6-6.5x47 necking down and neck turning.

[Grimstod]

When you are converting 6.5x47 to 6-6.5x47 do you neck turn first then size down, or size down then neck turn?

Also let us know what kind of groups your getting, and how easy has your 6-6.5x47 been easy to tune?

 

[4xforfun]

Mine is a 272 no turn neck which I ended up having to turn anyway. I'm not sure if it was Donuts or brass flow or what but I had to turn my brass. If I knew I had to turn I would wait till they were reduced in size before I would turn them. I had 9 firings on them already and was thinking that I should just toss it, but the primer Pockets were as new and I anneal after every firing. In fact, I'm thinking the 200 brass I have will last for a whole nother Barrel. As far as tuning .....h4350 and 108 Burger boat tails. I went in half grain increments all the way up to 44 grains, which is way hot by the way, and ended up at 39. It shoots wonderful. Since this was not for benchrest..... it was for plinking steel and killing prairie dogs, I quit load development as I wasn't after every hundredth of an inch of accuracy. Otherwise, I would have went down to the tenth grain powder charge. Happy happy happy! This gun will shoot in the mid to high 2's...maybe some low 3's in the factory Remington varmint synthetic stock with a little weight added.

 

[ShootDots]

I turn ALL my necks to 12 thousandths neck wall thickness. Making 6-6.5 x 47 brass is easy as pie. Here is how I do it and it comes out perfect:
1.) While it is 6.5 x 47, I expand the necks with an expander mandrel;
2.) Turn the necks to 1/2 thousandths THINNER than your "desired finished" neck wall thickness. In my case I turn to 11.5 thousandths neck wall thickness;
3.) Take the bushing out of your F/L bushing die and lube up a 6.5 x 47 case and run it into what is now arguably a "body die". It will take down the neck to about what a FIRED 6-6.5 x 47 case is; next
4.) Run the "semi-neck sized" case into YOUR desired bushing size. You will find that going down 1/2MM will cause right at 1/2 thousandths of "thickness" to form on the previously turned 6.5 x 47 brass. That is why I stated in step 2 to turn 1/2 thousandths THINNER>>>>you will end up at your desired thickness after necking down.
5.) Anneal your cases;
6.) Run the cases back thru your SIX MILLIMETER expander mandrel and you will be ready for loading.

Now as far as easy to tune>>> Mine was a P.I.T.A. AT FIRST! This particular barrel does not like, no it HATES the 108 Berger B/T! This is the FIRST 6MM that I have ever seen NOT LOVE the 108! I think the Berger 108 is the finest 6mm bullet on the market! However, barrels being what they are, mine hated them. As soon as I went to the 105 Scenar, VOILA!!! Instant success! I am also a fan of the NEW Alliant powders and this barrel eats BOTH RL-16 and RL-23 up like candy!

 

[Alex Wheeler]

I dont remember off hand the neck on my reamer. It does require a light turn. In any case when necking up or down you turn after. The only time I would consider doing it before is if you were going way down, then I may do it before AND after just so your not dealing with extremely thick brass. The 6x47 will not run with a 6br or variant in lr Benchrest. Its very good, but it does give up some accuracy. I had no trouble tuning mine. I have read they are hard to tune, but not seen that in real life. @Torge probably had the best shooting one I have seen, but I dont think he will be going back to it after switching the the dasher and BRA.

 

[Torge]

I did similar to ShootDots. I turned half the neck at 6.5, then used a Redding 6x47L body die which gets you half way. Sized it to 6x47L with a Redding full length die and did the final neck cut to .0125". Since brass is not perfect and one side will be thicker than the other, it tends to embellish that when you go up or down in caliber, so I always do a final neck cut after they are sized up or down.

David

 

[Torge]

I also had a .272 neck and only about half of the were fully cut with the other half having some thin spots that were not touched.

David