Documenting Uintah Precision Upper from First Shot

[Long Range Gage]

Uintah Precision 6MM ARC upper with Rise Armament trigger.  Hornady Black 105 gr ammo.  I will be reloading and experimenting with RE15 (advised by the 6AR guy in the initial reloading post) and LEVERevolution with whatever bullets I can find. Currently I have Sierra 95 Tipped Match Kings and some 100gr Prohunters.  Right now, I am planning on using the rifle for my upcoming deer hunt. The rifle has a 22" barrel and I also acquired a 10 round mag from Uintah.  It is marked 6.8 on the follower and 6.8/224 on the side.  Today I fired 27 shots and started with break in per UP specs: One shot and clean, one shot and clean.  See what the barrel is telling you.  If you need more do more.  If not, you're done.  Did that and never saw any copper "blue" indicators on the patches.  For cleaning I used Hoppes #9 and a plastic .22 cal jag. Couldn't find my brass jag.  This method of cleaning was recommended by several on youtube which as you know is always the best source of information.  The concept of break in as I understand it is to use bullets to wear down any burrs that may be left from the manufacturing process.  The burrs will scrape copper off the bullet and so when you clean and find tell tale copper blue, it means you need to keep shooting and wearing the burrs down. I saw no blue and decided it's good.  Fired a few more shots to get the scope sighted in and did two five shot strings for group size.  Normally I like to use a rest and good bench to put the gun in the best position to succeed but didn't have all my crap together today.  First group off a rest, second off bipod. Either way, my platform was not the best and may have affected the groups.  First group was about .75" and second was about 1.75" because of a single flyer.  Throw that one out and it was .75" again.  I followed up with a single shot at the bottom of a soda can laying on the ground at 200 yards.  Raised the scope (Vortex Viper HST 6 -24) up 1 MOA and hit low 6 o'clock.  

I plan on keeping this updated on my adventures.  I also shoot a 6 Creedmoor FYI. If anyone knows where I can get some 90 gr TGK's I'd appreciate a heads up.

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Oh, forgot to mention that I did have some feed issues. four or five times The round was picked up but didn't want to slip right into the chamber. Cycling the action is a bit odd feeling in general but mostly due to the cocking the hammer when pulling the bolt back instead of on the initial lifting of the bolt. As soon as I released pressure and went back at it, it slipped into the chamber just fine. Not sure if that was my fault or what so I will keep track of that. No other issues.

[grayfox]

The 90 tgk is a good bullet for this gun imo, I also have the 22" uintah.
Finding them can be on or off... but right now Bergers seem to be available and they have a couple of 95 gr hunters, either one will do the trick for you. I have the more hybrid/classic but have looked at the vld hunter, only I have a lot of these classics and yesterday my hunting load printed 4 shots, 0.477 ctc at 100 yds. With Lever. I load the classic's at ~2.160 or so, you would want to find your own barrel's best seating, point is though, don't let the idea of a short-seater hamper your feelings on this caliber. Tgk's and other longer-ogive bullets can seat out farther but just take each bullet for what it can do.

Bookmark ammoseek and check there often.

Also have almost got a load for the 103 eldx, still working it. Using Lever. My one or two tries of RE-15 led me to think it is just too hot, temp-wise, but you may get different results. I do some varget, mostly lever and AA2520. ymmv.

Your feed issues are probably the front lip of the mag, most 6.5/6.8 mags have that lip a bit too high to work well with the 6Arc. I took my dremel and dropped it down about (if I recall, going from memory here) about 0.150-0.200", taper-angling up the sides, and the does the trick. Use a pencil to mark it off and go slowly. I have some duramags and a few no names and for my Arc's I did this to all of them, AR's too. There's a thread on here I think or on the 6.5 grendel site that has pics and stuff. The brass edge on the very top of the case mouth is catching on that lip, causes the hang-up. The hangup for me always seemed to be from one side rather than both.

