Case volume or neck tension

[Rflshootr]

I've got a 22x6mm Rem I'm getting ready to put the powder to. The only brass I could get my hands on was some Hornady 6mm Rem. It's pretty inconsistent. In saying that with the big variance, is case volume or neck tension more important if I can't have both?

 

[Jager]

They're both important.

 

[Rflshootr]

Well, that answers my question. Thanks.

 

[243winxb]

Neck tension would be my pick of the 2. Sizing the neck from 6mm to 22 may require outside neck turning. More so if a tight neck chamber.

 

[Rflshootr]

That's sort of the way I was thinking. This has to be the most inconsistent lot of any brass that I have ever had, including military ball brass. I set up the turner and took about .002-.003 off total, which gave me between 75-90% clean up depending on the individual piece of brass. That gives me about .007 neck clearance. More than I like to have, but I think the lesser of the 2 evils. I think I'll sort by weight from there. It sure is frustrating when all you can buy, if you're lucky, is junk and you have to pay the inflated price of this market. Thanks.

 

[mikecr]

You don't know capacities until you've fire formed the brass to stable & take measurements.
And brass doesn't come with a fixed tension, you set that.

 

[Rflshootr]

Mike, I've already fireformed them once with a pretty stout charge then resized and trimmed them all to the same length. The problem is that the neck concentricity and the weight of the brass vary all over the place. Even the neck size on the original loaded rounds varied .002 from the highest to the lowest. A few would not accept a bullet in the fired neck. Same charge on all loaded rounds and you could tell from recoil and pressure signs (no ejector marks) by primer flatness and firing pin flow. I get the fixed tension, but when neck wall thickness varies that much, it affects tension no matter how you size/expand it. I guess I'll have to wait and see what happens on the next couple of firings. The original loading was just size, deburr and load with no sorting whatsoever. All groups were 5 shots for 50 rounds. I had 4 groups in a row that shot 4 shots into upper .3's and .4's and every one had a real whacky unexplained flier. The rest of the groups were from .5's to .75's. I'm thinking it has to be the brass variation.

 

[jackieschmidt]

I don’t know who makes the brass for Hornady, (whether in house or farmed out), but some of it is about as bad as you can get.

I built a custom 308 a while back, and just to get some brass to reload and work with, I bought a box of 20 Hornady 168 Match.

after firing them, I ran In to the same delima you are experiencing. The stuff was terrible. As much as .002 variation in the neck wall thickness, and extreme weight variations. On top of that, the flash holes were off center.

I finally got some Lapua. Problem solved.

 

[Rflshootr]

Jackie, I'm glad I'm not the only one that has seen this. I thought I was hallucinating or something. Shame Lapua doesn't make 6mm Remington. I couldn't even find Remington or Winchester brass. I haven't even looked at the flash holes yet. Never again.

 

[3Ackleys]

Heck Lapua doesn't even make the stuff they used to make!

 

[sw282]

6mm Remington @2.233'' has a parent case. lts the 7x57 Mauser @2.244''.. Lots of good quality 7mm Mauser brass out there. Norma and PPU are made. Remington too

 

[GLShooter]

You can use mandrels to set consistent neck tension no matter what neck thickness variation.

 

[Webster]

I've got a 22x6mm Rem I'm getting ready to put the powder to. The only brass I could get my hands on was some Hornady 6mm Rem. It's pretty inconsistent. In saying that with the big variance, is case volume or neck tension more important if I can't have both?

Why a 22 6 REM. It's been obsolete for probably 20 years. I assume you don't mean a 6mm BR Norma necked to 22. I heard a few guys say the first thing they look at is what cases does Lapua make, then pick a caliber. There are several other quality brands that are mentioned on Erik Cortina's videos. I shot a 6mm Rem for 40 years for gH hunting. Now own a 6BR and a 6BRX. FPS isn't every thing.

 

[nmkid]

I think I have some 6mm brass somewhere in a box. How many times fired? I don't know. I got it at an estate sale. If you want, send me your address and I'll send it to you.

