The 6.5 Remington Magnum project - case forming

[C. Latch]

Apparently I accidentally helped create this forum. That wasn't my intent, and I'm darned sure not qualified to pretend to be an expert on case forming, but I have recently put a lot of time into my 6.5 project, and I have learned a lot about case forming in the process. I want to share a few things, and have a thread in which to ramble on as I continue down this path towards making my own brass.

Background: 20 years ago, or more, my grandpa gave me his '69 vintage Remintgon 700 in 6.5RM. He bought the gun new in the late 70's. He saw it in a local store, where a distributor had found it hiding in a warehouse and sent it to the store on accident. The store kept it, thinking some gun-nut would come along and buy the oddball caliber (so the now-deceased owner of the store, a friend of mine, told my grandpa, who was the gun-nut that showed up and bought the thing). My grandpa never shot the thing much, but as a kid I was absolutely enamored by it. Guns fascinated me; fast calibers fascinated me, and I knew that one day I, too, wanted to own something fast and flat - because, surely I would outgrow the puny old 30-06 one day.

I never outgrew that 30-06. But my grandpa knew how much I admired this mysterious rifle of his, and he gave it to me. I never touched it. Fast forward twenty years. My grandpa died. The rifle sat in the safe another year. I have agonized over whether to shoot it. It wasn't mint but it's very close......but here I am. I have factory ammo, but don't want to use it. And a reloader ought to know how to work with brass, anyway.

My first attempts to make brass involved Winchester and Remington 7mmRM brass. I managed to crumple them, trying to go from 7mmRM to a 6.5x30 of sorts, made by dremeling the bottom off of an old .300WM sizer. Remington .300WBY brass formed a bit better, but the neck was too thick to use.

Member gunwonk sent me five pieces of .300WM (R-P and WIN) that he had shortened and necked to .350RM. I annealed these and ran them through my short .300 die, then my 6.5 die, and ended up ruining one, slightly overdoing one, and making three of them downright pretty.

Member cabezaverde sent me an entire box of Remington 6.5RM brass. They were fired an unknown amount - lengths vary, which suggests some may be fired more than once - but I HAVE BRASS. This emboldened me to pick the project back up.

What I have found thus far, in a nutshell:

-Winchester and R-P brass seems to have thin walls, and as such will not make the trip from 7mmRM to short .30 in one pass. They absolutely must be ran through a .350RM sizer first. The walls won't handle more radical work in a single pass.

-Belted cases of any caliber that have an OD at the shoulder of less than the 6.5RM (this would probably include 300H&H, but I have tried 375H&H and 7x61S&H) leave room between the brass and the wall of the die; this lack of support means that while you're trying to form a new shoulder and neck, the body of the case is buckling. After ~10 attempts to form cases from these 'skinny' cases, I abandoned that effort. I suppose that I now have reason to buy a 7x61 one day, as nobody seems to want the brass.

Federal brass seems to be slightly thicker-walled than the aforementioned Winchester and r-p brass. I am able to take federal 7RM brass and run it through the short .30 die, and 1/3 to 1/2 of it will survive the trip. I anneal, form halfway, anneal again, and form the rest, and each half of the forming operation is done in very tiny in-and-out steps. What frustrates me about this brass is that the defects I end up with are TINY this way. Tiny, but of the sort that I know will cause the case neck to split quickly. But I still end up with a good amount of usable brass.

I also have some Norma brass. Norma brass is notable thicker, and, once annealed, Norma brass will happily take the trip from 7RM to short.30 in one pass, and look perfect when finished. I then anneal it again and run it through the 6.5RM sizer, and......wait. Problem.

Remember that I said the Norma brass is thicker?

My 6.5RM sizer is an old Pacific die, donated by BrassMagnet (have you noticed that much of this project involves donated material? This speaks volume of the generosity of this site's members). The decapping stem is very close to 6.5 diameter itself. If I remove the stem, Norma brass sizes down easily, and looks wonderful. If I do not remove the stem, the brass is so thick that it wedges between the neck of the sizer and the stem of the decapper. The case fails at the shoulder and is ruined.