[Long Range Gage]

Thanks Grayfox.  It appears to be the case mouth but I didn't do a deep dive.  Never thought about checking which side was hanging up either.  Good idea.  And Ammoseek is always on my list since the shortage.

Shot a little more this afternoon and didn't realize how much I've missed shooting the last 6 months.  Been remodeling the house and haven't had time for anything else. It's cooling off here so I'll make more time.

[Long Range Gage]

Found some 90 gr. ELD X. will try them for hunting end of the month.

[Long Range Gage]

Today's update should be titled, "Honey can I get a Labradar?" 63 shots fired, 123 total. My goal was to find a good group and get velocities. I started at 28.5 gr of Leverevolution and worked up to 32 gr in half grain increments. I weigh every charge on a RCBS 5 - 0 - 5 scale. I tried two different bullets, Hornady 90 gr ELD X and Sierra 95gr TMK, same powder weights. I chose an optical chrony because a magneto speed strapped to the barrel might affect my groups as well as the fact that that I don't have one. For hunting, my goal is to get 3100 fps on the ELD X and while my chrony performed poorly, I think that is a reasonable expectation. The speeds I was able to get were 3050 ish and the only pressure sign I could see was a slight mark that may have been the ejector so I will see how high I can go. I don't care about the lands and seating depth so the COAL's were all about 2.253 - 2.255 and my 3 shot results were 31gr - .621, 31.5 gr - .701 and 32 gr. - .820 inch. I am pleased with those numbers for hunting and since I have a hunt in two weeks, I will only work on the ELD X load until after.

Things got a little crazy with the TMK's. First of all, they impact point shifted 2" right from the ELD X. Best performance was at the higher charge weights also. 31 gr 2 shot group was .325 inch. The problem was with the first shot, I have no idea where it went. Since it was the first shot, I am 100% certain I did not put two bullets in the same hole. The backer board has plenty of holes in it so it could have been as close as a 2 -3 inches of and I couldn't have been able to tell. Three shot group at 31.5 gr was .537 inches. The last group was 32 gr. and again there was a missing shot. Either the second or third, I don't remember. The two shots measured at .157 inches but were just off the paper so my best guess is that, again, I didn't put two bullets through one hole. No idea what happened. Interesting thing is that the ELD X's didn't have a single unaccounted for shot. COAL was 2.280 with no mag issues.

Nice afternoon about 80 degrees and 4000' altitude but 10 - 15 mph winds though they were directly into my face. I don't see that having any effect other than my target was moving a bit. The rifle and action performed flawlessly without a single malfunction. I was shooting off a concrete bench. 15 shots unaccounted for above were factory Hornady Black for warmup.

[Long Range Gage]

I did some more shooting a few weeks ago and have some details on Leverevolution. My 90 gr. ELD X started to compress, and put a ring on the bullet at 32 gr. I took it up to 33 grains with only a light ejector mark on the case. The groups opened up at 32, 32.5 and 33 around 2 inches. I settled on my hunting load at 31 gr. I'd keep working at it but my group was just over a half inch and I had a hunt the next week. My son practiced with the last of the factory Hornady black.

A few days later, I was getting 2975 to 3000 fps with the 31 gr. using a bayonet chrony. That chrony also seemed inconsistent.

Hunt went well. My 13 yo son (first hunt) missed at 400 and I got a muley at 120. Jacket separated from the lead but I figure if you can recover the bullet, it did just fine. Shot was from the front and penetrated 14 inches or so. Deer jumped and fell down right there. Didn't get my exact round count but should be right around 170 total. One case got stuck trying to feed but I was trying to quietly get a round in the chamber as I was starting my stalk one morning so probably me as opposed to the gun.

Probably after Thanksgiving I will start experimenting with match bullets again.

