6BRX HELP!PLEASE!

[Josh11]

I was shooting my new rifle for the first time this evening and was fireforming loads. I shot about 35 rounds, all loaded with 30.0 RL15, 107 jammed, lapua cases and CCI 450. I shot the first round and it didnt fire form all the way. I think the bullet was not seated hard enough in the lands. But the rest of them were great until the last four. After barrel breaking i had not cleaned it for at least 20 rounds. Up to the last four, it was shooting great. (see photos). Then all of a sudden, i looked at the formed brass, i seen the huge gash in the shoulder. I looked at the other three and outside they looked fine. I shot them and noticed the neck of them had a small crack. I should have saved a few and checked the powder charge but I didnt. From now on , im going to load them at 27grns. The last photo is the group that is rocking after a sighting in at 100 yards.

 

[ronsroom1]

My 2 cents worth.

They look like they were heated in the annealing process to long.

Try the spring back test with vise grips.

 

[gme]

I've got 3 BRX's, never had any such problems using the false shoulder method.
Gary Eliseo

 

[Josh11]

spring back test with vise grips? Could you tell me what and how to do it? What to look for? They are brand new brass. Looks like I will give faluse shoulder a try. I dont want to loose anymore brass.

 

[DukeDuke]

I did my fireforming with 29gr. of RL-15 and lost only one. Make sure they are really jammed in there.

 

[Rustystud]

I have fireformed tens of thousands of 6BRX brass. First you are going to loose a few. maybe 2%. I fireform with Varget 29.5- 30.5 grains. The loads are jammed .0015-.0035.
I have found the fire forming loads great for practice and out to 600 yards. I shoot 32.-32.4 grains of Varget to 1000 yards. I have tried every known powder and Varget been the best. I can get more velocity from others but the best overall performance has been Varget. I suggest Small Magnum rifle primers as they have thicker cups. The whole purpose is to find the accuracy node between 3000 and 3080 fps. This will give you the best of all worlds, brass life, barrel life, accuracy, and pleasure in shooting.
When you get it worked out you will have found the best cartridge out there.
Nat Lambeth

p.s. go back and read the john708 thread on this forum. John Skowron has shot the BRX now for about 6 years.

 

[dkhunt14]

I have noticed that if the case has a mark on the shoulder, looks like a crease or imperfection in the brass. When you fireform that case it blows through. Looks just like the one in your picture. I find about 1 to 2 in a hundred. I just pitch that case and don"t bother forming it. Matt

 

[fdshuster]

josh: Gotta ask, all the brass was new, never fired as a 6BR? I'm fireforming 6BR to 6BRX just by loading a "normal" 6BR round, but with a little more than normal bullet pull ( using a .002" smaller neck bushing), and jamming an 85 gr. bullet by .010". CCI450's with 30 grs. of Varget.

Never lost a case yet when using virgin brass, but did get the "bright" idea to try it with brass that had been loaded 2 or 3 times for one of my 6BR's. Had several splits in the shoulders, as in your picture.

Other than that I'd have to write it off as a defective case if it were new brass that split.

 

[halfmoanut]

Josh, I am a brx man myself,Did you lightly oil cases before loading and firing? It is important, it allows the brass to flow easier into the new chamber and prevents casings from sticking to the walls of the new chamber.I have lost a few with necks split just like yours all brass is not created equal,I also have the crease on the shoulder like yours does not affect them at all.False shoulder method is unnecessary in my book I have fireformed hundreds of Lapua 6br brass into a brx and have lost only 2 casings just the nature of the procedure and I usually get 15 firings on brass before retiring them.Oil your casings before fireforming and don't change anything else and you will be just fine. Enjoy your brx it is highly accurate and will win you some wood in the future.

 

[shooter63]

personally i do not want lube on my cases or in nk or chamber & you should have at least 4th. tension on nk. then its not unbleavible that it couldnt be brass ive not ever lost that persentage of lapau ive also noticed some of the last brass ive gotten look more rust colored to my eyes like over annealing but 4 cases in a row might be some thinner nks causing less nk. tension so when bullet is jammed it pushes back in case i use this method same load but with 30.5 gr varget &265 nk bushing in 272 no turn nk. also in very cold weather cow method hope this helps regards shooter63

 

[rcw3]

I have fire formed a whole lot of BRX cases with Lapua brass and with a load similar to what you are using. I jam the bullet in the lands .025" or so (never use the false shoulder method) just load up new Lapua 6BR brass, and I don't do anything to it or put lube anywhere on the cases, just take them out of the box, load them up and go to it. Once in a while I lose a case with a split in the shoulder/neck area, but that's just going to happen when you fire form and do a blow out like that (i.e. also had it happen with the Dasher and other fire form widlcats as well - nothing unusual).