In order to make the Norma brass form, I had to borrow the smaller-diameter decapping stem and expander from my Bonanza 25-06 die. It will unscrew and drop right in to the 6.5 die. This allows me to partially expand the Norma brass, then after it's trimmed I can fully expand it by running it just deep enough into the sizer to go over the expander, then back out.

At this point, I have very pretty Norma 6.5 Remington Magnum brass, with one problem: the necks are way too thick to be safe to shoot.

Some measurements are in order here:

I do not have the right tools to measure neck thickness, however, I do have a set of calipers that, while imprecise, seem to give repeatable readings, so consider these values to be more of an index than a set of absolutes:

If I try to measure the neck thickness of factory r-p 6.5 brass, I get 0.0120 to 0.0135
Brass formed from r-p or Winchester 300WM or 7RM measures 0.0120 to 0.0140.
Federal 7RM brass, when formed, measures 0.0140 to 0.0155, mostly around 0.0150
Norma 7RM brass measures a very consistent 0.0180.

The upshot:

For the guy forming cases on the cheap, I think - and limited shooting has supported this - that I can 'get by' without neck turning or neck reaming, if I stick to Winchester or Remington brass for use as parent brass.

Federal brass would probably make slightly better brass, and I intend to try more, but I have to get a .350 sizer first.
Norma brass would probably allow me to make some truly match-grade brass, but will absolutely require the purchase of some neck-turning or neck-reaming equipment.

Some random things I have learned while coming this far:

Case lubing is tricky. Lubing rifle cases for regular resizing is easy enough, but for case-forming, if you get a tiny bit too much lube, you make a dent in the case, and the tiniest dent in the shoulder of a case will turn into a crease in the neck, and that crease will ruin brass. By the same token, too little lube will stick the case. It seems, so far, that the best thing to do is lube the case normally, then lightly wipe the lube off the body, and wipe the neck and shoulder pretty hard. Dry bodies stick cases; wet shoulders make dents. If one case works, the next one will need even less lube, as there will be lube left in the die. I have more-or-less worked out a rhythm of lubing a case, wiping the shoulder clean, wiping the body partly clean, run it through the die, then use even less lube on the next case, then on the next I lube like the first one. Lubing with a pad seems to help focus on lubing the body, not the shoulder.

Second, case capacity varies from case to case. Nosler's load data for the 6.5RM shows that, with a 123-grain Custom Competition bullet, I can get over 3250' MV. I don't need that much speed. With either factory 6.5 r-p brass or the converted .300Wm r-p and .300 wm Winchester brass, a maximum charge of RL19 (59.0 grains, worked up from 55 grains, seating slighter longer than Nosler specs) gave me, not the 3250+ that I expected, but an average of 3160.

This is PLENTY of speed for what I would do with this bullet. People do all sorts of magic tricks with smaller 6.5s that won't hold a candle to this speed. But I'm 90 to 100' slower than Nosler specs called for. Part of that may be due to chamber or bore issues, but part of it has to be due to the fact that Nosler shows the 59.0 charge as being a compressed charge; with my brass this charge doesn't leave the case more than 97% full. I fully believe that, given this extra capacity, and given that the 6.5 has a very outdated max pressure rating (52K, IIRC, whereas modern cartridges often go past 60K), I believe I could easily ease past the stated max powder charge, and get some or all of that speed back. Problem is, I don't need the speed. I *DO* want to fill the case up. That's the main problem - I prefer to shoot mildly compressed loads in rifle cases.

The case capacity issue is what led me to try Federal and Norma brass. Federal is slightly smaller, internally, than the R-P or Winchester brass, and Norma is smaller still. I believe that if I formed the Norma brass, turned the necks, and loaded a max charge of RL19, I'd have some very consistent ammo. That'll have to wait; for now I am going to see whether the Federal brass can be used without any neck issues.

If anyone wants to critique, correct, argue with, or ask questions about any part of this process, I'll be happy to answer the best I can. This is a learning process for me, and I'm enjoying it, and I hope I can document the rest of the process and possibly help some future case-former.

[C. Latch]

I'll give a slight update:

I've now fired several pieces of Federal brass reformed to 6.5. Neck thickness is perfect; a fired case will barely but easily let a new bullet slide into the case neck.

