New 6.5x47L build questions

J

Jrome

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Hi all. I just got my first rifle built. After getting it home I started my process for finding the lands. I know that COAL is 2.795 but I had to drop that to 2.620 to be able to close the bolt.

This is obviously the first time I have loaded for this cartridge and my question is... Is that normal for those bullets?

My gunsmith used a SAMI spec reamer but from what I have read I should use a throat distance from .169-.178

Any advice would be great.

Thank you.

Using Lapua brass and 140gr Berger vld.
 
Its been a long while since I measure OAL, but if I remember correctly my OAL was shorter than the book by quite a bit.

Using lapua brass and Berger 140VLDs, my CBTO measurement is 2.104 and it had 2 thou of jump to lands. I'm on my second x47 with several thousand rounds at that length without issue.
 
To add to the above, I would suggest picking up a quality comparator set and making a modified case for measuring your LTO and lands depth. Hornady makes a cost effective option, but there are higher quality models out (like SAC) there if you want to break the bank. Check out youtube for tutorials.
 
Erik Cortina has a good video on determining what seating depth puts your bullet just in contact with the lands, aka just barely jammed.
 
My concern is more with how far the bullet is seated into the case and not with the lands. It's seated so far down its into the shoulder or past. I'm really asking what is to short?.and or what is dangerous.
Thanks.
 
Jrome said:
Of course not.

I'm really looking for people who have loaded for 6.5x47 with a 139-140gr bullet and their experience with seating depths.
Click to expand...

I ask because I have done load development on four different x47s, all of which had original load development done with 140gr Berger's or Hornadys. I also ask because I had similar issues, when I first started loading them, and one of my "difficult bolt closing" problems had nothing to do with seating depth and was the shoulder... I had run it through a neck collet instead of FL resize. Once I FL sized the case with a Redding FL bushing die, pushing the shoulder back a bit further than I normally would, issues went away and I was able to accurately find the lands.

But you do you. I'm not going to tell you what lengths are safe to run in your rifle.. I already provided you with what I found to be safe in mine which is shorter than book and made an attempt to help troubleshoot the issue given the experiences i had.

Enjoy the troubleshooting.
 
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rlaunay said:
I ask because I have done load development on four different x47s, all of which had original load development done with 140gr Berger's or Hornadys. I also ask because I had similar issues, when I first started loading them, and one of my "difficult bolt closing" problems had nothing to do with seating depth and was the shoulder... I had run it through a neck collet instead of FL resize. Once I FL sized the case with a Redding FL bushing die, issues went away and I was able to accurately find the lands.

But you do you. I'm not going to tell you what lengths are safe to run in your rifle.. I already provided you with what I found to be safe in mine which is shorter than book and made an attempt to help troubleshoot the issue given the experiences in had.

Enjoy the troubleshooting.
Click to expand...

In my original post I said I can close the bolt by seating the bullet very far in. If you have found way under book is what you had to do then that's where I will start. I'm clearly not explaing myself clearly I guess. Thanks for the input.
 
Jrome said:
My concern is more with how far the bullet is seated into the case and not with the lands. It's seated so far down its into the shoulder or past. I'm really asking what is to short?.and or what is dangerous.
Thanks.
Click to expand...

Its not "dangerous" to seat a bullet down into the case as long as your loads are developed accordingly.

If I'm getting the jest of it, sounds like you might have a short throat. This is why we usually have our own reamers made to our spec instead of using what your pipe fitter happens to have on the shelf.

I have the opposite problem with my short action FTR gun where a live round is too long to eject because the throat is that long for heavies. I wish I built that gun on a long action.

In your case the 6.5x47L is not very long so I doubt you are guarding against that with your throat length, but if you want a longer throat, its not all that hard or expensive to push it forward to where you want it for heavies.

Ideally the base of the bearing surface should sit just forward of the neck to shoulder junction with the bullet just soft touching the lands. That maximizes case capacity and extends more of the bearing surface so it can be guided by the free bore (assuming that is not sloppy, which it usually is) into alignment with the rifling. That can also be improved by running a tight neck as that allows you to idealize the alignment characteristics of the neck as well as reducing case to body runout by minimally resizing your neck. That also lowers the amount of neck work hardening during resizing.

I dont know what freebore is comon for long range use in the 6.5 but .169-.178 is real short. I use more than than on my 223.
 
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Maple57 said:
Its not "dangerous" to seat a bullet down into the case as long as your loads are developed accordingly.

If I'm getting the jest of it, sounds like you might have a short throat. This is why we usually have our own reamers made to our spec instead of using what your pipe fitter happens to have on the shelf.

I have the opposite problem with my short action FTR gun where a live round is too long to eject because the throat is that long for heavies. I wish I built that gun on a long action.

In your case the 6.5x47L is not very long so I doubt you are guarding against that with your throat length, but if you want a longer throat, its not all that hard or expensive to push it forward to where you want it for heavies.

Ideally the base of the bearing surface should sit just forward of the neck to shoulder junction with the bullet just soft touching the lands. That maximizes case capacity and extends more of the bearing surface so it can be guided by the free bore (assuming that is not sloppy, which it usually is) into alignment with the rifling. That can also be improved by running a tight neck as that allows you to idealize the alignment characteristics of the neck as well as reducing case to body runout by minimally resizing your neck. That also lowers the amount of neck work hardening during resizing.

I dont know what freebore is comon for long range use in the 6.5 but .169-.178 is real short. I use more than than on my 223.
Click to expand...

That's great information. Thank you!
I'll have a chat with my gunsmith as he used a SAMI spec reamer. It shouldn't be hard to increase it. I appreciate the insight.
 
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