Benchrest / F-Class Remington; Bartlein, Warner, Masterclass, 6mm BR Norma
A long time great friend has had to divest of some of his guns and as per an agreement long ago, I am helping (same guy as with the Sako). A few of them were, frankly, too different, too high-end, too remarkable to put on consignment at the local shop. They treated us very well but much of D’s stuff is just too specialized for most walk-in traffic; the limit was reached with his Compass Lake Engineering AR15 Service Rifle. D is a High Master in NRA High Power and a Master in F-Class so….. he benefited from the very high end work done by shops like Compass Lake.
This one is a Remington 700 in 6MM Bench Rest (Norma).
This rifle represents the very best that a Remington can be. Starting with a VS action, this gun has been to several of the best-of-the-best shops for the below described work.
The barrel is a Bartlein 1/8 twist, 29 3/4” long. The muzzle’s last couple inches are turned down to .750 for a front sight but D has always run it with the scope that’s on it (details below). https://bartleinbarrels.com/
There are two chambers commonly used in 6BR, the Remington version and the Norma version. This one has the Norma version which has a longer throat for longer seating of the bullets, making more space available for powder. This is, you might say, the “long range” version of 6BR, which was originally developed for, and still used in benchrest shooting. It is a “no turn”-necked chamber, meaning necks don’t need to be turned, it will take factory ammo.
Factory ammo is available from both Norma and Lapua. Handloading it, there is nothing especially difficult. Dies are readily available, D kept his as he has another rifle in this caliber. This professionally blueprinted Remington has been converted to a single-shot for the ultimate in rigidity.
D says:
“Round count, around 400. I shot F-class one summer with it, say four matches at 60 each, add sighters and load workup. Have shot it five of five into 1” at 200 yards. It must be capable of 1/2 moa at 600 because I shot 197’s and 199’s in competition on a 6” 10-ring....and that was prone from sandbag.
I made Master in F-class, and to do that you really need a 1/2 minute gun........the X-ring is 3” at 600, 10-ring is 6” then add in human error. This gun was done in 2011 / 2012......”
D bought the Bartlein barrel himself and sent it with the rifle to Warner tool, who did the action truing and barrel fitting. They also fitted their proprietary recoil lug. With shipping and all this was over $700.00….. in 2012. Have a look at their site for some of the most impressive rifle-related mods and products you ever did see. https://www.warner-tool.com/
From there it went to Al Sitman at Master Class Stocks for a beautiful laminated stock with lots of adjustability. Al also did the trigger work; it breaks at 3 ¾ lbs. This beautiful stock, bedded to your action, is today in the ‘hood of $1350. D paid something like $950 in 2012.
https://www.masterclassstocks.com/
The scope on this rifle is like the rifle—specialized. It is a fixed 36X 40mm scope with a 1” tube—these scopes are a grand a pop. It’s a Weaver. Like the rifle, it’s not for hunting, it’s not for range finding, it’s not for PRS, it’s not for shooting at dusk, it has a fine crosshair and is a single-purpose scope: F-Class and benchrest.
http://www.weaveroptics.com/optics/r...es/tseries_XR/
This rifle duplicated today would be about, or over, $3500 (and consider that shipping on everything – receiving it and then from and to different shops for the work must have been another several hundred). Altogether it was a year in the making. $2450 plus shipping to your FFL.
Note that this rifle could be rechambered to 6mm Dasher or, let’s just go all the way at once here, the new 6mm Norma Dasher which is 6mm Dasher with a longer neck to better align the bullet.