Federal brass, with its smaller capacity, seems to be showing about 50' more velocity for any given load than R-P brass. The Federal brass allows me to actually have a full case with the loads I've tried that otherwise wouldn't fill a R-P case (even though Nosler's load data said the same loads were compressed in their R-P brass). For consistency's sake I prefer compressed loads, so I will probably stick with this Federal brass for now.

The Federal brass started as once-fired and I now have 4 shots on some of it post-forming with no signs of any sort of stress on the brass. In the final forming step I had to tighten down the sizing die to cam-over hard in order to get brass to fit in my chamber; after this initial sizing I backed my sizer off a 1/2 turn and am basically neck-sizing only. So far, so good.

I also glass-bedded the action and 1" of barrel shank the other day, and if it ever warms back up I'm going to try two loads for accuracy, for starters; I'm going to load VV N160 in my Federal brass and H1000 in the factory R-P and fireformed R-P or W-W brass (all of those have virtually identical capacity).

[richhodg66]

I've always thought that should have been a more successful cartridge than it was. More powerful than most 6.5s without being ridiculously past the point of diminishing returns like the .264 Winchester Magnum. Enjoy the rifle, I'm about to begin dabbling in casting for the 6.5s soon.

[rockrat]

I had one of those 700 BDL's and foolishly traded it for an artillery luger. Its just like a 6.5/06 and would have, in my opinion, more successful staying in the BDL platform.
Nice to know I can form brass if needed, for my 6.5.

[C. Latch]

Factory ammo spec'ed a 120-grain bullet at 3200'.

Nosler, Sierra, and Hornady make 123-grain bullets - including a Hornady SST hunting bullet - that have a BC of .510 or so, with a G7 coefficient of .260 or so. That's higher than most 180-grain .30 bullets. Do the math; this thing has a trajectory flatter than a .300 weatherby with 180-grain match bullets.

Nosler shows load data for their 123-grain bullet that approaches 3300'. I have, without pressure signs, been in the mid-3250's, up to 3285, with loads that Nosler publishes. This thing ought to be a screamer......if the snow ever melts enough to bench it. I can shoot over the chronograph from the porch, but don't have a rest to test loads with; my bench is covered in snow right now.

I agree that the 6.5 belongs in a 700BDL, not in the carbines that killed it. Now that I am forming brass, I wouldn't be afraid to rebarrel an existing rifle to this caliber.


As a side note, I have been limping along and dragging my feet on buying that .350 sizer, due to budget constraints. I found yesterday that FSReloading carries a .350 sizer body, for $14.

It's on the way. :)

[MaLar]

This interests me. I have a 6.5 RM reamer and dies. I built a rifle for an older friend of mine. But he passed away before getting to use it much. I always have liked the 6.5mm cal. Having a 6.5mm08 for a long time before the 260 Rem came around.

Did you try any 35RM brass?

[C. Latch]

This interests me. I have a 6.5 RM reamer and dies. I built a rifle for an older friend of mine. But he passed away before getting to use it much. I always have liked the 6.5mm cal. Having a 6.5mm08 for a long time before the 260 Rem came around.

Did you try any 35RM brass?

Haven't had any .350 brass to try, except the brass that gunwonk sent me that was .350 formed from .300WM.

From what I have seen, forming .350RM to 6.5RM would be an easy process, one step might work, two would be a cakewalk. You could shorten (a little reaming would be needed too) a .300WM die for the intermediate step. If you really wanted to be careful you could use 2 intermediate steps, a shortened .338WM and a shortened 7mmRM.

Either way, yes, .350 to 6.5 would be easy enough.

[C. Latch]

My order from FSReloading came in today. Unfortunately, the .350 sizing die was backordered. However, two good things here:

1) I now have a Lee Trimmer for the 6.5 cases. This gives me something to fiddle with for the next few nights, as time permits.

2) While the .350 sizing body didn't come in, it occurred to me that, since these are readily available for $14, they would make a GREAT source for case-forming dies in general.

As a bonus, the weather is getting better. Maybe by this weekend I'll be able to actually shoot off the bench.

[EDG]

Yes you can alter them without ruining the sizer of an expensive die set.



