necking down

[George Az]

Well I never made brass before and I wanted to try a 6.5 x 06. I have plenty of 30-06 brass, lots of once fired Fed, Remington and L/C. I have some .270 brass. I am using Redding dies in 6.5 x 06 (a-square). Rem L/A, Shilen barrel, standard chamber - not "tight."

Dillion case lube, RCBS Rockchucker press. No issues with sticking brass. Seem to neck them down ok. But if I load a non primed empty Federal case, the bolt will close, but it is really hard to extract. The Remingtons are much better. I use a .270 case, no matter which brass - no problem at all. Functions really smooth.

This is with a no neck turn brass yet. I have not tried L/C. I can pick up some better 30-06 brass say Hornady or Lapua - might be better.

My smith gave me some older Speer brass he used when he built it with the same dies. They load and seem to extract fine with no neck turning.

Am I doing something wrong? or is it time to start turning necks? I have not fired my rounds yet and I do not want to do the wrong thing.

Thanks

 

[Bradsb]

You need to get more info on your chamber. Like the actual neck dimension. That way you are not guessing what the neck is. Then you can measure a loaded round to see if you have enough neck clearance. You may want to do a chamber cast or at least measure a fired round. Do you have any unsized brass that were fired out of the rife that you could measure?

 

[George Az]

Yes! I have several fired rounds.

 

[jr600yd]

Since you have a large supply of 06 brass necking down is a good choice for you. You may have to neck turn them. 270 brass has a longer neck so you'll be doing a lot of trimming. I shoot a 6.5/06 in long range competition and found its much easier to neck up 25/06 brass. Once the brass is necked up to .264 load and shoot. By necking up the brass you avoid the dreaded donut. You didn't state what your using the rifle for, hunting, competition or plinking. If your barrel is 26" or less 4350 is a very good powder, if you have a longer barrel 4831 is excellent. Not all brass is the same. Pick a brand and set your dies up for that. I think that will solve one of your problems.

 

[George Az]

I do notice the .270 needs considerable trimming. Barrel is 27.5" in "light Palma" configuration. Use will be general target for my own goals. The .30 cals were starting to beat on me. I live at 5000 ft with a lot of wind. Maybe some Tac competitions and most certainly Mule deer and antelope if I ever get drawn.

My smith pulled 3330 fps out of 100 grain bullets using 4350. very please with sub moa for 3 at 200 yards. I have everything from 120's, 129 AMax, 130, 140 ans 142 Sierras to try.

I waited a while on this build and I bought heads when I could when things became available on the shelves during the great ammo drought of 2013. I can always swap bullet weights with someone if they don't work. Seems 6.5's were more available than .223 or .30 cals for a long time, until the last month or two anyway.

Thank you

 

[spclark]

If unfired, empty, unprimed cases are hard to extract you need to get a chamber cast made (or do it yourself, it's easy enough if you've ever melted lead to make soldiers or bullets) so you can verify what the critical chamber dimensions are. At this point those are three: neck diameter, neck length ahead of the shoulder, and case web diameter measured just ahead of the extractor groove.

Unfired cases that chamber easy only to extract hard may be too long at the neck & are getting forced into the chamber's freebore. Or the necks could be too large a diameter but I'd think you'd feel this in the bolt when you go to chamber a case.

How do those Speer cases compare (dimensionally) to the other brands that give you grief?

Certainly different brands of cartridge cases may have minor dimensional variations while still being within "standards." Whether the variations are significant depends a great deal on the equipment they're used in.

 

[George Az]

I found another problem or fixed one... I had a bunch of L/C fired from an M-1 Garand. I cleaned them up and they made wonderful 6.5 x 06 rounds. So, this got me to thinking. All the brass I tried so far was given to me by a guy I know, he never shoots reloads. He spent a ton of $$$ on factory loads and after firing them in his 06, gave them to me. When I tried to chamber one of these in a nother 06 - way too tight. So, measuring the base down by the rim, not bulged but bigger - there is a discrepancy. I think his chamber is oversize.

Everything else I am using from different rifles fits so far, .270 needs more trimming but works, Lake City out of a Garand works. I knocked off for the night because I was getting stupid, but I have soem other 30-06 out of a different rifle and I will give it a go.

My only problem now is some of the L/C occasionaly overcrimps or folds, so I loose a case. 3 out of 25. But I am getting somewhere. Careful die set up and measuring. Thanks!

 

[CatShooter]

I found another problem or fixed one... I had a bunch of L/C fired from an M-1 Garand. I cleaned them up and they made wonderful 6.5 x 06 rounds. So, this got me to thinking. All the brass I tried so far was given to me by a guy I know, he never shoots reloads. He spent a ton of $$$ on factory loads and after firing them in his 06, gave them to me. When I tried to chamber one of these in a nother 06 - way too tight. So, measuring the base down by the rim, not bulged but bigger - there is a discrepancy. I think his chamber is oversize.

Everything else I am using from different rifles fits so far, .270 needs more trimming but works, Lake City out of a Garand works. I knocked off for the night because I was getting stupid, but I have soem other 30-06 out of a different rifle and I will give it a go.

My only problem now is some of the L/C occasionaly overcrimps or folds, so I loose a case. 3 out of 25. But I am getting somewhere. Careful die set up and measuring. Thanks!

His brass is not over sized - it is extremely rare that brass from one gun will fit in another. Just FL size it and shoot it.

 

[jr600yd]

+1 with catshooter. Sort your brass by head stamps. Don't mix and match. Set your sizing die up for X case. Trim to length. Load and shoot. I don't know about the lighter bullets but those in the 140 - 142 gr range preform best in the 2850 - 2950fps range.

 

[wapiti25]

I anneal the brass first then size in a 30-06 fl die without the expander next use a 270 win fl sizer, no expander. Trim to the length then use the 6.5-06 die and anneal again, if you do not anneal they will split necks very quick as in the second reload. I also recomend that you turn the necks to a 70% clean-up or more. You will find the necks get very thick near the shoulder ("Donut"). I have made hundered's this way and they will last for many reloads. It is a very good cartridge.

 

[George Az]

Thank you! that was the ticket. I took the guts out of the 30-06 die and resized a bunch of once fired. trimmed to length and then did the regular process with the 6.5 x 06 dies. Worked great with no issues. Thank you for the replies.