6ppc questions

[grovey]

I bought my first custom rifle yesterday. It's a 6ppc repeater on a trued ss 700 action. The seller knew some things about the rifle, but some details are fuzzy. It was his hunting buddys rifle and he bought it at his estate sale after he passed. He said it was a 14 twist shilen bbl and the chamber had a tight neck. When I asked what size, he responded with .267 I guess.

He sold some ppc dies before I got there, and I assume they were to this rifle. I did get 50 pcs of prepped "ready to load" norma headstamp brass with it. It measures .259.5 to .260 od, and 242 ish ID. The neck brass is.008 by my caliper

I did the cleaning rod test and confirmed the 14 twist, and the bbl contour seems to match shilen's#4 mag sporter spot on. I've been thinking getting a custom FL die from Whidden ( my first) for this gun, but I have no way of seating bullets to shoot to get fired brass. What hiccups would I run into with a standard 6ppc rcbs set with the tight neck? Would I have to buy a custom seater as well?

 

[varminthunter1]

.267" is an odd size. I would bet it is actually a .262" neck diameter. If that brass was for that rifle, .008" is correct for a .262" nk.
I would recommend a harrels full length bushing die. ( and a .258 bushing) You could try the rcbs set, or just use the seater die from it.

 

[snert]

Do a chamber cast. Only way to know for sure.

Then you cn look for dies. Give Bob White a call at Shooters Corner. he deals in PPC all the time and I bet he has used dies there that would do ya.

This is rocket science, but there are LOTS of rocket scientists and used equipment around. Knowing what you actually have is the first step. From there you you need good advice direct from a supplier/competitor and Bob could and I bet would help. Just go into it knowing some details.

 

[rkittine]

My 6PPC is what is considered a Tight Neck and it is .262. Can you chamber a round from your prepped brass? What I did was buy a Wilson 6PPC neck die and seater die, which I wanted anyway. Seated a bullet and confirmed that it fed into my chamber. Fired the case three times with neck sizing only and sent three pieces of three times fired brass to Whidden for a custom FL / Neck Die. Most 6PPCs that I have seen have the specs engraved on the barrel.

I have a 13.5:1 twist barrel and shot Berger 65 (64.2 for this batch) Columns.

Bob

 

[swd]

For a tight neck chamber it's REALLY important to know the actual neck diameter not just an "I guess". Very bad things can happen without enough clearance.

 

[rayjay]

Maybe you could put an ad on CL or where ever you found out about the rifle and hook up with the person that bought the dies.

If that doesn't work you could be patient and find some used dies here or on Ebay. I just picked up a pair of FL sizing dies off Ebay for a fair price. One is a Redding and the other is a new style Hornady. It turns out that the Hornady die will size the brass a bit more than the Redding. Pushing the fired brass lightly by hand up into the dies the brass goes about 3/8 farther into the Redding than the Hornady. So after fireforming I have dies that give me options for resizing.

I already have a Lee seater on hand. I would prefer a Wilson chamber type seater but I no longer have an arbor press. I could make do with my drill press I guess but for my current use the Lee die will do ok and is free. I just have to carefully set the bullet on top of the case or else you feel the bullet bumping into the shoulder section of the seater as you raise the ram. For a press mounted threaded seater Forster's Ultra BR die is my favorite.

Midway has the std RCBS FL set on sale for less than $30 which would get you going quickly. These dies would slightly overwork the neck but the expander ball should give you a usable bullet tension.

 

[swd]

Unless your buying bushing dies don't even bother looking at dies until you know the neck diameter.

 

[Greyfox]

Advice to do a chamber cast is excellent. Doubt it would be smaller and if that brass is for that rifle it is almost definitely a .262. Also, advice for a .258 bushing is good, .259 may work as well. Whidden dies are excellent but pricey. If you will send Harrell's Precision 3 of those cases he will send you a bushing die for it. He will even let you pay him after you try it. Get the Wilson seater. If you don't have an arbor press you can use a hammer. Depending on what your use is, custom benchrest bullets will get you the smallest groups, but anything from a 58-70gr varmint bullet will blow up critters with boring accuracy.

Rick

 

[grovey]

The norma brass is definitely for this rifle . It was prepped by the deceased previous owner. The man I bought it from never fired it after buying it. Seems dumb if he separated the ppc dies from the rifle. He has two ppcs himself so I'm sure he wasn't selling his. The std RCBS die set rayjay mentioned for 30 bucks should let me seat some bullets to fire the cheapest I suppose, but shouldn't I only be neck sizing the fired cases as I'm firing them 3x?

This is a new experience for me with the tight neck chamber and having to turn necks. I have a so so neck turner setup, but have only skimmed some cases to uniform the neck a bit. Also... I've never used bushing dies before. I'd read somewhere about the custom FL dies made to your fired brass and that seemed like a simple solution to perfect sizing. Again... all new to me, so bend my ear as to why you prefer the custom bushing die over the custom fl die. Not bashing anyones product mind you, just why you prefer them. I understand the bushing die can be micro tuned with a one size off bushing. Is that why it's preferred?

 

[rayjay]

Go over to the Accurate Shooter side of this site and read everything you can on the 6PPC. Read the linked page below and then do a search over there on ppc.

http://www.accurateshooter.com/cartridge-guides/6mmppc/

 

[grovey]

Pic of the extractor on my new to me ppc. I assume it's a sako, but they look about the same as an m16 extractor to me.

 

[rayjay]

I was going to ask but then just decided that it would have the Sako extractor. I would DEFINITELY remove the ejector. No need to be flinging your highly fiddled brass onto the ground.

You should also read the 6BR pages on the Accurate Shooter side just for more info about case prep, properly fitting sizing dies, etc. The 30BR page also has a lot of great info that applies to just about any wildcat with turned necks.

 

[grovey]

Edit: Changed my mind again....

Seems Everytime I think I've settled on what I'm buying for dies I find another reason to doubt what I need. While looking for an explanation of what an oversized Wilson die used for I came upon this thread.

http://benchrest.com/showthread.php?80833-Wilson-oversize-dies

From that explanation... I concluded I had the more modern deal for the .443 web brass by the headstamp, but the gun was built back in 95, so I took another look at the brass I got with it. It measures .439 at the web. Also, the headstamp IS 6 ppc , but the usa part has been purposely ground away. Here's the pic of the brass.