2) While the .350 sizing body didn't come in, it occurred to me that, since these are readily available for $14, they would make a GREAT source for case-forming dies in general.

[C. Latch]

Interesting update today (to me, anyway).

I got a shipping notice that the .350 sizer has finally shipped from FSReloading. So I wasn't expecting much when I got the mail, but their was a HEAVY box of brass from MaLar.

New, unfired R-P headstamp .350 RM brass. Forty-two of them, to be exact.

Being factory new brass, I didn't figure they needed annealing, and I was right; they went through the .30 die easy as pie, and then through the 6.5 die just as easily.

Of the 42 cases, I processed 17 of them. I lost two. Here's how: On those two cases, did as part of a third run (I did one, then I did 11, then I did five more), I didn't run them as far into the .30 die as I needed to. I was hoping to avoid something of a double-shoulder that was forming, but, instead, I collapsed the base of the neck when trying to go to 6.5.

Well, lesson learned, but while this brass is the easiest I've worked with (and the finished product has necks that are between R-P and Federal in thickness), I had this weird double-shoulder that I didn't like, but I knew the first shot would form it right out.


That led me to another experiment: fireforming using fillers instead of bullets. Brass and bullets are valueable. Green Dot and cornmeal are cheap.

So, with a bit of trial and error, I found that a standard LR primer, eleven grains of green dot, the balance of the case full to the neck with cornmeal, and seal the whole thing with a bit of bullet lube (I had lithi-bee sitting on the bench).....the resulting cases are perfect. I kissed them with the 6.5 resizing die to deprime them, then trimmed them to 2.16xx"......gorgeous.


I didn't finish forming but a half-dozen cases, and I'll try to do the rest tomorrow (I was home more today than expected due to weather), but this brass is beautiful, it fits my chamber perfectly, and it's practically unfired. Necks measure around .0140". I haven't measured capacity yet to see where it stands in relation to other brass, but it's beautiful.

[cowboybart]

I like the 6.5 and 350 RMs - the original short mags!
Good read

[C. Latch]

The .350 sizer body showed up yesterday afternoon.

I screwed it in and grabbed the last handful of annealed 7mmRM cases I had. I sized several then noticed that the shoulder was actually a touch too far back, unscrewed the die one turn, and finished the rest.

As a side note: if you're going to form .350 brass from something else, depending on length you may need to expand the cae neck, but, otherwise, it's dirt-simple. I mean 'wow this is easy' simple. At this point I wouldn't blink at buying a .350 chambered rifle.

Moving on:

I took my Federal brass, ran them through the .350 die, then the shortened .300 die, then the 6.5 die. The pieces that I sized a tad longin the .350 die worked perfectly (that was the second group). I then started on the first group, the ones with the shoulder too far back, and a couple of them collapsed in the 6.5 die. I removed the expander assembly, ran the rest of them, then re-ran them with the expander in for the second trip, and they did fine.

Lessons learned here: starting with 7mmRM brass and going straight to the .30 die, you're going to lose cases. You're going to lose even more if you don't anneal the necks dead-soft, and stop the annealing just past the area you're going to work. Anealing to dead-soft is safe because you're stopping at the area you're working (unless you want to collapse cases) and you're going to work them plenty and harden them back up anyway.

So....the easy, guaranteed way to form 6.5 cases:

Anneal the relevant portion of the shoulder and case body (the neck is irrelevant, but will be annealed anyway if you're doing the shoulder) to SOFT. If you start a forming step and the brass appears to resist, you didn't get it hot enough.

-Run through a .350 sizing die. It's best if you leave the shoulder a few hundredths long.
-Run through a shortened and properly relieved .300WM die. Shoulder angle is the same; try to set the shoulder back a couple hundredths on the .300 operation.

-Run through the 6.5 sizer. If everything is right, cases will come out ready to trim and load. If anything's wrong, you may need to remove the expander, make a trip through the 6.5 die, then make a second trip with the expander in place.

I have, as of now, hit upon a second, lesser problem:

Much of the once-fired brass I am buying shows a significant amount of case-head swelling un front of the belt. New .350RM cases measure .507 just in front of the belt. New Norma 7mmRM cases measure .510.

