Making 6.5 Creedmoor Brass

[Raptor]

Has anyone of you guys with the 6.5 Creedmoor's made the brass out of 308 brass. The reason I ask is I have a ton of 308 Laupa brass and plenty of time. I know I would need to trim it down to 1.90 or so and then size it down in stages. Any input would be appreciated. Thanks guys!!

 

[LitLBoy]

I use the 308 Lapua Palma, piece of cake and you can turn the necks to what ever you want. Run the 308 brass into a 6.5 CM body die and then neck size with a bushing die
LitLBoy

 

[DHD]

I use the 308 Lapua Palma, piece of cake and you can turn the necks to what ever you want. Run the 308 brass into a 6.5 CM body die and then neck size with a bushing die
LitLBoy

I have done 100 pieces of Palma brass and 100 or so pieces of Hornady 308 Match. I, for whatever reason, cannot get new Palma brass to size down to 6.5 Creedmoor (shoulder collapses every time). Luckily I use this brass in my 308 too so I had some once fired brass available. Anyway, I just run it through a F/L Creedmoor die, trim all of them the same, then neck turn. In my case, the necks were too thick to even consider fireforming before I turned them.

I suspect that the Palma brass will last a long time, and the Hornady 308 Match resized brass seems to take the pressure better than the factory 6.5 Creedmoor brass.

 

[Raptor]

Thanks Guys appreciate the input!!

 

[Frankr]

I have made 6.5 creedmoor brass from Lapua 308 plama cases.. My procedure is. Lube up the cases good. I start them into a 300 savage die about 3/4 the way into the die.. then into a 6.5 creedmoor FL die slowly..you will get a slight mushroom at the shoulder..I set the 6.5 creedmoore die so I have heavy crush on the shoulder. also the expander ball removed from the die.. now you have a 6.5 creedmoor case with a real long neck.. at this point I trim the neck off leave it about .050 long.. then I run them on a expender iron and neck turn them.. I cant remember what I turned them to now, but I use the FL die with no expander ball...I came up with it through trial and error...the neck thickness... once turned to the thickness you want..then trim again to max case length..they will shorten slightly when fired the first time.. at this point the cases will need annealed. if not they will split the shoulders on the second firing. I wont give you my load but it is a savage 10 predator hunter. 24" barrel and i shoot a 140 Berger VLD at 2,950 FPS and have at least 6 firings on the cases. 5 shot groups at 100 yards have been .350's.. You really can push a hot load on that brass with no pressure signs.. I have some of the new Winchester brass I got 2 box's of the Winchester factory match ammo to shoot them and see how the brass was but never got to it yet..also Norma makes brass that should be good but have not found any yet..But I have been completely disgusted with Hornady's Brass..it's a shame..they make good bullets..I like the cartridge and proved to my self if someone made good quality brass for it, it is a awesome cartridge for a accurate long range rifle..

 

[trental]

To get around the crushed cases I use a shortened 7mm-08 die (machined off the bottom) to move the shoulder down to the proper Creedmoor length. This takes most of the crushing force off of the case wall. Once that is done I send them through the Creedmoor FL die to set the shoulder angle and size the neck the rest of the way down to 6.5mm. I set the die up to give moderate but not heavy crush when closing the bolt. I just want them snug enough that I can feel the tension against the bolt.

I trim the cases down to 1.915" before starting this. There is no reason to expend extra effort resizing the portion of the neck you are going to cut off anyway.

 

[Raptor]

I will chime in here and up date you guys on my progress. I found some good info on the Creedmoor sight. I had an old 308 bushing die and I had 1/8" trimmed off the bottom of the die. I put a 7MM bushing in the die. I also have a Dillon power trimmer for 308 cases and I take the case and run it into the trimmer as far down as I can trim it. I then run it into the shortened 308 die with the 7MM bushing and I have a shortened 308 case with a 7MM neck. Then all you do is run it into your 6.5 Creedmoor die and you have your case.

Like was stated above, you "WILL" need to turn the necks down. I turned mine down to around .014 They also recommended annealing the cases after fire forming them. They make some really nice looking cases...

 

[RippinSVT]

Since Lapua now makes 260 brass, has anybody just tried running one into a Creedmoor body die? I forrmed from 22-250 only to have short necks (expected) that were way too thin. I couldn't get consistent tension with even a .285" bushing. That was an expensive endeavor (and quasi-failure) when Lapua only sells in batches of 100 of more.

 

[Raptor]

It would work great but it should be trimmed first. Or you will run into a problem with the case being to long and binding in the Creedmoor die. And you will still need to neck turn the necks.