As some might have noted I posted on my first 1,000 yard rifle build in 6.5 X 284 and then on what I'd learned in the first year. And I learned quite a bit that will be carried over to every precision rifle I build from here on out.
Basically in terms of chambering, it's either a no turn neck or a turn neck. I prefer to stay away from neck turning if I can avoid it, especially if we're talking about turning a fair amount of brass. The Norma from the lot I originally got was not very good at all, less than 100 were good to go out of the box out of 500, and less than half the remaining brass was salvagable with neck turning for that chamber. The salvaged brass measured .014" with neck thickness variation running +.004". The batch of Lapua acquired in 2005 was of exceptional uniformity and out of the first 100, only 1 was rejected and no neck turning was required.
Well, the first barrel is pretty much finished and a bore scope only confirmed what a tight jag was telling me. But at 1400 rounds it still shot well enough to win a match. Still, two new L-W match program barrels were ordered. A reamer was ordered from Dave Kiff,nice guy to talk to by the way) with a .2975" neck which will work fine with this batch of Lapua brass.
Now my loading technique has eveloved too, especially resizing. I wasn't all that impressed by the results measured when using a bushing die and I prefer to resize a bit further down the neck so I lightly honed the neck of a Redding full length sizing die and use a carbide expander ball which just very lightly kisses the inside of the neck. Now the expander ball gives enough feel that I can tell if a neck is tighter or looser than the everage and if it is I set it aside for use as a fouler. I also use a Redding +.002" competition shellholder to give slightly less than a .0015" shoulder bump which seems ideal for the original chamber, but may be changed for the new chamber based on how it measures.
Speaking of neck turning, the choices I could find for cutters were either standard or a 40 degree Ackley cutter blade so I took a standard cutter blade to the local machine shop and had it ground to match the 6.5 X 284 shoulder. Ten bucks and that because I insisted on paying for it.
Now as we all know the 6.5 X 284 burns out barrels. So I picked up a used Savage and the most inexpensive barrel I could find to chambered with the same reamer and headpsace set with the same gauge. Bulk Remington bullets are $95/1000, I don't have to use any of my match lot # of powder or primers fireforming.
I also decided I needed an F/TR rifle and that is in progress. So the FIRST thing I did was acquire a large batch of Lapua .308 brass early this year. As I'd hoped the necks are very very uniform, the variance running less than .001" for most. The reamer has been spec'd to be .0035" larger diameter than the loaded round.
And that's my recommendation to anyone else looking to build a no turn neck precision rifle. Get the brass first and determine your reamer dimensions based on what the brass measures. And on brass. Over the last 35 years or so the ONLY brass I've ever gotten that had uniformity running on the order of less than .002" was the last batch of Lapua,more like less than .001"), and a number of years back 6.5 X 57 RWS for a 6mm Ackley. And if you think Lapua is expensive you haven't bought any RWS.
Anyhow, due to work both projects are on hold for a couple of weeks,again) AND I've only been able to make ONE match the year so far. Did manage to get very lucky and win that one though and believe me it was luck. Proves the old saying even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.
Basically in terms of chambering, it's either a no turn neck or a turn neck. I prefer to stay away from neck turning if I can avoid it, especially if we're talking about turning a fair amount of brass. The Norma from the lot I originally got was not very good at all, less than 100 were good to go out of the box out of 500, and less than half the remaining brass was salvagable with neck turning for that chamber. The salvaged brass measured .014" with neck thickness variation running +.004". The batch of Lapua acquired in 2005 was of exceptional uniformity and out of the first 100, only 1 was rejected and no neck turning was required.
Well, the first barrel is pretty much finished and a bore scope only confirmed what a tight jag was telling me. But at 1400 rounds it still shot well enough to win a match. Still, two new L-W match program barrels were ordered. A reamer was ordered from Dave Kiff,nice guy to talk to by the way) with a .2975" neck which will work fine with this batch of Lapua brass.
Now my loading technique has eveloved too, especially resizing. I wasn't all that impressed by the results measured when using a bushing die and I prefer to resize a bit further down the neck so I lightly honed the neck of a Redding full length sizing die and use a carbide expander ball which just very lightly kisses the inside of the neck. Now the expander ball gives enough feel that I can tell if a neck is tighter or looser than the everage and if it is I set it aside for use as a fouler. I also use a Redding +.002" competition shellholder to give slightly less than a .0015" shoulder bump which seems ideal for the original chamber, but may be changed for the new chamber based on how it measures.
Speaking of neck turning, the choices I could find for cutters were either standard or a 40 degree Ackley cutter blade so I took a standard cutter blade to the local machine shop and had it ground to match the 6.5 X 284 shoulder. Ten bucks and that because I insisted on paying for it.
Now as we all know the 6.5 X 284 burns out barrels. So I picked up a used Savage and the most inexpensive barrel I could find to chambered with the same reamer and headpsace set with the same gauge. Bulk Remington bullets are $95/1000, I don't have to use any of my match lot # of powder or primers fireforming.
I also decided I needed an F/TR rifle and that is in progress. So the FIRST thing I did was acquire a large batch of Lapua .308 brass early this year. As I'd hoped the necks are very very uniform, the variance running less than .001" for most. The reamer has been spec'd to be .0035" larger diameter than the loaded round.
And that's my recommendation to anyone else looking to build a no turn neck precision rifle. Get the brass first and determine your reamer dimensions based on what the brass measures. And on brass. Over the last 35 years or so the ONLY brass I've ever gotten that had uniformity running on the order of less than .002" was the last batch of Lapua,more like less than .001"), and a number of years back 6.5 X 57 RWS for a 6mm Ackley. And if you think Lapua is expensive you haven't bought any RWS.
Anyhow, due to work both projects are on hold for a couple of weeks,again) AND I've only been able to make ONE match the year so far. Did manage to get very lucky and win that one though and believe me it was luck. Proves the old saying even a blind pig finds an acorn once in a while.
