Best 6.5mm Target Chambering?

guntech said:
If you can't buy Lapua brass for it, don't bother making it what ever it is...
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Well the 260 can be formed from either necking down .308 or necking up .243 of which Lapua makes brass for both. :dancingbanana:

As this is one of the Cartridges I am considering, I don't think I would have a problem finding brass to form for this one.
 
Richard, since I shot Ron's 260 more than once, my vote goes to the 260. It was like a laser beam and easy on the shoulder too. I have read that the 6.5x47 is hard to tune. I shot a 148-8x at 900 yds and 144-3x at 1000 yds with Ron's rifle in the team matches at Douglas Ridge and these were the best scores turned in at those yardages, pretty good for a borrowed rifle, even beat Ron with his own gun. Again, go 260 and email Ron for his loads. You could even check on which reamer he used too and what brass!!

Christ, I may have just gave you the edge that you really don't need eh.... see ya' this summer Rich
 
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I have used, in order, 6.5-06, 6.5x55 (twice) 6.5-284 (3 times) 260 Ackley Improved (current).

The Swedes each lasted about 3,000 rounds.

The 284 kicks more than i thought it would. i don't mind, but wife and daughter are annoyed.

The 280 Ackley Improved has a long throat for the match bullet. Gets 2900 fps or more from a 30" barrel. Accurate at all ranges. Likes RL22 and h4831SC (thanks, jerry).

I did not use jerry's design. If I had known, I would have. Mine requires a custom FL die - $150. Not neck sizing I use a cheap Lee 260 Rem collet die.
 
Richard. I would go with the 6.5 x 47 L. The advantage as I see it is that it equals or beats the 6mm's (using either 130's or 142's) wind drift to 1000 yards according to my ballistics programs. The drop is nearly the same using 123's, 130's and 142's but the 142's have the advantage with wind drift. You get nothing for free but the 6.5 x 47 appears to be a good compromise. The velocity is a little less but the barrel life appears to be very similar to a 308 win.

Contrary to reports my 6.5 x 47 has proven to be very easy to tune and I have found accurate loads very quickly.

You are welcome to shoot mine any time you want.

Steve
 
Kodiak99317 said:
Richard, since I shot Ron's 260 more than once, my vote goes to the 260. It was like a laser beam and easy on the shoulder too. I have read that the 6.5x47 is hard to tune. I shot a 148-8x at 900 yds and 144-3x at 1000 yds with Ron's rifle in the team matches at Douglas Ridge and these were the best scores turned in at those yardages, pretty good for a borrowed rifle, even beat Ron with his own gun. Again, go 260 and email Ron for his loads. You could even check on which reamer he used too and what brass!!

Christ, I may have just gave you the edge that you really don't need eh.... see ya' this summer Rich
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Thanks Keith,

Is Ron running a 260 or 260AI?

SteveB said:
Richard. I would go with the 6.5 x 47 L. The advantage as I see it is that it equals or beats the 6mm's (using either 130's or 142's) wind drift to 1000 yards according to my ballistics programs. The drop is nearly the same using 123's, 130's and 142's but the 142's have the advantage with wind drift. You get nothing for free but the 6.5 x 47 appears to be a good compromise. The velocity is a little less but the barrel life appears to be very similar to a 308 win.

Contrary to reports my 6.5 x 47 has proven to be very easy to tune and I have found accurate loads very quickly.

You are welcome to shoot mine any time you want.

Steve
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Thanks Steve,

I think I have decided to go with the 260 with 140grn projectiles, either a straight 260 or the 260AI. I will decide this after some more research.
 
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Richard,

Please keep me posted on this. With a 6.5X47 I'd probably run 130 grain bullets, but 140 grainers in a 260 make a lot of sense.

I'm thinking hard about the 260 as well, but thoughts about necking up Lapua 243 brass with the resulting concentricity problems don't excite me much at all. Thoughts? How does a guy take straight 243 brass and neck it up into straight 260 brass? What about the new Nosler brass, does it compete with Lapua in quality?

Thanks.
 
A brief reply from an engineer to my inquiry on burning rates just received from Nammo Lapua Oy, who own VihtaVuori: Nitrocelullose powders of the same type have similar burning temperatures, despite burning rate. Slower powders are usually in larger charges so they will generate more heat because there is more powder in the case. Slower powders will burn also outside the case, so they will also cause more heat erosion on barrel throat and first part of rifling than faster ones.

There are many misconceptions and I also wondered about this.

