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Resizing .308 to 6.5CM

SavageShooter67

I have been reading and watching videos on making 6.5 out of .308. Had “some” success but it didn’t turn out real good.
I had trouble getting them in to the die without deforming the shoulder. Next, I thought well? Let’s anneal the .308 and try that…ugh…neck/shoulder area was too soft at that point and in forcing the brass in to the die, it collapsed the shoulder down in to the body.
My next “great idea”?…why can’t I buy a 2nd 6.5CM die, remove the expander, open up the neck to a dimension that would split the dimensions of the .308 and 6.5 and use it as an “intermediate” die and then on to the standard 6.5?
 
SavageShooter67 said:
I have been reading and watching videos on making 6.5 out of .308. Had “some” success but it didn’t turn out real good.
I had trouble getting them in to the die without deforming the shoulder. Next, I thought well? Let’s anneal the .308 and try that…ugh…neck/shoulder area was too soft at that point and in forcing the brass in to the die, it collapsed the shoulder down in to the body.
My next “great idea”?…why can’t I buy a 2nd 6.5CM die, remove the expander, open up the neck to a dimension that would split the dimensions of the .308 and 6.5 and use it as an “intermediate” die and then on to the standard 6.5?
Click to expand...
Did you pre trim the neck before doing anything else ?.
 
Paul Bike form die set makes tasks like this real easy. I have made perhaps 1000 cases formed to 6 XC from various makes of 308 Brass. I later used a Piloted neck reamer from PTG to cut the neck longer in the chamber to a length of .400, which gives all kinds of options. I did neck turn the brass. When I was through.
 
SavageShooter67 said:
No, I just trimmed the excess afterwards
Click to expand...
You might want to give that a whirl ,as it will prevent excess material pushing up into the die's neck and therefore hopefully negate shoulder indentation . LUBRICATION is also the Key enough but Not too much . Try a few see what You think . I just ran #2 through My RL550 and they are a Go in the gauge ,after final neck trim . As I recently built an M5 Aero W/ 6.5CM and have K's of .308 or actually 7.62x51mm as they're military cases . However I found it easier to utilize My .243 cases ,which I no longer have a Rifle for . Fyi : I'm still running 1943 44 54 55 56 cases in 7.62x63mm and 7.62x51 mm respectively . I cleaned ? years off those cases and annealed them and have as of today #7 firings on 7.62x63mm cases and #4 on 7.62x51mm . Those rounds run in My M1 Garands as well as in My M14 and M1A1 . Not a hint of case separation and rims are Tough so as to resist excessive extraction chewing . I don't know if the case manufacturing process was better back then ,I do know CU ZN composition was different ,so perhaps combined with age has hardened the rims ?.
 
What I did was take a 7mm-08 FL die and cut off from the bottom enough to move the shoulder down to the Creedmoor body/shoulder location. This stops the body deformations and collapsing because you are moving the shoulder at the same slack shoulder angle as 308/7-08/260. Then use your 6.5mm Creedmoor FL die to set the shoulder angle and size the neck the rest of the way. And I'm sure you know but remove all the guts from the dies so that nothing is impinging on the growing neck. It's up to you if you want to "pre-trim" or not. When you set the shoulder with the CM die play with it until you get a slight crush fit when closing your bolt and you'll get nicely formed cases.

You'll definitely want the turn the necks as they will be thick.
 
trental said:
What I did was take a 7mm-08 FL die and cut off from the bottom enough to move the shoulder down to the Creedmoor body/shoulder location. This stops the body deformations and collapsing because you are moving the shoulder at the same slack shoulder angle as 308/7-08/260. Then use your 6.5mm Creedmoor FL die to set the shoulder angle and size the neck the rest of the way. And I'm sure you know but remove all the guts from the dies so that nothing is impinging on the growing neck. It's up to you if you want to "pre-trim" or not. When you set the shoulder with the CM die play with it until you get a slight crush fit when closing your bolt and you'll get nicely formed cases.

You'll definitely want the turn the necks as they will be thick.
Click to expand...
Roughly how much of the 7mm-08 die do you think you removed?
 
The case forming die that Paul builds will do exactly what you’re looking to do. His dad is a regular here, and covers sales. You can contact @Uthink Uknow Also the Creedmoor case is a necked down 30TC. You could get a 30TC die for a first stage. This would move the shoulder, then neck down in the Creedmoor die. As others have said, you might need to trim first. The longer 308 case could be hitting something inside your die, causing the crush. Josh also offered a great deal!
 
If you run across a 6.5 Creedmoor trim die grab it they work slick no expander or end of chamber to get in the way I have seen some here and there CHEAP, I trim after sizing if the FL die allows I would still reduce the neck to 284 first, Hornady and lee dies have plenty of room for to long cases
 
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