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Thread: 6.5x55 mm

  1. #41
    Boolit Buddy
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    tried the polishing like nobade mentioned , and it works great now !
    i will post some fotoos tomorrow , as its getting kind of late now.
    turns out that the sizer i made works best upside down!

  2. #42
    Boolit Buddy
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    here are the fotoos of my homemade sizer.
    its made of stainless steel , and this was how i intended to use it.
    the bullet would enter the die in a channel , and the last part of the die would do the sizing. i also made a stem for pushing the bullets through.

    hmm... that didnt work.
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 001.jpg   002.jpg   004.jpg   005.jpg  

  3. #43
    Boolit Buddy
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    so then i did the polishing nobade mentioned.
    i used a dremel with a cleaning felt like one uses for cleaning the barrel of a 6.5 mm
    manufactured by vfg , and some dremel polishing compound.

    now i had the desired measure.
    i turned my die around and sized a bullet with it.
    it went perfectly , and the bullet was of correct size !

    now the down part , later on i did some more polishing , and yes , overshot the
    desired size to diameter....
    thats all right , for now i have an even better idea , im gonna bore out the sizing side of the die and make some hardened inserts for it , so i can easily chance my size to diameters.

    here some fotoos of the setup i have now...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 010.jpg   006.jpg  

  4. #44
    Boolit Buddy
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    in the first foto youll see a bullet sticking out .
    i use a bullet for pushing the first one through and so on .
    i can easily take my sized bullets out off my sizer topside.

  5. #45
    Boolit Buddy
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    and this would be my goal... a sized bullet to 0.254 " [ 6.45 mm ] ,
    wrapped twice with printerpaper gives me 0.268 " [ 6.82 mm ] .
    the final sizing would be done at 0.264 ".
    [wich would fit the neck of the fireformed case without necksizing ! ]


    this was the bullet sized before i overlapped the sizingdie.
    now i have to work out some inserts for my homemade die....
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 013.jpg  

  6. #46
    Boolit Buddy
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    how much i overlapped...

    0.255 " [ 6.50 mm ].
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 011.jpg  

  7. #47
    Boolit Grand Master 303Guy's Avatar
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    My sizers work 'upside down' too. Nice work there.
    Rest In Peace My Son (01/06/1986 - 14/01/2014)

    ''Assume everything that moves is a human before identifying as otherwise''

  8. #48
    Boolit Buddy
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    Talking

    and this is how i altered the sizing die.
    the first tryout die is now a holder , and ive made some inserts of stainless steel
    bolds [ m16 ] , wich are commonly available , drilled a hole of 6.4 mm trough ,
    with some sandingpaper and a little dowel i brought them up to roughly the correct size in my lathe and then finally lap and polished them with a dremel multitool.
    i made them in the sizes 6.00 , 6.55 , 6.50 and the desired 6.45 mm.
    i also have one that hasn t been brought to size yet , for the chance i have to alter one of the sizes i have.
    now its real easy to make different sizes if neccesary.
    i noticed that sizing a bullet from 6.66 mm to 6.45 mm in one go is kind of hard on the bullet , so it works best for me to do it in two or more steps.
    also noticed that ballistol is actually a great lubricant for sizing !
    maby youll see at the fotoos that the entrance of the sizer has a sharp shoulder.
    it helps to center the bullet entering the die , cause the first drivingband is placed firmly against this shoulder .
    i also made a brass stem to push the bullets through , instead of another bullet.
    for now it seems to work great this way....
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 004.jpg   003.jpg  

  9. #49
    Boolit Master

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    Edwin, that sizer work is pretty darned cool!
    "Is all this REALLY necessary?"

  10. #50
    Boolit Buddy
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    thanks fishman

    its kind of nice to make things by yourself, aint it ?

  11. #51
    Boolit Grand Master 303Guy's Avatar
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    I make my stuff too. It is fun. You've given me more ideas and motivated me to make some more stuff. I use 8.8 bolts or preferably stainless steel bolts. One problem I've found with using bolts is holding them central in the lathe so I machined a threaded holder with a locking nut. How do you hold such short bolts?

    Here's a set of expanders I made for opening up a 303Brit case to 41-303. I didn't use an adaptor, instead I machined a glued on nut to slip inside the press threads and a mating nut on the other side.



    Here's my decapper with a replaceable and adjustable pin. I made it to work with both the hornet and 303 Brit.

    Rest In Peace My Son (01/06/1986 - 14/01/2014)

    ''Assume everything that moves is a human before identifying as otherwise''

  12. #52
    Boolit Buddy
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    looks good to me .303.... nice work !
    i had a piece of round material where i drilled a hole in and tapped it with m16 thread. this piece i put in my chuck and simply screw in the stainless bolds.
    then used a centerbore for a start , finally bored them to 6.4 mm

  13. #53
    Boolit Buddy
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    Talking

    its been a while now , so its time for a little update.
    i ordered out for some powder , and got a message it was in stock again.
    drove to the supplier to find out that it wasnt the powder i ordered.

    i wanted to start in the lower velocities to practice a little so i went for the AA 5744
    type of powder , but it seems to be that AA doent supply to europe no more.
    the powder i now got is made by explosia and is called lovex d 060 , this compagnie claims it to be a substitute for the AA 5744 powder , well we will see how it goes.
    for now it seems to be a economic choice to get customed to the patching .

    made me a batch of 20 casings , primed with a federal 210 primer, and patched 25
    of my castings , wich i had sized with my homemade sizer, to 6.45 mm.
    the bullets are drying now , then im gonna run them through a lyman .264 sizer
    wich also would apply a coat of beeswax/vaseline on the patch.

    for starters i guess ill put some 19 gr lovex powder in the cartridge .
    by the way , the AA 5744 was designed for reduced loads , to be used without
    a filler , this d 060 should do the same.
    it should be plenty powerfull for the indoor 100 yards range im shooting.

    i think next sunday well gonna find out if this combination works...or not.

    for now.... be calm , and carry on !

