Hydroforming 6.5 Creedmoor.

Rhyno

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Aug 10, 2013
539
1
Nebraska
Hey ya'll, so I'm milling over the idea of rebarreling and rechambering my .308 R700, and I'm really interested in 6.5 Creedmoor, but having only one source of brass scares me.

So I figured that I could probably form brass, but fire forming is a bit to cost inefficient for my tastes. Has anyone done hydro forming? Especially for the 6.5 Creedmoor.

I know Hornady makes a die, but I don't really like the design so I've worked up an idea for what I think will be a better design. Instead of a regular hammer I plan on making it robust enough to use an air hammer, maybe not at full power. And then hopefully I'll be able to use 260 Remington or anything from that family to form it.

What do you guys think?

~Joseph~
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So why go with 6.5? Why not just get your 700 chambered in 260 and have multiple sources? What is it that the 6.5 creed buys you that you're willing to put up with the extra pain and worry for?

~Brett
 
So why go with 6.5? Why not just get your 700 chambered in 260 and have multiple sources? What is it that the 6.5 creed buys you that you're willing to put up with the extra pain and worry for?

~Brett

Well that is certainly an option that hasn't been ruled out.

The thing I see beneficial in the 6.5 Creedmoor over the 260 Remington (and it could be fully unwarranted but I haven't found a definitive answer) is the case is shorter, which helps with the longer projectiles. I single feed when I must, but would prefer to load from the mag, and don't want to run into case capacity issues. They might both have that issue, or neither might have that issue, I haven't found a good answer yet.

~Joseph~
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Yep good point. This was one of the points brought up by my gunsmith. It still seems that you'd have just as much luck shooting heavier bullets with the 260 you'd just lose some of the case capacity. However in going to 6.5CM you give up that case capacity already. His reasoning for it was that the chamber can be bored shorter and it allows you to reach the lands while staying within magazine OAL.
 
no need to "reach the lands" to make a good gun shoot well...
and guys that "jam" and use the gun for anything but BR are idiots...

general rule.... if you reload, go 260... in not, then go CM...
260 can be made from 243,708,308 brass, you will never run out or cant find it....
 
So why go with 6.5? Why not just get your 700 chambered in 260 and have multiple sources? What is it that the 6.5 creed buys you that you're willing to put up with the extra pain and worry for?

~Brett

What extra pain and worry? I bought my 6.5Cm about a year ago, and I've never had a problem finding powder / cases / bullets for it.

And why are the 260 guys all on a jihad against the 6.5CM? 6.5CM guys all acknowledge the worth of 260, but the 260 guys have a vendetta against 6.5CM. Its really kinda freaky.... they seem to have this compulsion to go into EVERY 6.5CM thread and bash the round, as if its their God-ordained duty to save humanity from it.
 
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I see that Nosler also has a part number for 6.5 Creedmoor brass. After doing more reading it seems like people are fire forming 22-250 brass easy enough to 6.5 Creedmoor.

~Joseph~
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6.5CM is a derivative of 308 (I believe) and is dimensionally very close. If 260 can be formed from 308, I'd bet 6.5CM could be too. But why? 6.5CM is readily available.

If the world got so bad as to not be able to get 6.5CM brass, you wouldn't need it anyway. Its my LAST "go-to" caliber for TEOTWAWKI.
 
6.5CM is a derivative of 308 (I believe) and is dimensionally very close. If 260 can be formed from 308, I'd bet 6.5CM could be too. But why? 6.5CM is readily available.

If the world got so bad as to not be able to get 6.5CM brass, you wouldn't need it anyway. Its my LAST "go-to" caliber for TEOTWAWKI.

FWIW, Midway has some brass in stock right now. That's more than can be said of other calibers...

I actually hadn't even looked until this morning and was surprised to see that 6.5 brass was readily available. So that's good.

~Joseph~
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I bought about 300 cases of Hornady 6.5CM, and that will last me another 10 years.

Anyway, sorry for derailing the thread, slightly. But I'm really starting to get sick and tired of the 260 guys who seem to have made it their duty to urinate in every 6.5CM discussion.
 
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IIRC, all you need is a shortened 7mm-08 die, .308 brass, 6.5CM dies and a 6.5mm neck turning tool to make brass.

I saw no difference in POI with non-fireformed brass and fireformed brass (from .308 brass) when I dabbled in this a few years ago...