Making 6.5CM from LC 7.62

[Beaver Scout]

I decided that I could make some 6.5CM brass from very readily available LC 7.62 brass. I bought some once fired Hornady 6.5CM brass and am very disappointed in it, from my searches my issues seem to be the same as many others. I think some of this brass was shot out of something with a loose chamber as well. From everything I have read it seems the primer pockets are a bit on the loose side after a few firings even with moderate loads. I have read a lot of people using 22-250 brass and just fire forming to 6.5CM but I found out doing this leaves you with a 0.030" short neck. I bought some LC for $.14/ea that was already swaged, tumbled, and annealed. I just happened to have an extra die and a .310 bushing laying around (have no idea why). I lubed up the casing, ran it through the 308 FL bushing die with the .310 bushing and pulled it out and put it in my 6.5CM FL bushing die with a .288 bushing (the die wasn't screwed all the way down, about 2 turns from caming over). I then screwed the die all the way down to where the press would cam over and pulled out a formed 6.5CM from LC 7.62. I trimmed the case down but not to final length as I thought I had a .264 expander but don't. I'm waiting on it to show up so I can do final work. I need to turn the neck down since the now formed 6.5CM neck is .018" and I want to turn them down to .013-.014" then I'll trim to final length and shoot them.
The brass seems a bit heavier (which I'll weigh once final trimming) so I will start out on the lower side of the data so I don't end up with pressure issues, I suspect I'll lose about 2gr of volume. I will end up with better brass and something that should last quite a while. Here are a few pictures, not final ones as I need to get my expander yet to turn the neck and final trim.
The first picture is the once fired, about 3/4 of the 100 I bought look like that. The second picture is original LC 7.62, formed (not finished) 6.5CM and a once fired 6.5CM.

[Mk42gunner]

Well that piece of 6.5 brass sure looks to be soft to me, given the way it flowed into the ejector hole of whatever rifle it was fired from and the lack of a flat primer.

One reason I very seldom sell dies is that I can usually cobble something together that will work, before buying real dies for a project.

Robert

[Beaver Scout]

Yeah the brass seems very soft, I finished up the LC --> 6.5CM late last night, it turned out beautiful. The converted brass holds 3gr on average less than the Hornady. I will reduce my loads by about 5% and work from there to see what kind of velocities I get. The finished brass weighs 28grs more, the neck is turned to .014" and I left it .008" over SAAMI minimum since my rifle has a bit longer throat. I uniformed the primer pocket, de-burred the primer hole inside and am very happy. I am waiting for my 143gr bullets and then it's time to go to the range.163418

[Frank46]

If you can find some older lake city match or national match cases try them. I gave some to a buddy for his Springfield Armory M1A1 and never seen a happier guy. I lucked into some years ago and have them sorted to year and headstamp in gallon baggies. This is not the LRM118 stuff with the knurling on the case above the rim. Frank