What to do with 6mmRem??

[wisconsinteacher]

I put a proven scope on it prior to shooting.

 

[Durango Mike]

the 6mm barrel markings should indicate 1:9.5 twist, they rebranded the 244 Rem when the varmint bullet twist would not stabilize the 100 gr bullets. I shot the barrel out of a 700 heavy barrel with 2500 rounds of VERY hot 65 grain bullets pushing max loads at 3700 fps. Throat erosion was as bad as my 220 Swift, literally shredded eastern woodchucks. If you have a bore scope check erosion, if you check twist rate and it is 1:12 it will not stabilize anything longer than the 85 gr bullets.

 

[shb]

Here's the deal. My buddy's dad got a Rem 700 6mmRem from his father-in-law and said it doesn't shoot. He asked me to try messing with it. I cleaned it up and shot a few rounds of the old factory ammo at 100 yards and shot a 5-6" group. It was ugly.

I took the gun back to the guy and he said, "keep it, does no good for me."

I reluctantly took it and called my buddy. Told him what his dad said and he agreed. (I asked 3 times)

I now have a Rem 700 bull barrel 6mmRem that is from at least the 1980s at my house and I don't know what to do with it.

I don't have a need for it due to the heavy barrel/cal and I don't want to have any drama with a buddy over a gun.

So here are my options:

1-return it to my buddy
2-keep it and try making it shoot (from there give it back)
3-replace the barrel with something more practical

What would you do?

Sell it to me.

 

[EastTNHunter]

I’d inspect the usual culprits first: scope, mounts/rings, bedding, rifling, etc.

If it still doesn’t shoot after a good cleaning and inspection then I would consider having the bull barrel rebored to something like a 6.5CM/260, 7-08, 308, etc, or rebarreled to the cartridge of my choice. Should be no drama that way

 

[Cousin Basil]

You didn't mention anything about the optics on the rifle. Could be a cheapo scope that doesn't hold adjustment or loose rings or mounts.
Could be the rifle just doesn't like that particular ammo.

Exactly what I was thinking. Redo the bases and rings and try a different scope before giving up. My father in law has one just like you are describing (Varmint Special) and I load 100 grain partitions for him and he has killed quite a few deer with it. Before that he used 100 grain factory loads that were plenty accurate.

 

[TheJason]

I’d inspect the usual culprits first: scope, mounts/rings, bedding, rifling, etc.

This, re torque the action screws when you have it apart.

Clean the barrel good with some wipe out and then re shoot it.

 

[Mallardsx2]

Sell it. Give them both half the money in a Christmas card.

 

[longrunner]

1) Give it a good once over including a trip to a good gunsmith as is.
2) Rebore to 7x57, 8x57 or 9.3x57

 

[ImBillT]

Likely shot out just considering the cartridge. Possibly not, could be a million things. Re-barrel. Once you’ve invested your own money it, there’s definitely no reason to feel guilty about keeping it, particularly since the folks who gave it to you already said you could keep it.

I would personally consider a shorter cartridge. While lots of people do it, I find a 700 S/A to be a tight fit for the 57mm cartridges. Some folks modify the receiver and install extended magazine boxes, but custom/semi-custom 700 S/A based actions with that are already designed to handle longer cartridges at a low enough price that it doesn’t make sense to me to modify a Remington 700 in such a way.