6.5mm-08 AI, 260 AI, no-go, dies ?

[Gollum]

Ok, lets say I just ordered a 6.5-08 AI barrel from Pac-nor for my Savage,ok, I did...) I'm a home hobbyist, and play with this stuff for fun.

I have the barrel coming, now for the other stuff - Headspace gauges, Dies, Brass.

Do you use a standard 243/260/7mm-08/308 headspace guages?

Does anyone make off the shelf FL dies?

Seater die? Wilson?

Brass- -neck a 308 down and neck turn?, neck a 243 up, just use Rem 260?

 

[techshooter]

Gollum:

I believe that the 260AI,6.5-08AI by another name) go gauge is 0.004" shorter than the straight 260 go gauge. This is a question that I would put to Dave Kiff at PT&G to confirm. You definitely want a slight crush on the unfired brass to be sure that the case is firmly against the bolt face when fireforming. Using the right go-gauge is essential to getting that Savage barrel correctly headspaced so that brass will fireform correctly.

I don't know about FL dies as a stock item. I do know that Redding makes 260AI body dies and a type S neck bushing die on a semi-custom basis,Russ Haydon may have some of these in stock). Wilson has some 260AI dies available as well, but I don't know which ones.

I use a Redding Competition Seater die in straight 260 that I reamed to the AI configuration with the chamber reamer. A simple mod. Redding may have this as well as a semi-custom item if you don't have access to a chamber reamer. I'd be willing to ream the Redding insert for you if your chamber reamer matches the one that I have, and you strike out elsewhere. It is a fast job.

Brass: Definitely do NOT neck up Lapua .243 WIn - big time donuts. See my 260AI project log here with lots of info on this caliber and donuts in particular:

http://www.the-long-family.com/260AI.htm

No experience with necking down .308 Lapua - that might work better.

I went the easy way with Remington 260 brass, which I neck thickness variation sorted to select only those cases that were under 0.0015" peak-to-peak variation. I had less than 25 out of 500 not make the grade. It is actually very good brass, and is finally available after being in the unobtainium/N133 category for months. I would definitely go with that first. Also, the Remmy brass has about 2 grains H2O more case capacity than the .243 Lapua after fireforming, which I find actually makes a positive difference in the loads attainable.

I have done some experimenting with using Cream of Wheat for fireforming the brass without a bullet. I have not updated my site, but I have now developed a process by which I get perfect ignition and headspacing using the COW. The shoulders look nearly identical to range/bullet fireformed brass. It shoots the same as well. I hope to update the site within the week.

Hope that this helps.

Cheers,

 

[JeffT]

The dies I use for a 260 A.I. are a 243A.I. redding body die with the hole in the top reamed out to accept the larger case neck, and 260 Remington competition neck and seater dies with the chamber reamer ran into the sleeve to accept the A.I. case. I believe Sinclair stocks a Redding "custom" die set for the 260 A.I. but they are pretty spendy, they show them in the catolog anyway. I had very good luck with the Lapua 243 brass necked up, but my load was only about 2850 fps. but it would hammer the X-ring at 1000 yards shooting F-class.

 

[2644ever]

As a body die the full sizer for the 444 Marlin works perfectly and you can use the Lee Collet Die set in 6.5 Swedish as is, if you don't mind your necks not being resized all the way down,at least there's no way you will ever bump the shoulder).

 

[techshooter]

I did forget to mention that a Lee collet die in 260 Remington works perfectly on the AI cases, with no shoulder contact.

 

[montanaearl]

Call me excessive, but not being as experienced as some, I perhaps went overboard. I bought the AI reamer from JGS with gauges, and assume they are correct as the print shows the 0.004" crush fit. I have both 260Rem and Lapua 243 brass to experiement with. However, my inital take on the Rem brass is not as good as Chris', with runouts on case mouth around 0.003-0.005, we'll see where they are after fireforming. BTW Chris, I anxiously await your firforming procedure. As for dies, I spoke to Patrick Ryan at Redding to ensure their dies and my JGS print were dimensionsally identical, then ordered the full boat from Sinclair. The AI body die was on the shelf. The bushing neck sizer was custom, and although Redding stated a 16 week delivery, I got it yesterday 7 weeks after order. Redding does not make the AI version of the Comp seater, so you need to decide whether to order the AI version in the standard configuration, or you will need to ream the 260Rem Comp seater, which I am doing since I own the reamer. The Lee Collet neck sizer is a less expensive option but I had to use a washer/spacer on the shell holder to prematurely squeeze the collet and that became a PITA.

FWIW I am using a 26", 8.5 twist Bartlein 5R barrel on a Win70 LA, so as not to limit seating depth by mag length. After conversing with Chris in another thread and extensive head scratching, I will throat the chamber an additional 0.185" to seat the JLKs, etc. since the print shows freebore of only 0.050". Can you tell I am excited about this project?