6mm Remington

Long Range Rockchuck Loads

- Patrick Meitin

A 6mm was part of my initiation as a dedicated small-varmint shooter; it was a .243 Winchester to be more precise. I used one rifle to handle everything from small varmints/furbearers to big game, and that plain Remington 700 ADL filled the bill nicely. One drought-stricken summer, I even used it to burn 150 rounds per week thinning superfluous jackrabbits with Sierra’s 60-grain Varminter hollowpoint while feeding starving cattle. I shot those jackrabbits with the venality of day traders – unwelcomed competition for the wiry grass – though I greedily relished the shooting as children do candy. While that .243 served on everything from prairie dogs to elk, I distinctly recall coveting a 6mm Remington as a youngster because, you know, its outwardly larger case promised higher velocities.

Fast forward thirty-some years and you find my father and me addressing distant Idaho rockchucks (yellow-bellied marmots). We have a requisite .223 Remington (a customized Savage Model 10 with a McMillan A-2 stock), Mossberg’s MVP Varmint .204 Ruger and a deadly-accurate, custom ’98 Mauser .22-250 Remington that we find all lacking.

Rockchucks emerge from adjacent wheat, descending into granite on the opposite canyon rim as the late May days turn warmish. They’re all 425 to 475 yards away. That isn’t the issue; the real problem is a light wind. A 5- to 7-mph waft wreaks havoc – more frustrating when including inconsistent velocity. I’ve been twisting the turrets of my .22-250’s Vortex Golden Eagle 1560x 52mm scope every which way, connecting, at best, on one shot in seven – and here we’re discussing 5to 10-pound rockchucks, not dainty ground squirrels.