Fired cases measure .515, or less. I don't think all of them are fired in the same rifle. Either way, somewhere around .512 they start getting tight in the chamber. I can still use them, they're just tight. This isn't a problem in and of itself, but if I want to continue using this brass it looks as if I'll have to either buy one of the collet sizing dies or modify an existing die to tighten this area back up.

In spite of the above, at this point I consider the project to be a success.

I have put 5 loads through a couple of pieces of the Federal 7mmRM brass now, with no further head expansion, no signs of head separation, and only minor neck length growth. I have shot formed .350 brass a couple of times with equally good results, and formed .300WM brass to boot.

[C. Latch]

Another update:

I have found that some once-fired brass (I'm buying range brass for the learning process) has case-head expansion that can cause difficulty in chambering.

There are collet dies one can buy to size just forward of the belt, however, when I shortened the .30WM die I saved the slices off of it, and today I dug them out of my scrap bin. Guess what? One of the slices, with a tiny chamfer put on the bottom using a dremel, then screwed all the way down into the press, made a perfect case-head resizer. Case heads go from .512-.514 down to .510-.511 in one pass.

[EDG]

You might be able to use a cut off 7mm Rem mag die as a last die before the FL die so you don't have to size with the 6.5 decapper out. The neck of my 7mm Mag Redding FL die measures .304 and the neck of my Micro Precision die measures .303.

The Redding die measures .5115 on the step above the belt and the MP die is .510.

[cowboybart]

I've used the Innovative Technologies base sizing die for belted mags when making 358 Norma brass. I made brass/ammo for years using a 350 RM die set and the IT sizing die. I don't know if the IT die is available anymore, but you should be able to find one on the used market.

http://www.surplusfirearm.com/2011/11/17/innovative-technologies-belted-magnum-collet-resizing-die-review/

http://www.larrywillis.com/

[C. Latch]

I'm halfway embarrassed to say that after further inspection, it wasn't case-head diameter that was my problem. My problem as that my 6.5 sizing die is oh-so-slightly long, or my chamber likewise slightly short, and the very tiny bit of brass that was not fully sized (the .350 and .300 dies sized fully, the 6.5 did not for the tiny sliver of brass that was necked from .300 to 6.5 at the shoulder/neck junction) was causing my issues.

A new sizer from Lee solved that issue. Brass forming is now....dare I say easy?

I have ordered more brass (1x fired) and when it shows up I plan to form more, and might even resell a few pieces eventually.

[C. Latch]

Another update:

That last batch of brass came in the mail the other day. Several brands of supposedly once-fired 7mmRM brass.

Oddly, some of it was impossible to convert because the LENGTH of the belt on the case is overly long. I've never noticed that particular dimension, but with everything else carefully put in-spec, those cases with the belts a few thousandths longer than others won't chamber. The problem cases were all Frontier brand, which struck me as odd, because that's one of my favorite brands of brass to work with in other calibers.


Other than that anomaly, yes, this process is now easy:


Anneal neck fully, lube case, size to .35, size to .30, wipe excess lube and add lube to inside of case neck, size to .264, chop excess neck, trim case, chamfer neck, anneal neck again, wet tumble......done.

I also got a bit of new brass.......it's downright easy to work with. You have to anneal the heck out of a fired case to make the neck as soft as new (Remington, in this case) brass. So the new brass forms very easily, then needs minimal polishing.

I have figured out that the best way to form the brass is to form it a tad long in the .35 die, then take a part of that excess in the .30 die, then take a bit more in the .264 die; this leaves a nice, cleanly formed shoulder. Further, I experimented and found exactly how much final forming in the .264 sizer it took to make the brass fit my chamber snugly, and I stop there. I'm no longer making brass down to factory specs; no point in that when it's just going to stretch out again when I fire it in my chamber. It should last longer this way.


Look, folks, I'm no mechanic, and I'm not what you'd call gifted with tools. But I can do this now, and if I can do it, you can too. Further, if any of you .350RM shooters are reading this.......you're missing out. I noticed that when you run a 7RM case through the .350 sizer body, the .350 neck portion of the case extends to just past the trim-length of the .350RM cartridge. You could take 7mmRM brass, run it through a $14 Lee .350 die body, chop the excess neck, trim the case, run it through a complete sizer die, and you're done. It couldn't be any easier.