[StoneHendge]

LRG, I also had an experience with mysteriously disappearing 95 gr TMKs. I was using them as a match load in my 18" 243 LBC with an 8 twist (a 3 groove polygonal BHW) and running them at 2670. They were extremely accurate but when the wind picked up, they started disappearing in matches past 600 yards. Neither I nor the RO could see anything - no target impact and no splash from a miss. It didn't matter which way the wind was blowing and it didn't happen all of the time but it happened enough that I gave up on them. Not great for your scores in a hit to move on match! I took what ammo I had left to my local range with steel and they did fine at 440 yards but had noticably increased dispersion at 550 and my guess is that they weren't stable for some reason and started crapping out at around 500.  I don't know if they began to tumble, helicopter, or both, but by the time they got past 600, they weren't flying like a bullet is supposed to. My remaining stash was happily sold in Gunbroker. With your velocity and twist, your probably putting on 20% more RPMs than I was and you likely have "sharper" lands.

[Heyboy]

Hello, I’m new to this forum and I’m looking forward to being a part of your discussions.
Just a thought on missing TMKs. I had a 1-7 twist in a 22 creed and 77 TMKs were blowing up before they reached the target from too many RPMs. I went to an 1-8 twist and problem solved. The 64 grain TGKs were fine in either barrel. Sierra match bullets are thinner jacketed I believe.

[Old Bob]

I was at the range doing some 3 gun practice with some of the gang. One member was complaining about not being able to hit anything that day. He was asked what he was shooting. He had some 50 round boxes of re-manufactured Blackhills .223 Rem ammo with Speer 52gr bullets. He was asked if he sighted in with this ammo. A sheepish "no" was his reply. He said it was his first time shooting that ammo & since it had the same 52gr bullets he was reloading at home, he didn't think it was necessary.

I shot some of his ammo out of my 1-7 HBAR AR at a 50 meter gong. Nothing! Didn't even see a dust cloud anywhere near the gong. I chambered one of my LC rounds & "CLANG" when the gong. When asked if his AR had a 1-7 twist replied in the affirmative. I told him his bullets were disintegrating down range 'cause the 1-7 twist was spinning them too fast. You could see the light bulb come on at that revelation.

Another shooter who had an AR with a 1-9 twist constantly hit the gongs all the way out to 200 meters with that Blackhills ammo. I wish we had a chronograph to clock those bullets. Everyone who shot some of that ammo thought they were hot loads. The cases did show some primer flattening & my guess they were near 4000fps...

[Long Range Gage]

Thank you for the input Stone, Heyboy and Old Bob. I wis in the big city this weekend and found some 108 ELD M's as well as some Berger 105's. I should have some good test beds to work with.

[Heyboy]

What threads are on a Uintah upper? Is it 5/8x24? I ordered mine a week ago and am still getting parts rounded up.

[SamT]

What threads are on a Uintah upper? Is it 5/8x24? I ordered mine a week ago and am still getting parts rounded up.ch is 5/8x24.

Thread pitch is 5/8x24.

[Heyboy]

Thanks. I just got the email from Uintah, the packages will be here this week.

[Long Range Gage]

Made a big mistake. Told my wife I wouldn't go shooting till I remodeled the bathroom. I actually built an entirely new one about 15 feet away. Here we are 6 months later and I finally went shooting today. Fired 61 shots for a total of 184. No mechanical issues. Some 95gr. TMK's were "disappearing" last time so I shot 4 three shot groups with no issues(see 108 ELD M's). Best group was 29.6gr of Leverevolution @ .732 inches. Aquired about 300 Hornady ELD M's over the winter and started at 27gr Lever and went up in .3gr. increments to 30.6 with no bullet deformation during seating. Best groups were 27.0 @ .607 inches, 27.3 @ .711 inches and 28.2 @ .657 inches. Didn't get any velocities due to forgetting the stand for my chrony. I did have one round "disappear" and upon close examination, I'm 99% certain that it did pass through another bullet hole. Unfortunately, the third bullet impacted over an inch away.

Really had consistency issues today which I think had a lot to do with the operator. I didn't do much better with my 6 Creedmoor. Light breeze early but picked up to 15mph the last hour. Mostly in my face so I don't think it was very harmful.