Making 6.5 Creedmoor brass
A couple of people have pm’d me asking how I form .308 brass to make the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge. Below are the steps I take to make it. In no way am I claiming to be an expert on this matter and I’m still testing the original lot of brass I did this with. I hope others will chime in with their experience in brass forming to improve this process. In the steps below I used a used .308 Lapua case for the write up. If you decide to try this it is at your own risk.
1. I run the 308 case through the full length Creedmoor die without the decapping unit in the die. I personally like the RCBS dies compared to the Hornady die set. I use Imperial sizing die wax for the entire process. You may notice some small dimpling on the body of the brass and the neck looks a little bowed afterwards but when I fire formed them this straightened out.
The case will come out as shown below.
2. The neck will be extremely long and will have to be trimmed. The inner neck diameter is about 6mm at this time and I use this size pilot when trimming the brass down to 1.910.
3. Slightly deburr and chamfer.
4. Then I run the case through the full length die with the decapping unit installed.
5. At this point you have what appears to be a basic Creedmoor case but I feel the neck is too thick averaging around .025.
6. I then go through the neck turning process and turn the necks down to .015 which is about the same thickness of factory CM brass. Taking off .010 in one pass is probably not the best idea which might result in working the brass too hard. A couple step down turns would be best I’ve been told.
7.I resize the brass a final time since the mandrel for the neck turning opened up the neck.
8.The final stage in my process is to fire form and you’re good to go.
I hope all who see the lack in brass availability for the Creedmoor see this as an alternative not the solution, for now. I have no experience in annealing brass so I don’t know where in this process you would do it or if it is needed.
I currently am using Remington 308 brass for this experiment and am through two firings with no issues. I only did 30 cases to start with.
In my rifle the weight charge of 41.8gr of H4350 pushing a 142 SMK yields a velocity around 2760 fps. I have a 28” Kreiger barrel.
Using the Remington 308 brass and the same weight charge/ bullet combo yields an increase of 40-50 fps.
Here is a diagram I pulled of the web.
Thanks all.
A couple of people have pm’d me asking how I form .308 brass to make the 6.5 Creedmoor cartridge. Below are the steps I take to make it. In no way am I claiming to be an expert on this matter and I’m still testing the original lot of brass I did this with. I hope others will chime in with their experience in brass forming to improve this process. In the steps below I used a used .308 Lapua case for the write up. If you decide to try this it is at your own risk.
1. I run the 308 case through the full length Creedmoor die without the decapping unit in the die. I personally like the RCBS dies compared to the Hornady die set. I use Imperial sizing die wax for the entire process. You may notice some small dimpling on the body of the brass and the neck looks a little bowed afterwards but when I fire formed them this straightened out.
The case will come out as shown below.
2. The neck will be extremely long and will have to be trimmed. The inner neck diameter is about 6mm at this time and I use this size pilot when trimming the brass down to 1.910.
3. Slightly deburr and chamfer.
4. Then I run the case through the full length die with the decapping unit installed.
5. At this point you have what appears to be a basic Creedmoor case but I feel the neck is too thick averaging around .025.
6. I then go through the neck turning process and turn the necks down to .015 which is about the same thickness of factory CM brass. Taking off .010 in one pass is probably not the best idea which might result in working the brass too hard. A couple step down turns would be best I’ve been told.
7.I resize the brass a final time since the mandrel for the neck turning opened up the neck.
8.The final stage in my process is to fire form and you’re good to go.
I hope all who see the lack in brass availability for the Creedmoor see this as an alternative not the solution, for now. I have no experience in annealing brass so I don’t know where in this process you would do it or if it is needed.
I currently am using Remington 308 brass for this experiment and am through two firings with no issues. I only did 30 cases to start with.
In my rifle the weight charge of 41.8gr of H4350 pushing a 142 SMK yields a velocity around 2760 fps. I have a 28” Kreiger barrel.
Using the Remington 308 brass and the same weight charge/ bullet combo yields an increase of 40-50 fps.
Here is a diagram I pulled of the web.
Thanks all.