I consider this project to be over, for all practical purposes (I have brass left to convert, but I'm going to hold off as I have plenty of cases now, and a 7mmRM rifle that I may load for one day, so I'm shelving them for now). It's a success at this point.


edited to add: and I have not yet had to turn or ream necks on ANY cases except Norma. And I'm just going to save those for a future 7mmRM project. Single-wall neck thickness on all the brass I've tried so far has been between .0120" and .0165". I believe the largest of those will shoot in my chamber with no clearance issues.

[JSH]

A couple of things that may help you.
Always take the decamping assembly out of the die before any sizing. We are not worried about the neck diameter at this point.
I have not looked as to how much brass you are trying to move from a full length belted case to the 6.5. I am talking length here. You may be as well off to cut some down to slightly more OAL than you are after. Why move a bunch of brass if it is going to be cut off any way. Square the case mouth even if it is almost a straight wall.
Now anneal to the point of where your shoulder is. We want every thing below that to support what is above it. When you cut the top off you have removed any of the factory annealed case. I suspect that is where your case is collapsing below that point because of it being to hard.
As to lube, if you can feel it or see it you are using to much. There is no need at all to lube anything but the straight or slightly tapered body of the case. If you FL size the donor case from the get go should really be no need to lube it again. I use graphite. For a large quantity look for seed lube. Some planters used to benefit from it.
I had formed some pretty radical cases up an down. I do as much by feel as anything. We are not cracking walnuts here, lol. I took some 7.62x54, 303, and 30-40 down to 11/4" and 11/2" just because I was told it couldn't be done. Also made some 7BR rimmed from 7x57R brass for a gent.
If you are not having to neck ream or better yet neck turn I am really surprised. I neck turned a fair bunch of the 7BR rimmed and he said he would do the rest. He reamed them and guess which shot better....
jeff

[C. Latch]

You may be as well off to cut some down to slightly more OAL than you are after.


If you are not having to neck ream or better yet neck turn I am really surprised.
jeff

I'd much prefer to cut the case necks off up front, but I'm cutting with a Dremel tool, freehanded, and it's easier to cut a .300" or so tube than a .500" tube. As for turning or reaming the necks, the numbers just don't add up. If I used the Norma brass I'd definitely have to - I have found that regular Norma 7mmRM brass has already been reamed or turned; as soon as you start forming the case and the neck grows you can see where the diameter steps up - but the Remington, Federal, Winchester, PMC, and Hornady/Frontier brass has all had acceptable neck diameters after forming. Matter of fact, the neck diameter after forming is very close to the diameter of the original case neck.


As a side note, Federal - then Hornady/Frontier - have the smallest case capacity, Remington and Winchester the largest (not counting Norma as I can't use it without addressing the thick necks) and PMC has roughly the same capacity as Remington.

PMC has the cleanest flash holes. I wasn't expecting that.

[cowboybart]

I have an Arisaka action that has had the bolt face opened up to magnum. When I paid a whopping $75 for it (w/ a Timney trigger), I was thinking of a 350 RM or 6.5 RM. After looking at the brass situation, I thought of a WSM cal. Now I might look at hunting down a 6.5 or 35 cal barrel.

Great thread!! If I get lazy, I may want 100 cases made up for me!

[CATTLEMAN]

I was fortunate enough to get a great deal on a real 6.5 rm forming die recently. If you can get access to one they are the way to go. I lightly anneal the neck and shoulder of the small batches of belted mag brass I come across. Then I lube them with imperial wax and run them through the die, trim to length and check the necks. So far I have made 6.5 rm from 7mm rm, 300 wm, 300 weatherby and 375 h&h without any headaches.

It is a great cartridge that arrived before its time. If it was new today and offered in a pretty rifle I think it would be very popular.

[TxPhred]

I agree, I shoot two 6.5 RM's with great success. I have an older Model 600 Mohawk. Shoots wonderfully well with 100 TTSX and 85 GR Speer Varmint Bullets. Built this stock myself from a roughed in blank.