Regards,

Peter
 
Rick,

I was under the impression that one could neck down .308 brass as well but maybe I am wrong there. Might be it needs some form dies as well. Unless of course you can use .308 brass for a 260AI but need to use .243 brass for the 260?!?!

Jerry's 6.5 Mystic (essentially a 260AI) uses .308 brass...maybe he will chime in again and let us all in on the secret :D

Like I said before, this 6.5 stuff is all foreign land to me, but I am definitely doing my reading on the subject.
 
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Once again, Lapua is not and does not plan to make .260 Rem brass.

They will have new .222 Rem Match brass in February.

Hirsch Precision Inc.
Lapua in Canada
 
guntech said:
If you can't buy Lapua brass for it, don't bother making it what ever it is...
Click to expand...

Exactly!!!!!
I built a 260 Rouge for this season. Shot it at the last 600 club shoot. It is Dave Kiff's design. 260 rem with a 37 degree shoulder and a radius at the neck shoulder junction. This radius helps stop the "doughnut" from forming. It shoots the 142-139 at 2800 ish. Solid 1/4 MOA round. I fire form out of 243 Lapua. I have used this cal. in the past and have had great winning results. I made the mistake of getting on the 6.5-284 ban wagon a few years ago with great regrets, now Im back to the rogue.
 
I have emailed Ron, I will let you know what he says Rich.... do me a favor Rich, edit your post #26 that shows his email address amd remove it, no sense everyone bugging him eh :)
 
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CyaN1de said:
Rick,

I was under the impression that one could neck down .308 brass as well but maybe I am wrong there. Might be it needs some form dies as well. Unless of course you can use .308 brass for a 260AI but need to use .243 brass for the 260?!?!

Jerry's 6.5 Mystic (essentially a 260AI) uses .308 brass...maybe he will chime in again and let us all in on the secret :D

Like I said before, this 6.5 stuff is all foreign land to me, but I am definitely doing my reading on the subject.
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You can either use an expander mandrel (like you would use before neck turning) and expand the 243 brass, which only needs to make it .5mm larger or there are several methods you can use to neck down... you can use a 260 body die to take a 7.62mm opening down more than a mm to 6.5. It would need to be followed up with a neck sizing die of some sort.

I would rather neck up 243 than neck down 308 with a 260. There is less brass to landscape and the "Doughnut" problem is insignificant.
 
Thanks for the feedback guys. I've worked with several cartridges in the past where I have had to neck up or down brass. 6.5-06 from 25-06 (not much moving there), 7mag or 264Win to 257Wby, 308 to 7-08 due to cheap 308 brass, 300 Win to 358 Norma long neck. In every case, case neck eccentricity increased until I fireformed.

Do you fireform with cream of wheat or ?? I have thoughts of burning 2 or 3 hundred rounds downrange to fireform. With my sporters I call that practice, but am reluctant to do that with my F Classer. Then work up loads in a new barrel with the fireformed brass, little sense in doing that with crooked brass. 500 rounds are gone before I start competing with it. Thoughts?
 
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RickF said:
Thanks for the feedback guys. I've worked with several cartridges in the past where I have had to neck up or down brass. 6.5-06 from 25-06 (not much moving there), 7mag or 264Win to 257Wby, 308 to 7-08 due to cheap 308 brass, 300 Win to 358 Norma long neck. In every case, case neck eccentricity increased until I fireformed.

Do you fireform with cream of wheat or ?? I have thoughts of burning 2 or 3 hundred rounds downrange to fireform. With my sporters I call that practice, but am reluctant to do that with my F Classer. Then work up loads in a new barrel with the fireformed brass, little sense in doing that with crooked brass. 500 rounds are gone before I start competing with it. Thoughts?
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I have chambered worn out barrels and used them to fire form brass and then installed the new barrel. The last one I did I sat there and fired 200 rounds one after the other as fast as I could chamber them... used some bullseye and a wax plug... a .17 Ackley Hornet... I have a 700 barrel chambered for 6mm Rem. AI that I have saved for forming...
 
One other option is just to shoot with non fire-formed brass. One of the Alberta shooters won an ISSF match in Kamloops while fire-forming his 6Dasher brass. Depends on what you're forming of course, but as long as you can get a bullet seated, you should be good to go. With tough Lapua brass, the pressure from fire-forming this way will probably work best especially if forming a crisp new sholder.
 
So to cut to the chase, if I neck up Lapua 243 to 260 with well lubed brass, the resulting brass has minimal concentricity issues? What level of runout do you see before and after fireforming? Or am I picking fly#### out of pepper?
 
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