30 Major (aka 30 Grendel) f.l. die

[AlNyhus]

A good friend has several rigs chambered in 30 Major...which is the 6.5 Grendel necked up. He has several f.l. bushing dies but wanted to try a non bushing die. Ring, ring, ring goes my phone and pretty soon he's dropping a new Forster 6.5 Grendel die off at the door of the sod hut. By pin gauge, the neck port is .286. The die gets screwed into the die 'stub' with an 'o' ring between the lock ring and the stub and it's chucked up and checked for alignment with the pin gauge. Some 90 wt. gear lube goes on the flutes of a short .302 carbide chucking reamer and the first step is done. Repeat with a .3230 carbide reamer, clean it all with some brake cleaner, hit it with a 400 grit ball hone and Kroil and it's good to go. Now he has a f.l. .323 neck die that wil size all the way to the neck/shoulder junction.

Good shootin' -Al

 

[LVLAaron]

Hang on there a second.


You're using a lathe?

 

[AlNyhus]

Hang on there a second.


You're using a lathe?

I suppose I could do it in the mill but the lathe is a helluva lot easier!

 

[LVLAaron]

You're half way to cutting a chamber.

 

[Larry Koch]

$$$.

 

[msalm]

How do you add the slight radius at the neck/shoulder junction? I’ve done this with 325WSM dies to make 35 Sambar (WSM) and without polishing a radius at that point the die shaved brass pretty bad. Although this was full thickness brass. Worked well though as I had a bit more diameter to work in and polished that point with a hard backer and 320 then 500 grit paper.

 

[AlNyhus]

How do you add the slight radius at the neck/shoulder junction?

I like your approach. On this one, the 400 grit ball hone took care of the sharp edge. The owner did some test cases with it this weekend...will take a look and see if it needs a bit of radius added. The Redding dies I've done seem to leave more of an edge. A Noga deburring tool or a small tapered stone works well on those.

 

[spike-55]

Hang on there a second.


You're using a lathe?

that was my thought as well!!!!
say it ain't so!!!!
stan

 

[msalm]

I like your approach. On this one, the 400 grit ball hone took care of the sharp edge. The owner did some test cases with it this weekend...will take a look and see if it needs a bit of radius added. The Redding dies I've done seem to leave more of an edge. A Noga deburring tool or a small tapered stone works well on those.

Yeah, I REALLY had to polish/lap a radius on the chamber itself when using a 300 WSM reamer for the body and a 358 Win reamer for the neck/throat. That leaves a very abrupt corner at the neck/shoulder junction.

 

[AlNyhus]

Hang on there a second.


You're using a lathe?

Caught in the act on Stan's Clausing-Metosa, somewhere around Y2K.

 

[AlNyhus]

A small 7X12 'mini' lathe in my gun room gets used for all sorts of stuff...bore guides, pillars, gadgets and widgets. I can't imagine not having it. I'd recommend one of these to anyone that likes to tinker.