[TxPhred]

Here is my custom build on a Eliseo Tube Gun Chasis with a Custom Pierce Tube gun Long action and a Bartlein Med Palma 5R Barrel with 1:8 Twist. Did this to overcome the deep seating issues on the Mohawk short action. 137821, This shoots 130 GR Accubonds wonderfully well and 120 GR TTSXs equally as well all seated way out to 3.1 COAL.

[Gunners Mate]

I know old thread and all but some great info here, I just finished up forming some 6.5 Rem mag from 7mm mag brass, Thanks for posting this it was great help

[Texas by God]

I'll throw $0.02 in. I built a 6.5 Rem mag on a Siamese Mauser with a 26" ER Shaw barrel. It was fast & accurate. I chrono'd 140's at 3000 fps and 85's at 3500. Until the recoil wore you out it was a prairie dog laser. Good times. Best, Thomas.

[Gunners Mate]

So I should say this is a slow and meticulous process. The steps I used are as follows;
1. deprime your 7mm mag brass (done with an RCBS decapping die)
2. Clean your cases (Done with a STM wet tumbler 3 tbls of dawn/ 1/4 tbls of lemishine / 1 tbls of cream of tartar)
3. Anneal the 7mm mag brass where the new shoulder will be for the 6.5 mag. (Done with Giraud Case annealer)
4. Lube with imperial sizing die wax
5. Run 7mm mag brass through Redding Form Die #1-Custom 6.5 Rem Mag (Part # 90231)
6. Lube case again with sizing die wax
7. Run case through Redding Form & Trim Die Series D 6.5 Rem Mag ( Part # 83231)
8. Trim Excess length of neck with a dremmel tool and cut off wheel while still and die and then file to correct length wile brass is still in die remove and chamfer and deburr case mouth
9. remove decapping and sizer mandrel from Redding FL die and resize (Die Set Part #84231)
10. Lube case mouth and run through 6.5 mandrel and die
11. loaded with 20 gr Unique topped of with cream of wheat and paper wad filler (spitball)
12. fire formed at range (cleaned barreled every 3 shots with bore snake and CLP)
13. checked the cases on the Redding Form & Trim Die Series D 6.5 Rem Mag ( Part # 83231)
14. Ran them through FL Redding Die
15. Ran through expander mandrel and die
16. Turned the necks down with a 21st century neck turner (part# 30) I would emphasize that the necks will need to be turned as the neck wall will be to thick for loading. Failure to turn necks to correct Saami Specs will lead to unsafe chamber pressures.
17. run them through the STM tumbler
17. Ready to load.

If anyone has any corrections / suggetstions, I would appreciate the input

[tygar]

I have done a lot of case forming over the years & have a 6.5 RM, but wonder why you don't just use RM brass? Is it hard to get? I was just loading up some yesterday & was thinking I could use some more.

I looks like making it is a pain.

ps just looked on Midway, Natchez & Midsouth & didn't even see it listed!!!

[rockrat]

You can get it @ $1 each, at least you could last December, don't remember where

[C. Latch]

So I should say this is a slow and meticulous process. The steps I used are as follows;
1. deprime your 7mm mag brass (done with an RCBS decapping die)
2. Clean your cases (Done with a STM wet tumbler 3 tbls of dawn/ 1/4 tbls of lemishine / 1 tbls of cream of tartar)
3. Anneal the 7mm mag brass where the new shoulder will be for the 6.5 mag. (Done with Giraud Case annealer)
4. Lube with imperial sizing die wax
5. Run 7mm mag brass through Redding Form Die #1-Custom 6.5 Rem Mag (Part # 90231)
6. Lube case again with sizing die wax
7. Run case through Redding Form & Trim Die Series D 6.5 Rem Mag ( Part # 83231)
8. Trim Excess length of neck with a dremmel tool and cut off wheel while still and die and then file to correct length wile brass is still in die remove and chamfer and deburr case mouth
9. remove decapping and sizer mandrel from Redding FL die and resize (Die Set Part #84231)
10. Lube case mouth and run through 6.5 mandrel and die
11. loaded with 20 gr Unique topped of with cream of wheat and paper wad filler (spitball)
12. fire formed at range (cleaned barreled every 3 shots with bore snake and CLP)
13. checked the cases on the Redding Form & Trim Die Series D 6.5 Rem Mag ( Part # 83231)
14. Ran them through FL Redding Die
15. Ran through expander mandrel and die
16. Turned the necks down with a 21st century neck turner (part# 30) I would emphasize that the necks will need to be turned as the neck wall will be to thick for loading. Failure to turn necks to correct Saami Specs will lead to unsafe chamber pressures.
17. run them through the STM tumbler
17. Ready to load.

