Help me get started reloading 6BR.

[zanemoseley]

I'm not new to reloading but still learning a lot in regards to precision rifle reloading.

With some help from you guys I think I have all the main components and tools I'll need to get started with the 6BR. I'd like your thoughts on my process, I plan to begin prepping brass and reload a small batch of 50 rounds or so tomorrow. Rifle is a Savage 12 Benchrest in 6BR. I just got 200 pieces of new Lapua 6BR brass as well as a Redding 6BR competition set.

I have a K&M primer pocket uniformer which I have not adjusted from the factory setting. In this setting it appears to BARELY shave any brass of some of the Lapua brass. I plan on running this through all of the pockets. Since I'm a bit leary of taking off too much material I'd prefer to keep in the factory setting.

I also have a a flash hole uniformer and neck deburr tool. I plan to lightly ease the flash hole and smooth the necks with the deburr tool.

Now is where I'm not 100% unclear. I bought a Sinclair expander die and 6mm mandrel as well as Redding neck bushings for my neck sizing die in .266, .267 and .268. The .268 fits over the factory Lapua brass well, the .267 takes some force by hand to get it to start going on.

Some suggested the mandrel to uniform the necks and avoid runout. I'm unclear if I should run this before or after the neck sizing die. My gut tells me before but wanted to check.

I also bought a Hornady OAL gauge and a modified case. I'm using 105 Amax bullets to start and plan to start them with .010" jump. I've used these gauges before so I'm good.

To condense, here's what I plan on doing, totally open to adjust the process:

- Uniform primer pockets
- Deburr flash holes
- Deburr ID & OD of necks
- Use OAL gauge to find seating depth for .010" jump
- Make 2-3 dummy cartridges, measure OD of neck, per Redding's advice take the lowest average diameter and subtract .001" to determine proper neck bushing (is this enough neck tension)
- Run 6mm expanding mandrel through all necks
- Run all brass through neck sizing die with previously determined bushing
- Prime on Rock Chucker (I'm getting a 21st century precision hand primer for Christmas!)
- Charge with Varget, starting at 29.0 working up .2-.3 grains at a time, from research looks like I will see best results from 30-31 grains of Varget
- Seat bullets .010" off lands
- Shoot

 

[GrocMax]

Not sure I'd bother doing anything at all with the pockets and flash hole.
If you aren't aware of this they use an undersized (PPC) flash hole, don't use a std sized decap pin (most 6BR specific dies will already have it).
Most people will end up using the .266" bushing unless they want to experiment or turn necks.

 

[M-61]

Quote: "I plan to lightly ease the flash hole"

What do you mean by that?

 

[Sniper338]

Well your on the right track, but not quite.
With new brass there is no reason to deburr the inside and outside of the neck, that comea after trimmig brass to knock off the edges and get a smooth edge and such..


1. Clean up primer pockets
2. Debur inside flash holes, may not need it.
3. Trim all to the same length. Measure all your brass, trimm them all to match your shortest piece so they are all the same.
4. Debur inside and outside of case mouth from trimming...
5. Use imperial sizing wax, put a little on your expanding mandrel and lub a tad bit inside the case necks ever 2 or 3 and expand all the necks with your expander die.

6. Load and shoot.

7. Set decapper mandrel long in the case and just knock out primers. Be very careful that the mandrel fit the ppc size hole.

8. Clean brass.

9. Now the cases are blown out to your camber deminsions and the necks are expanded from firing them, now use your sizing die and find the best bushing. You dont want your bullet loose, you dont want it super tight neck tension.

 

[Sniper338]

Imo after you use the expander die and load the rounds. Measure the loaded rounds necks.. if they are .266 use a 266 bushing, if they are .267 use a 267 bushing... thats how i do it, thats how i like my neck tensions. I dont like the bullets crazy tight in the neck just good and snug where the bullet doesnt move any..

 

[BoydAllen]

New guys tend to get sucked in by all of the primer pocket tooling. There has been some actual testing and it points in the direction of leaving the pockets and holes completely alone when working with Lapua brass. I would extend this to most foreign brass, and the Nosler. For your first firing, I would lightly lube the inside of the necks, and expand them so that the neck tension is not excessive, which it can be for unfired, unturned Lapua brass. Then I would chamfer and deburr without trimming because the cases will shorten a little on first firing and you can wait till that happens to trim them all to the shortest length that gives you at least .010 under max. BT bullets are a breeze to seat straight compared to FB so I think that you will be fine there. Assuming your have the Redding S type FL die to go along with you neck die, it comes with both a decapping pin retainer and an expander ball. With unturned necks, you can often get more uniform results by choosing a bushing that has the expander doing about .001 expansion. Whidden sells expanders in .001 increments so you can still have the control that you want for neck tension. As I understand it, Varget does not need a lot of neck tension to work well. A friend finds that his likes .001 or so. After you find the powder charge that you like with the seating depth that you mentioned you might want to look in the front of the Berger manual a a short set of instructions on how to work up loads with VLD bullets. It is about seating depth, and quite different than I would have expected. It is also on their web site. Good luck with your new rifle. I am sure that you will have a lot of fun. Do you have anything to see what the wind is doing between you and the target? If not, even some that are simple and home made would be a lot better than nothing at all.

 

[zanemoseley]

Thanks for the input guys, I'll need to read through it a couple times to fully absorb it.

I forgot about the small flash holes, my 6.5 Grendel brass had the small holes which removed my flash hole deburr tool from the equation. I even had to make a special depriming pin for my Lee universal decapper die so I could decap before SS pin tumbling.

