880-2900 with 42 grains of h4350.

Deep down I want 2900 and that's exactly the load I was going to work up to. Sounds like I should be all over that and maybe even 2950. Probably just dependent on how fast the barrel is. Appreciate the input.

 

[SloppyJ]

Looks nice. Weight?

Thank you. As pictured it's 9.8lbs. Definitely not a super light weight build but that's not what I was going for. When I got the mini chassis version of the stock, that went out the window. Not to mention the 2lb scope.

I think if you swapped out the barrel to a lighter contour and threw a lower power trijicon credo on it you could get to the high 7s. That barrel was heavier than I thought but I'm not messed up about it as long as it hammers.

 

[HGL]

Good looking rifle. You should be fine with an 18", they seem to do well from a short barrel.

My 19" 6cm velocities are:

Lapua SRP and H4350
103 ELDx at 2900 (range load)
103 ELDx at 3030 (hunting load)

Peterson LRP and H4350 loads:
105 BTHP at 3000
108 ELDm at 2995

 

[SloppyJ]

@HGL Thank you for the info. Do you see better velocities with the LRP?

Side note - HGL = Hydraulic Grade Line?

 

[HGL]

Nothing noticable, but I also use the CCI 450's in SRP so maybe that negates things a bit.

Hunt, Gather, Live...

 

[SloppyJ]

Nothing noticable, but I also use the CCI 450's in SRP so maybe that negates things a bit.

Hunt, Gather, Live...

Good to know. I have a few thousand 450s which is why I went with the SRP. Appreciate the stats.

 

[aschuler]

Looks awesome! I'm waiting on my own 18" 6cm barrel to build a deer rifle for this fall.

 

[Hnthrdr]

Looks glorious! Hope it shoots as good as it looks, basically the dream rifle right there!

 

[SloppyJ]

Looks glorious! Hope it shoots as good as it looks, basically the dream rifle right there!

Appreciate it man. I was extremely close to buying a tikka and sending the barrel off to get chopped and threaded which would have saved me some coin and been just as good.

However I talked myself into spending some of my stash and just building what I wanted. I like the versatility of the origin action and now I have a short and long action origin. I couldn't find a good prefit with what I wanted so I settled a bit on the barrel but fingers crossed that she shoots.

 

[SloppyJ]

First 50 loaded up. Picked a random seating depth based on some quick research. Went with the ELDMs 0.030 off and the Berger 108 Elite Hunters 0.010 off. The ELDMs ended up shorter than I anticipated at 2.750 with the bergers at 2.810. Both will fit in a Hawkins Hunter mag so I'm good to go there.

Using H4350 I loaded 5 of each charge weight: 40.5, 41, 41.5, and 42. To find pressure I loaded 5 at 42.1 through 42.5 for both because I like to know where the ceiling is.

Not sure when I'll get out to the range but I'll post back with chrono info on the loads when I do. I'm not too motivated to get out there when it's 90+ degrees and feels like you can chew the air.

Hopefully I can find a decent load in one of these and I'll use the next 50 to get it fully broke in and see if I can tell any difference in changes to seating depth.

 

[Taudisio]

Tagging in to follow along on your reloading journey. I see a short barreled 6cm in my future.

 

[SloppyJ]

Little bit of work done today. Relieved the inlet a bit more in the barrel channel with a few sockets and some sand paper. I then relieved the cut around the barrel nut too with a dremel and evened it out by hand with sand paper. If I did it again, it would be all by hand. The right side got a little wonky. The relief around the nut is what I would consider "throw a dead cat through" as Form so eloquently says. The barrel channel is a bit tighter but still PLENTY of room.

The swept bolt handle on the origin was hitting the rear of the bolt handle cut so I relieved that by hand too. That took the longest because I was very anal about the lines and how it was going to look.

I then taped it off and used flat black rustoleum and a hobby brush to put a few coats on the interior of the stock to make it look a ton better when the action and barrel were installed. I even painted some of the areas i didnt touch because they werent coated. You know, for an $1100 stock, you would think that the entire interior would be finished. Maybe that's just me... with that said, I still really like the stock. Probably more than my McMillan Game Warden LR.

I have one last small step to complete tomorrow before I'm calling this complete for now. I'm going to cut the rail back one whole lug. This will buy me a little wiggle room with the shorty NX8. Thinking about chamfering the face at a 45 after it's cut but that will be a game time decision.

Wanted to document this stuff for the guys that haven't done it or don't think they can. It's not hard. You just need to be OCD about it if you care what it looks like.

If I think I can pick up something by bedding it I will do that as well but initial tests with my .223 barrel said it's on point. Or at least good enough for me and likely everyone else. There's some wiggle room in the lug area and I bet it will bother me long term so that will probably get bedded at a minimum.

 

[borntohuntforcedtowork]

Awesome set up. Love the caliber!

 

[berretsteve]

awesome build, would love to see range statistics.

 

[SloppyJ]

awesome build, would love to see range statistics.

I'm itching to get to the range my man.

 

[SloppyJ]

I think she's finally done for now. I took the hacksaw and chopped a bit off of the rail to get some more room between the bell of the scope and the rail. A few coats of black sharpie and you'd be hard pressed to ever notice.

Hopefully I'll be back with some chrono results soon.