6.5x47 Lapua Brass?

[Spotcheck_Billy]

Winter is just around the corner :, so I'm ready to start my next project for the 2007 shooting season.

The 6.5x47 Lapua has really cought my eye, and it looks like the front runner at this point. What has been the general availability of Lapua brass for this cartridge? I see that Sinclair and Graffs both are supposed to stock it. Have you guys run into any problems getting this brass lately?

I don't want to build something only to find that I suddenly can't find components readily available. I'll be ready to order the barrel next week if I find out that I can get the brass here in the US without any long backorders, etc.

TIA,
Alan

 

[steveyrock]

Yes Bruno just informed me there sold out and have a 3 week back order. I am waiting for an e-mail from another supplier.

 

[SF340Driver]

John at www.gunstop.com has it in stock.

 

[tightneck]

PVI has it in stock along with everything else but 6.5-284. $64 per 100 or $308 for 500

 

[Forum Boss]

FYI,

Jason reports that a high % of the current lot from Grafs.com has a thin sliver of metal on one side of the flash hole interior. Lapua uses a top and bottom punch,i.e. two mandrels) to create the flash holes. It appears that, when they came together they left a little excess.

Any PPC-size flash-hole deburring tool will set things right. But, you should inspect your brass before loading.

 

[rstreich]

Jason reports that a high % of the current lot from Grafs.com has a thin sliver of metal on one side of the flash hole interior....

I bought a recent lot of 6mm BR that has what looks to be the same problem. I haven't opened the boxes, just slid out a piece or two out of the 6.5x47 and the 6mm BR and all of them had something partially occluding the flash hole. I didn't look at it too closely just enough to notice that it was the equivalent of a burr. Should clean up just fine.

robert

 

[Fireball]

My brass from Grafs also has this flash. Interesting thing is my old Sinclair PPC flash hole deburring tool is too big for the hole. Strange because I have used it for years on Lapua 220 Russian and 6mmBR cases.

 

[Forum Boss]

My brass from Grafs also has this flash. Interesting thing is my old Sinclair PPC flash hole deburring tool is too big for the hole. Strange because I have used it for years on Lapua 220 Russian and 6mmBR cases.

The "official" size of the Lapua small flash hole is 1.5 mm. That works out to 0.059".

Some of the "small" flash-hole reamers are .060" others are 1/16th, i.e. .0625". In my view, the smaller the better. You want to debur, not ream the diameter to a larger size.

Many of the top PPC shooters have been reaming to .0625 for years with no apparent ill effects. I still prefer to keep the hole size as close to 1.5mm as possible.

 

[steveyrock]

since I haven't gotten my hands on any of these cases yet I am wondering if anyone has ran some on a neck thickness variance gauge in it's unturned condition? How good is it?

 

[2644ever]

Billy,

there's no way you should ever run out of brass for your 6.5X47 project, if you're not too adverse to fireforming, Fed and Rem manufacture quite a few nice cases in 22-250 and 250 Sav that are perfectly usable and a lot cheaper...:thumb:

 

[JER]

Billy,

there's no way you should ever run out of brass for your 6.5X47 project, if you're not too adverse to fireforming, Fed and Rem manufacture quite a few nice cases in 22-250 and 250 Sav that are perfectly usable and a lot cheaper...:thumb:

Hmmmmmm, I never thought of that angle.

I might rechamber the ol M70 to 6.5X47 when it dies then. I have found that uber-uniform brass,Lapua) is not necessary for more than acceptable accuracy in NRA Highpower,at the level of mere mortals) so the cost of said brass was my major hangup to changing over.

 

[Fireball]

I have just been using my tool to break the sliver off, not re-ream the hole. These are the smallest holes I have seen in any cases I have bought throughout the years.

 

[Spotcheck_Billy]

Thank you guys! It looks like this project is a go!

Alan

 

[2644ever]

And if I May add my two-cent worth contribution, here's a picture sent to me a few months ago by a french friend of mine,who says it's a perfect world?). Better than a lengthy speech, it shows the various steps of forming a 22-250 case into a 6.5 Lapua case.

 

[JER]

Maybe it's not such a hot idea after all.

I can't imagine doing that to 600 - 700 cases. Back to 260 Rem or 6CM.

 

[2644ever]

It ain't such a pain in the eyes: Just run the brass in a 7mm BR sizing die in order to bump the shoulder, size the neck up to .264, load with 12 grains of H110 and a cheap bullet and you're basically done... Whatever cartridge you intend to use, you will have to prep the brass anyway...

 

[CAB]

Sure, the 6.5 x 47 brass can be easily formed from more readily available cartridges such as the 22-250, read,...less expensive.
This is probably a good option for someone who runs "moderate" pressures in their daily reloading chores,...
But use the same load in your reformed 22-250 brass that most are able to safely run in the various different versions of the 6.5 x 47,... and you won't get the chance to become very well attached to your reformed brass,.....

Not that I advocate Hotrodding every cartridge out there, just stating the facts as I've seen them. That's one of the reasons we pay what we pay for the Lapua brass, not just the inherent high quality.

CB

 

[JER]

It ain't such a pain in the eyes: Just run the brass in a 7mm BR sizing die in order to bump the shoulder, size the neck up to .264, load with 12 grains of H110 and a cheap bullet and you're basically done... Whatever cartridge you intend to use, you will have to prep the brass anyway...

What you have described is about four times as complex as my prep for Highpower. I trim necks .010" under min length, load full strength, and shoot.

Benchrest loading tricks are mostly a waste of time in my sport.

 

[2644ever]

Sure, the 6.5 x 47 brass can be easily formed from more readily available cartridges such as the 22-250, read,...less expensive.
This is probably a good option for someone who runs "moderate" pressures in their daily reloading chores,...
But use the same load in your reformed 22-250 brass that most are able to safely run in the various different versions of the 6.5 x 47,... and you won't get the chance to become very well attached to your reformed brass,.....

Not that I advocate Hotrodding every cartridge out there, just stating the facts as I've seen them. That's one of the reasons we pay what we pay for the Lapua brass, not just the inherent high quality.

CB

The advantages of using Lapua 6.5 brass are upset by an unbelievable oversight: this brass got the infamous "groove widening" treatment as if it were conceived with automatic weaponry use in mind... what was Lapua's R&D department thinking?

The 22-250 brass may be cheap, I'd rather say "inexpensive" but it ain't no junk and at least it got the "meat" where it should be! Look closely at those bases, which one is gonna fail first?

 

[Asa_Yam]

The advantages of using Lapua 6.5 brass are upset by an unbelievable oversight: this brass got the infamous "groove widening" treatment as if it were conceived with automatic weaponry use in mind... what was Lapua's R&D department thinking?

That they can use the same tooling used to make .308 Winchester? This tooling is also used for 6BR, .243, 7-08 and a host of other "inaccurate" or "weak" cartridges. Or maybe it's because most accurate rifles use extractors optimized for the .308 case? The rim on .308 dimension cases is thicker, permitting higher extraction forces.

Besides, strength of a cartridge case is only partially a matter of its external configuration. Thickness of the case in the head and web matters, but thickness variations can also result from dimensional differences INSIDE the case. As seen from the picture below,from the 6XC page of this site - see http://www.6mmbr.com/6XC.html ), the extractor groove cut is located well below the web of the case. Note both casings have identical external dimensions in the case head and web areas, but the 6XC has thicker walls.