 

[sw282]

Why a 22 6 REM. It's been obsolete for probably 20 years. I assume you don't mean a 6mm BR Norma necked to 22. I heard a few guys say the first thing they look at is what cases does Lapua make, then pick a caliber. There are several other quality brands that are mentioned on Erik Cortina's videos. I shot a 6mm Rem for 40 years for gH hunting. Now own a 6BR and a 6BRX. FPS isn't every thing.

My Goodness. ALL my guns must be OBSOLETE then? Maybe EVEN ME??

 

[Rflshootr]

6mm Remington @2.233'' has a parent case. lts the 7x57 Mauser @2.244''.. Lots of good quality 7mm Mauser brass out there. Norma and PPU are made. Remington too

Have you tried to find any in stock lately? I looked at those options with no luck.

 

[Rflshootr]

I think I have some 6mm brass somewhere in a box. How many times fired? I don't know. I got it at an estate sale. If you want, send me your address and I'll send it to you.

Sent. Thank You! Much appreciated.

 

[Rflshootr]

Why a 22 6 REM. It's been obsolete for probably 20 years. I assume you don't mean a 6mm BR Norma necked to 22. I heard a few guys say the first thing they look at is what cases does Lapua make, then pick a caliber. There are several other quality brands that are mentioned on Erik Cortina's videos. I shot a 6mm Rem for 40 years for gH hunting. Now own a 6BR and a 6BRX. FPS isn't every thing.

Long story short, 20 years ago I had a fellow chamber a lilja 3 groove 8 twist for a 220 swift. The chamber was quite a bit oversize at the rear and only had 20 rounds through it. I took it off and it has been sitting there. Since I didn't have enough barrel to set it back to anything shorter, the 22x6mm was the only option, plus I already had a set of dies from the previous barrel. I got a good bargain on a once used reamer and here I am.

 

[Rflshootr]

You can use mandrels to set consistent neck tension no matter what neck thickness variation.

So, what you are saying is that if the neck thickness varies .003 in concentricity, and the next varies only .001, a mandrel will give you the same neck tension?
If 1 loaded round measures .002-.003 difference in diameter then another round, the neck tension will all be the same? Wouldn't that much variation affect spring back? How can an out of concentric thickness variation expand evenly, especially
when all the necks aren't even the same diameter or have the same amount of variation?

 

[357Mag]

I've got a 22x6mm Rem I'm getting ready to put the powder to. The only brass I could get my hands on was some Hornady 6mm Rem. It's pretty inconsistent. In saying that with the big variance, is case volume or neck tension more important if I can't have both?

Rflshooter -

Howdy !

IMHO - It's not and either /or deal.

IF you were to form your .22-6mm cases from 7 X 57, you might also find that you need to do a rudimentary inside neck ream and/or outside neck turn.... dependent on how thick your parent brass was to start with. You'd be stepping down a couple of calibres to final .224" cal; and that often results in thick(ended) necks.

FWIW - I case form a 6mm wildcat of my own design, that fits a chamber cut by running a 6mm Remington reamer in " short "; for a nominal .466" base diam. My parent case is
7 X 64 Brenneke. I use a stock ( LEE ) 6.5 X 55 FL die with it's internals removed, as the sole case forming die. The shoulder angle of the die + the larger than 6mm Remington
shoulder diameter inside the die give me readily workable case forming forces; when I start the process using properly annealed brass. I use Norma brand, and it has worked very well for me.

I do a pretty healthy shoulder shove downward on the brass + take it from 7mm down to 6mm final, which results in my wildcat brass requiring both an inside neck ream & outside neck turn.... to arrive the @ final 6mm cal I desire.

If you case form from 7 X 57 ( or perhaps even .257Roberts ) the change from a shallow shoulder angle to a final formed case shoulder angle that is " sharper "; might result in the formation of " doughnuts " just above the shoulder / neck juncture. That's just part & parcel of the process, as there are limits to what you can cleanly form " mechanically ".


With regards,
357Mag