The Redding competition set doesn't come with a standard FL die, it's a resizing die but has no mandrel or depriming pin, that's on the neck sizing die if I remember correctly. Basically the FL die it comes with is just for bumping the shoulders I believe.

 

[noload]

Knowing what I know now, I would never buy a 3 die set, or a 2 die set.

 

[Sniper338]

I

Knowing what I know now, I would never buy a 3 die set, or a 2 die set.

I was lucky and learned that before i spent much money. Years ago I learned that after id only bought one 3 die set. Sold it, and only buy a good full length neck bushing sizers, and a wilson inline seaters!

 

[hoz53]

Knowing what I know now, I would never buy a 3 die set, or a 2 die set.

To OP -I would add that I would first shoot 3 to 5 rounds and load them several times neck sizing only so you can get an idea of your chamber neck dia. and your shoulder bump dimension. If you don't have them I would get a 1" mic, a tube mic, a 6" caliper and a bump gauge of some type.

 

[Tim Singleton]

Please listen to Boyd's advise
Especially on the flash holes and primer pockets.
Don't touch the flash holes on Lapua cases

 

[jimcasey01]

For what it is worth, the internet is unregulated, anyone can say anything. Take that how ever you want. Both BoydAllen and Tim Singleton are 2 of the people that I would listen too. Boyd is very knowledgeable and Tim Singleton is one of the up and coming BR shooters. Take what they say as you wish.

 

[Sniper338]

For what it is worth, the internet is unregulated, anyone can say anything. Take that how ever you want. Both BoydAllen and Tim Singleton are 2 of the people that I would listen too. Boyd is very knowledgeable and Tim Singleton is one of the up and coming BR shooters. Take what they say as you wish.

You can take any advice as you wish. Everyone does stuff a little different. Thats what makes shooting sports competetive.

 

[hoz53]

For what it is worth, the internet is unregulated, anyone can say anything. Take that how ever you want. Both BoydAllen and Tim Singleton are 2 of the people that I would listen too. Boyd is very knowledgeable and Tim Singleton is one of the up and coming BR shooters. Take what they say as you wish.

Ok --The only reason I post here unless Im asking a question is to try to help someone since people here have helped me and I'd like to give a little back. I do have plenty of other things to do. Since I'm not one of the chosen gurus and my attempts at help are ignored I wont need to waste my time at it anymore. Ive got to many barrels to chamber, stocks to bed, rounds to load and guns to shoot among a bunch of other things. Good thing I dont have to work.

 

[zanemoseley]

I appreciate everyone's input, thanks for taking the time to reply.

I loaded 50 today with 5 different charge amounts. I'm still a bit unsure of the procedure upcoming between loads.

I looked and my 3 die set does not have an expanding mandrel at all. The neck sizing die had a depriming pin but that's it. The FL sizing die is for bumping the shoulders only.

- How often should I use the Sinclair expanding mandrel. If using it regularly would you use it before neck sizing?

- My loaded necks were between .268-.269 so I think I'll experiment with the .267 and .268 neck bushings.

- How often should I bump the shoulders? I plan on bumping them .002".

- How many firings do you think I'll get from the BR before having to trim?

Thanks

 

[carlsbad]

I didn't see this thread until after you did your first 50. One thing I wanted to make sure you know is that the flash hole on the 6br is small, not standard. So I hope you got the right flash hole deburr tool.

that said, a beginner should skip the flash hole and primer pocket work. Figure out your neck tension and work on getting your loads consistent. You didn't say how you're weighing the powder but that is important out past 200 yards or so.

Chronograph? you'll need a chronograph to see how consistent your loads are.

I don't have a range nearby so I can't load 5, shoot them on the chronograph and make adjustments. When I got the labradar that gave me data on all my shots I was able to much more quickly get a much better idea where i stood on my loads, standard deviations, etc. for each new cartridge.

Annealing? I found I had to bump the shoulders every time after the first 2 firings. annealing will make it less urgent.

I trim 6br about every 3rd firing. This too will vary with annealing. I now anneal every firing which helps a lot with sd.

--Jerry

 

[zanemoseley]

I did see the small flash hole and did not use my flash hole deburr tool as its larger.

I weigh power with a RCBS charge master.

I have a buddy that has a chronograph, in need to get one.

I have a DIY annealer modeled after Skip's black betty annealer. I see how annealing affects neck tension but how does it affect bumping the shoulders? I suppose I can anneal after each firing, doesn't take long after setup.

 

[Tim Singleton]

What distance are you shooting?
I'm not sure you would need to jump into annealing rigjt away. Without knowing how it shoots and hiw it should behave. you'll never know if your annealing procedure is doing you good or hurting you.
I would concentrate on finding the right seating depth for the bullet your shooting. Sounds like you've got a plan on neck bushing.
After cases have been fires 2-3 times you will need to fl size and move shoulder a thousand or so.

 

[Tim Singleton]

What seating depth test method do you plan to use?

 

[carlsbad]

I did see the small flash hole and did not use my flash hole deburr tool as its larger.

I weigh power with a RCBS charge master.

I have a buddy that has a chronograph, in need to get one.

I have a DIY annealer modeled after Skip's black betty annealer. I see how annealing affects neck tension but how does it affect bumping the shoulders? I suppose I can anneal after each firing, doesn't take long after setup.

You'll find the chargemaster isn't accurate enough but fine for now.

Annealing after each firing is normally not required. However, the new AMP annealer makes it so easy that many owners do anneal each time. Annealing affects springback so an nice soft case will fit retain less length and will likely not need shoulder bumping.