My take on your situation is you may have a batch of 6BR brass that is more prone to some forming issues than some other lots happen to be - - no big deal, you may just lose a few more cases. BTW - if you inspect the neck/shoulder area of new 6BR Lapua brass with a 12x jewlers loupe you will likely find (in some lots) more than just a few cases with shoulder/neck brass that has an apprent vertical fault line in them and no question when you do a blowout with brass cases like that you may have splits.

Robert

 

[bozo699]

I am on my second season fireforming Brass, fdshuster and I exchanged notes there in the beginning and load similarly I actually use a little from all that posted, I have done the false shoulder method, COW and Jam, and I have mt own COW style method that works great but won't publish it over the open forum. I have a dedicated fire form Barrel,..A factory 12 twist Savage 6br pushed out the 6brx, I use .004-.005 neck tension, I always use Varget, RL-15 is to dirty, I use 105 FB speer bullets (Cheap) but fb bullets are better to fireform with then bt bullets, I understand some of you use yours at 600 yard matches I don't with the 105's I don't even look through the scope because its a 12 twist if I use 85 grain fb bullets it shoots pretty good and I use it for practice. I Jam them about .030 into the lands, I keep the lugs well lubed. I have tried lubing the cases and can't see much difference in them although I have had good luck in the past on other cartridges lubing them. I rarely have a miss fire or blown neck with this process, of course as mentioned if the neck or shoulder has a flaw in it it will show up while fireforming! I now use a modified COW method and when I am done I push the shoulder back .002 and head to the match.
Wayne.

 

[jkohler]

I have had the samething fireforming for the brdx. I'm with Robert on the vertical line in the shoulder. I have had up to 10 or more cases in a box of 100 that had a line in the shoulder and they all split.

 

[Josh11]

The cases are new brass. Only thing I did was neck size the case to smooth out any imperfections in the neck. I dont think I will do that anymore. I just find it a bit weird that it only happened on the last four rounds. Could it be that the chamber was getting a little dirty and causing the case to stick to the wall as mentioned? This is the first time Ive ever seen a case split like that and wanted to make sure I am being safe.

 

[DennisH]

I fireformed 200 cases and has 2 failed like in your picture. I was told to expect this, so I didn't worry about it!

 

[shooter63]

also ill agree with bozo i think id use varget its a little cleaner than rl although i like rl 15 for my other loads in brx . also too much grease in firing pin assembly will cause the firing pin not to strike primer the same sometimes resulting in misfires or not hitting primer hard enough i learned this the hard way ibeleive in grease sometimes too much hope you find the culprit shooter63

 

[DennisH]

If you not wanting to waste bullets, a friend of mine does the following". Again, you can load them up and shoot them as they are pretty accurate! The person below chooses to shoot fireformed brass and swears by the below method!

The way I do it is I charge the case, 8 grains Bullseye powder NO MORE. I then lay my funnel on the case and fill it to the top of the neck with raw Cream of Wheat, I then use one of my wifes tea candels, and I scrap the wax off of it, and seal the case so that the COW doesn't fall out. You then wipe the case off, and I usualy use a ligh coating of oil. If any of the COW or wax get on the the outside of the case it will leave an impression when fired.

When you fire it, the way I do it is I place the gun on the rest or bags, and I stand over it. I them fire the brass one right after another. There is a bit of recoil but it is very light, you may have to push the rifle back up after a few rounds. Now here is the thing the barrel will still get hot, so I fire them in strings of 20, letting the barrle cool down inbetween. I would run a mop throught the barrel to make sure it stays clear!

 

[MarkS]

Josh,

I have been shooting a 6BRX for 7 years. My first one was was cut with Bob Crones reamer. I have fireformed in all the ways said above. The last barrel a did, I jammed the bullets 0.035" with 0.006" grip on the bullet. 29.5 gr of Varget with a 105 gr. I have used 70gr bullets with N135. Alot of guy will push things too hard for fireforming. You will still lose a few cases nw and then.

Mark Schronce

 

[Cigarcop]

Just my opinion but if your trying to push your shoulders out all the way (square as you say) on the first firing, your pushing your brass too hard from the start. YMMV

 

[bozo699]

Just my opinion but if your trying to push your shoulders out all the way (square as you say) on the first firing, your pushing your brass too hard from the start. YMMV

Cigarcop,
Other people's opinions are how we learn, and I have always valued yours as you have given me no reason to doubt your thoughts, with blowing the shoulder all the way out what am I hurting or rather what do you mean by pushing to hard? I am a very very old 48 years old what does YMMV mean?

A side note I used one piece of brass to do my load work up, fireformed as mentioned and have 34 firings on that case to date, primer pocket isn't what I would call tight by any means but hasn't got any worse in the last 20 firings so not to worried about that and I am using a very stout load, 34.5 grains of Varget behind a 107 SMK .012 into the lands.
Wayne.