6.5x257Ackely fire forming

[gunsmoke77802]

SO I have a new barrel coming for my rifle. I want to fire form this time with pistol powder & no bullets. Have a bunch of Power Pistol, Blue Dot & WW231. Anyone have a starting point for loads? I was thinking of stuffing cotton balls in neck, lightly lubing case w/imperil die wax & pointing bbl up. Trying to use old barrel for this & keeping new barrel fresh. Would poking case neck in a wax block help seal & maybe create some back pressure? thanks

Jay

 

[mshelton]

I fire form ppc brass with red dot and add the wax in the neck in an old barrel, seems to work well, I use 19g of powder which forms them fairly well and is inside my comfort zone.

As with everything, start light and work your way up.

 

[jbarnwell]

Jay, I use about 14 grains of Unique to form 6mm Ackley brass. I top the powder with instant grits to fill to the bottom of the neck and then cap with a piece of paper towel packed in the neck. Point in safe direction and pull the trigger. I clean the chamber after each shot to clean any of the grits out, as it will dent the next case fired if you don't. You may have to play with the powder charge, but remember DON'T OVER DO the powder charge this is pistol powder and it does burn very fast. Hope this helps.

Jarvis

 

[bozo699]

Jay, I use about 14 grains of Unique to form 6mm Ackley brass. I top the powder with instant grits to fill to the bottom of the neck and then cap with a piece of paper towel packed in the neck. Point in safe direction and pull the trigger. I clean the chamber after each shot to clean any of the grits out, as it will dent the next case fired if you don't. You may have to play with the powder charge, but remember DON'T OVER DO the powder charge this is pistol powder and it does burn very fast. Hope this helps.

Jarvis

I agree with Jarvis on this, I have not done 6.5-257, I have a 6AI and a .257 AI (same cases) and it is very accurate with bullets so I f.f while killing varmints or honing my wind and trigger skills, I have f.f 6brx-6 dasher and 6ppc with the cow method and I used Unique pistol powder, can't remember the amount, I do have it wrote down but around what has been mentioned with satisfactory results, instead of paper I use cleaning patches, for the 6mm's I was working with 17 cal cleaning patches worked great, i use a Wilson de-capping rod, point in center of patch to start then turn rod around and finish punking it in,..works great, I have a small air compressor and a 1/4" nylon line on blow nozzle, I blow the chamber clear of any left over debris and fire again, I can do a lot of rounds like this on a old barrel without cleaning, but if it was my good barrel I would clean it much more often,..hope this helps some.
Wayne.

P.s I try to use primers that I have pulled, swept up off floor or are not what I normally use as it is a good place to get rid of them.

 

[jonbearman]

I dont think blue dot would be good for that because it is a little squirrely even in hand gun handloads.Unique is a good powder for downloading and its stable,dirty but pretty safe for fire forming like trail boss.

 

[expiper]

Hi Jay,,,I use Universal Clays and a 1/4 sq of to/ilet paper,,,NO Bullet/NO COW !!!....what works in several dif. ctgs. is 55% of case volume of powder for starters,,,,and you will be close to what u need,,,Roger

 

[Elwood]

I fire form 7x57 brass to make 6mm Crusader. I use 16 grains of Unique for RWS brass. I fill the rest of the case up with COW and plug it with tissue.

I will be interested to hear you get on without the filler between the powder and the plug.

 

[bozo699]

I fire form 7x57 brass to make 6mm Crusader. I use 16 grains of Unique for RWS brass. I fill the rest of the case up with COW and plug it with tissue.

I will be interested to hear you get on without the filler between the powder and the plug.

Point the gun upwards when you fire it, I know guy's that do it this way,...I personally have not.
Wayne.

 

[p-man]

Having fire formed plenty of AI brass, the one thing I don't do these days is use paraffin wax as a top plug with the COW method - I found that I was getting build up of partially cooked COW and paraffin in the lug races inside the receiver ring that was damn hard to see to remove - and the more the rifle was shot afterwards the more it 'cooked' - thought I had cleaned one very well having only ever forming about 50 rounds over the life time of the rifle - when we removed the barrel, there was all kind of build up inside the receiver ring.

My rule of thumb method I use now works for me for everything from 250 Sav AI up to the 06 varieties: fill the case with UNIQUE powder - whatever number that is, take 1/3 of that amount plus 1 grain for short action cases - for the long action cases, take 1/3 of the case capacity + 2 grains - top that with a small plug of toilet paper - then wait a couple of minutes for the toilet paper plug to expand down in the case (this prevents the COW from settling down into the powder charge) - then fill the case to the bottom of the neck with COW and top that with another plug of toilet paper. this has served me well with the least amount of residue remaining when done. If you have a current "recipe" utilizing paraffin and want to convert to toilet paper plugs instead, be advised that it WILL take more powder to achieve the same results with the toilet paper plugs as you did with paraffin because the paraffin does build up significant more chamber pressure that the toilet paper plug.

 

[SeabeeKen]

I used 10 gr of unique topped off to the next with cream of wheat and a piece of a cotton ball to hold it in when I ff my 243 AI cases. They all formed perfectly. Might need a bit more with the 6.5 ai

 

[bheadboy]

being slightly crazy, i tried the following with good results,

#3 buckshot (.25) and unique, wipe the shot with lub drop powder stick the shot in the mouth of the case sized but no expander or if they dont stay with expander and shoot.

also works with 6mm
Bob