If anyone has any corrections / suggetstions, I would appreciate the input

If you haven't bought those expensive forming dies yet, consider buying Lee sizing bodies in .350RM and .300WM (you'll have to chop it) to use as intermediate dies. They won't work any better, but they'll be cheaper.

What brand of cases are you using to start with? You MAY not have to turn or ream necks. I did not, with most of the brass that I used.

[Gunners Mate]

Already bought the forming dies and I used a mix of federal WW and RP brass for the first round ( R&D ) but I have an ammo can full of Frontier Brass, Fed & WW brass had to turn all the Necks RP Brass was within spec

[oldblinddog]

Wow! This is available! But not 6.5 from Midway.

https://www.midwayusa.com/product/667708/quality-cartridge-reloading-brass-25-65mm-remington-magnum-box-of-20

Qual-Cart has it in stock however: http://www.qual-cart.com/264%20cal.htm

I like 6.5's but have never had a 6.5 Rem mag.

[Gunners Mate]

I will stick with reforming alreadycommitted the train has left the station, besides I can get new Norma 7mm Mag brass and start from there for 1.27 PP

[tygar]

I already checked with Quality & they had it for $39 per 20. $2 ea is pretty spendy.

[Texas by God]

Try Huntington all you guys that ain't forming them. Best, Thomas.

[tygar]

Try Huntington all you guys that ain't forming them. Best, Thomas.

What Huntington? Are you talking RCBS? They don't have brass. If other, give us some more info.
THanks
Tom

[EDG]

https://www.huntingtons.com/store/home.php?cat=108



What Huntington? Are you talking RCBS? They don't have brass. If other, give us some more info.
THanks
Tom

[tygar]

Checked, they didn't show it.

[C. Latch]

Already bought the forming dies and I used a mix of federal WW and RP brass for the first round ( R&D ) but I have an ammo can full of Frontier Brass, Fed & WW brass had to turn all the Necks RP Brass was within spec

I'm glad it's working out for you. Should be a fun caliber to play with.

:)

[JSH]

I always take the expanded out when reforming up or down.
It is messy but lube dents got to zero, use powdered graphite.
I have the 350RM. The Lee dies have a vent hole and it is located right at the shoulder. When sizing it gouges out a little sliver that I am not happy with.
I have quite a few odds and ends of junk dies. I am going to make some trim dies as soon as I get this lathe set up and running.
Jeff

[Gunners Mate]

I have a 350 RM also and that is the DRT rifle

[Gunners Mate]

I have a 350 RM also and that is the DRT rifle its Rem 673, my dad has the original Rem 600 350RM and my brother has a Ruger in 350 RM

[cabezaverde]

Remington Model 7 CDL here.

[JSH]

Mine is a model 7 worked over and massaged by McGowen.

[Gunners Mate]

Just got the PTG DBM for my box magazine conversion for my 673 in today, 188862if your wondering what magazine that is, its for a 300wsm the 6.5 Rem mag seem like they feed perfectly, but I wont know 100% until I get the stock milled out, gotta send the stock and DBM back to PTG for this, Probably another Week or so, and if your wondering I found an extra 673 LNIB factory stock on ebay, if everything feeds and functions correctly I will order a McMillian LWT hunter stock.

[C. Latch]

I always take the expanded out when reforming up or down.
It is messy but lube dents got to zero, use powdered graphite.
I have the 350RM. The Lee dies have a vent hole and it is located right at the shoulder. When sizing it gouges out a little sliver that I am not happy with.
I have quite a few odds and ends of junk dies. I am going to make some trim dies as soon as I get this lathe set up and running.
Jeff

My Lee .350 die did the same thing. IIRC I managed to polish it until the problem went away.