  14. #54
    Boolit Grand Master Nobade's Avatar
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    I have had zero success using fast powder in the 6.5x55 for accuracy with paper patched loads. It worked great for naked, gaschecked boolits but was horrible with patched. I hope you have better success than I did!
    When I switched to very slow powder with a little granular filler on top to make a compressed load it came together and shoots great now.

  15. #55
    Boolit Buddy
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    hmmm... the patches drie up very nicely and are very tight fitting.
    tried to put one in a fired casing and that wasn t a great succes , the bullet was to loose of a fit.
    rolled up some new bulets with ordinary printing paper and let these dry up.
    this second paper is somewhat thicker than the first paper , wich was the bar
    printing paper i hear so much good things about.
    this second paper had a much better fit in the neck , but then i found out the neck of the fired casing has a slight taper to it.
    havent noticed it before but i think i need to size the neck somewhat.
    i ve read something about an adjustable neck sizer , and i kindda liked that idea.
    took a look in my shed to find out if i could come up with something and this is what i m experimenting with now ...
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 001.jpg   002.jpg   003.jpg  

  16. #56
    Boolit Buddy
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    in the firts foto you see the parts i made , the part underneath the plate is a kind of a stem , wich i can center in the middle of the plate.
    i made the part that goes in the neck cilindrical and to a size of .263 ".
    polished it real good , wich is very easy since the parts are of stainless steel.

    in the plate i ve milled some slots and drilled some holes , the little holes on the outersides are for some rubberstuds i ll will be mouting later , since i only had 2 floating around here.

    found some bearing wich i mounted on a stud , drilled and tapped some threads through it so i could slide them through the slots and lock them up thight.

    second foto are the parts mounted and adjusted with the help of a feelergauge.

    third foto is the sizer in action , it does a great job in making the neck cillindrical
    and this stem would be great for the ordinary printing paper.
    i will have to make a new stem though for the bar paper , just a tad smaller
    than this one , im thinking like .261 "or so.

    i know , i will have to do some finetuning but it looks promissing to me..

  17. #57
    Boolit Buddy
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    been tinkering around with this new device.
    noticed some things so far , it seems to be that the center stem isnt so important as i thought it would be.
    the three bearings center just fine on their own , so now im thinking to make the stem smaller in diameter , and maintain it for measurement [ feelergauge ] only.
    uniforming the casenecks is real easy , i do it by hand , and i can see all three of the bearings rotating so the neck would be perfectly round after some turnings.
    when the center stem is smaller my guess would be i could size down the neck to any dimension requested.
    i also think its not so hard on the brass since the necks are rolled to size.

    i also found out that there is a need to make the adjusting somewhat easyer , its working like this , but i would like it to be better adjustable.

    gonna sleep on it for a while ...

  18. #58
    Boolit Buddy
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    Lightbulb

    so , after some finetuning of this neck sizer , i m very pleased with this device.
    i made the stem way smaller than the bulletsize , since its only there now for measurements.
    after some practice its actually working good to adjust with the help of feelergauges
    so i left this unchanced.
    took the sharp edge of the bearings with my lathe and polished it up real good , so no sharp edges are on the bearings anymore.
    this really helps the casing entering the rollerassembly , sizing goes real smooth now.

    now i can experiment with different paper thickness , since i only have to adjust
    the rollers for a correct tension.
    i can roll the neck to where its impossible to seat the bullet to the point the bullet falls right through, and anything in between .
    i suppose it will work for any caliber , since i made the slots long enough.

    i think it turned out just fine :
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 003.jpg  

  19. #59
    Boolit Buddy
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    succes!

    finally...
    i loaded up 20 cartridges and used as much of the hints and tips i found on this great , great forum... so thanks you guys for the info shared !
    140 gr lyman casted bullet , sized down to 6.45 mm , 2 layer of printerpaper
    [the chainpaper] and finally sized to .264 " , lubed just a little with beeswax/vaseline
    primer is a federal , powder was 18.5 gr of lovex d060 , wich is the equalvant of
    accurate 5477 powder.
    velocity should be some 1700 fps , according to the manual.
    no signs of over or underpressure , very low on recoil.
    will be experimenting with this powder alot , first tryout was a succes !

    there was some leading in the bore , near the muzzle , but the rest of the barrel is left very bright , it may has to do with the fact that the bore has never had any pp boolits through it so far , these were a firsts.

    first three shot were fired non aimed in the sand , just to see what would happen.
    the following seventeen shots aimed at a paper target at 100 mtrs , prone position , off hand. it took some shots to adjust the diopter , it was set at factory ammo.
    the best shots you see were the last four i shot.
    looks very promissing to me !
    Attached Thumbnails Attached Thumbnails 002.jpg  

  20. #60
    Boolit Buddy
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    i might add that i kept the lenght of the cartridge a few mm to long ,
    and let the bold do the rest .
    from measurements i know that the bullet is tight in the throat.

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Abbreviations used in Reloading

BP Bronze Point IMR Improved Military Rifle PTD Pointed
BR Bench Rest M Magnum RN Round Nose
BT Boat Tail PL Power-Lokt SP Soft Point
C Compressed Charge PR Primer SPCL Soft Point "Core-Lokt"
HP Hollow Point PSPCL Pointed Soft Point "Core Lokt" C.O.L. Cartridge Overall Length
PSP Pointed Soft Point Spz Spitzer Point SBT Spitzer Boat Tail
LRN Lead Round Nose LWC Lead Wad Cutter LSWC Lead Semi Wad Cutter
GC Gas Check