6.5 Creedmoor/RPR Load questions

[AckleymanII]

Pat, you may have accidentally solved the problem by polishing, but it is important that you understand the real problem.

SAAMI spec is for American made brass

CIP spec is for European Made brass for Norma,Hertenberger, Lapua brass(larger in the Web!)

You stated that the reamer used was a SAAMI spec reamer.

Your chamber reamer was made for Hornady brass(SAAMI), and when you went to Lapua brass(CIP), your chamber was too small for the lapua brass.

If you have a micrometer that measures in the .0001, measure(just above the extractor groove)a piece of new Lapua and new Hornady brass, get ready for a shock!

CIP chambers are usually .0017-.0025 larger in the web, .200 in front of the case head.

So, if you want to shoot CIP brass(European) in a SAAMI chamber, problems can and will crop up, not only from being thicker but larger in dia which means Full Length die problems down the road after a certain number of firings....maybe.

Good luck!

 

[PatMiles]

I'm happy things worked out. It kinda hard to explain how to polish a chamber, so I thought if you can figure out how then you'll be fine.
I used a piece of felt (1/4" diameter) screwed the felt on a screw and the screw was welded to a rod and the rod was on a cordless. Then I put polishing compound on the felt.
I can imagine many other ways of doing this.

I epoxied a 1/2" diameter hard felt bullet bob on a 16" piece of .250 aluminum rod and then turned it down in my lathe for a snug fit in the chamber. Using red rouge I polished the chamber for about 5 minutes then cleaned the chamber/neck/barrel very well so no rouge remained. Easy peasy!

 

[PatMiles]

Pat, you may have accidentally solved the problem by polishing, but it is important that you understand the real problem.

SAAMI spec is for American made brass

CIP spec is for European Made brass for Norma,Hertenberger, Lapua brass(larger in the Web!)

You stated that the reamer used was a SAAMI spec reamer.

Your chamber reamer was made for Hornady brass(SAAMI), and when you went to Lapua brass(CIP), your chamber was too small for the lapua brass.

If you have a micrometer that measures in the .0001, measure(just above the extractor groove)a piece of new Lapua and new Hornady brass, get ready for a shock!

CIP chambers are usually .0017-.0025 larger in the web, .200 in front of the case head.

So, if you want to shoot CIP brass(European) in a SAAMI chamber, problems can and will crop up, not only from being thicker but larger in dia which means Full Length die problems down the road after a certain number of firings....maybe.

Good luck!

Ackleyman,
Yep your right. New Hornady measures .46600" while new Lapua measures .46855". With the SAMMI spec for a 6.5 Creedmoor chamber at .4714 and SAMMI spec for a 6.5 Creedmoor at .4703" I am a bit perplexed at what the problem is.
In polishing the chamber I used red rouge only so I don't believe I removed any metal. Wherein lies the problem?
Please understand that I am in no way challenging you, only asking out of curiosity as I would like to learn the specifics.

 

[AckleymanII]

Lapua brass at .46855
Chamber at .4703

This could potentially ending up being part of the problem, especially when the brass has been fired several times. At first, you were having problems, then you polished out...fixed problems. Obviously, when you polished out, you removed more metal than you think you did.

Congrats on a good fix for the Lapua brass.

 

[Shane Roya]

My Buddy and I bought a couple Savage 10BA Stealths 6.5 CM and he was having issues with both factory Hornady 130's 140's and 147's sticking hard bolt lift and extraction. We noticed a mark on the brass at the back of the barrel that was peeling brass upon opening the chamber from a fired round. We tried a very low starting load with 130 ELD-X bullets and New Nosler Brass, it did the same thing.
Using a scope we saw a burr at the start of the barrel, I told him he could either send it back to Savage or we could pull the barrel and get a better look an fix the problem, as I had a Barrel Nut wrench a barrel vise and the head spacing tools.
He opted to check it out and repair himself. We marked the position of the barrel and pulled it. It appeared the front of the bolt had hit the barrel raising the burr, as the front of the bolt had a peel mark on it. He used the Wheeler Compound on a fired brass at the point where the burr was and hand lapped it with a few turns of each grit followed with a final polish with a light coating of the Red JB on the fired brass up to the shoulder. When we reinstalled the Rifle barrel to the Mark it was tighter than it should have been for the Headspace Gauge, so we set it till the bolt would close without pressure to the gauge gauge. Then Checked it with the No-Go Gauge all was good. Problem went away, we believe it was headspace to close and the bolt had hit or I suppose a chip had got between the bolt and barrel at some time in the factory assembly.

 

[jamesh]

Pat, you may have accidentally solved the problem by polishing, but it is important that you understand the real problem.

SAAMI spec is for American made brass

CIP spec is for European Made brass for Norma,Hertenberger, Lapua brass(larger in the Web!)

You stated that the reamer used was a SAAMI spec reamer.

Your chamber reamer was made for Hornady brass(SAAMI), and when you went to Lapua brass(CIP), your chamber was too small for the lapua brass.

If you have a micrometer that measures in the .0001, measure(just above the extractor groove)a piece of new Lapua and new Hornady brass, get ready for a shock!

CIP chambers are usually .0017-.0025 larger in the web, .200 in front of the case head.

So, if you want to shoot CIP brass(European) in a SAAMI chamber, problems can and will crop up, not only from being thicker but larger in dia which means Full Length die problems down the road after a certain number of firings....maybe.

Good luck!

I'm not saying that the cartridges don't measure differently between Hornady and Lapua brass however comparing C.I.P and S.A.A.M.I specifications the only difference I can find is in rounding when converting from imperial to metric and the C.I.P. specification has about a .015" longer throat.
Just FYI