Need an inside neck reamer...........

[3006guns]

I'm in the process of forming 30-06 into 6.5 x 55mm Swede. So far, I've learned the hard way about annealing, etc. and finally managed to produce a usable case. Now, once the case has been fire formed (10gr. Bulleye, Cream of Wheat) the neck opens up to accept a cast boolit quite nicely, with out neck sizing or expanding. Just push the boolit in and lightly crimp the neck. Great!

Except.....the brass is far too thick to neck size and expand for any jacketed bullet, so it looks like neck reaming is in order. I've known about it for years, but now I'm faced with doing it. Where can I find a reamer, say .266" diameter?

[Bird]

Brownell's list a .264 reamer for .266 bullets.
https://www.brownells.com/reloading/...prod33259.aspx
I prefer to outside neck turn.

[3006guns]

Thanks for the quick reply and advice Bird........I'll look into both.

[country gent]

You can find decimal hand reamers on line in the size you want. But you also want a die to hold the case from expanding around the reamer. I prefer neck turning the outside but this can be a real chore if more than .001 or .002 needs to be removed. Depending on the sizing die it can be used to ream necks but you need to know neck dia in the die to order the right reamer. On my one wildcat I neck ream to remove most of the material then neck turn to fit and true necks.

[country gent]

Heres something to keep in the back of your mind when doing this.
Inside reaming is faster and easier, set size reamer one pass thru. But the reamer follows the original hole so thickness variations remain they may be "smoothed" out a little but remain. For truly accurate brass this can be an issue. The reamer will dull and need replaced. The reamer is good for one caliber. Reaming .003-.005 is one pass

Outside neck turning trues the case to the mandrel removing thick spots and making very concentric necks. The cutter can be adjusted to just whats wanted for the given brass. On a custom gun a fitted neck can be done with only .001 neck clearance. The cutter can be sharpened. With other mandrels pretty much any caliber can be turned. it is slower and set up is touchier. Its also more hand work to do. .001-.002 neck turning is about the limit. More is 2 passes.

If possible neck ream the inside leaving .001-.0015 to neck turn. This gives very good accurate necks with almost no variation in thickness.

[samari46]

Wilson who makes the trim dies and their die holder I believe still makes the small reamers for inside neck reaming. You replace the pilot with the reamer. Use an old tooth brush to clean off the brass chips from the reamer and a little lube helps the reamer cut better and longer. Frank

[uscra112]

Heres something to keep in the back of your mind when doing this.
Inside reaming is faster and easier, set size reamer one pass thru. But the reamer follows the original hole so thickness variations remain they may be "smoothed" out a little but remain. For truly accurate brass this can be an issue. The reamer will dull and need replaced. The reamer is good for one caliber. Reaming .003-.005 is one pass

Outside neck turning trues the case to the mandrel removing thick spots and making very concentric necks. The cutter can be adjusted to just whats wanted for the given brass. On a custom gun a fitted neck can be done with only .001 neck clearance. The cutter can be sharpened. With other mandrels pretty much any caliber can be turned. it is slower and set up is touchier. Its also more hand work to do. .001-.002 neck turning is about the limit. More is 2 passes.

If possible neck ream the inside leaving .001-.0015 to neck turn. This gives very good accurate necks with almost no variation in thickness.

Well, I was going to say exactly that, but you saved me the trouble. I know Wilson did it, and made tools for it, but reaming necks is NOT the right way to go about it.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

RCBS makes(made?) a case neck reamer that held the case and guided the reamer to hold center. Do not know accuracy, but it looked better than just running a reamer into case. I have used a both the neck reamer and outside turning. Works best like country gent said, when both are used.

[DonMountain]

You seem to be concentrating on the necks of the case, to much precision, how are you going to handle the base of the case? The base of a 6.5x55 case is 0.480" where a 30-06 case base dimension is 0.470". Its not going to center in your chamber no matter what you do. I assume you are just trying to produce non-precision plinking ammo?

[Petrol & Powder]

Country gent stated the issue and solution perfectly.

Outside turning is tedious work but produces excellent results. Not only does it produce the desired dimension but the neck wall will be more concentric.

[Petrol & Powder]

And while we're at it......
I'm not a huge fan of forming cases from other cartridges except for when there is no other choice. There's nothing wrong with the practice but unless the casings are super rare or super expensive; it's just not the path I would choose.

[3006guns]

Sorry I didn't get back to this post guys. I was trying to make some readily available......and cheap.......plinking ammo out of 30-06, so nothing precision or spectacular. One thing I didn't post originally though: when sizing the '06 and moving the shoulder back, the brass at the base of the neck was pushed IN somewhat, creating a blockage. In other words, you couldn't seat a bullet (or boolit) deeper even if you wanted to. It wasn't supposed to do that, but it sure as heck did!

By the way, all the brass was carefully annealed before any forming operations.

So, the brass was basically too thick for an easy "run 'er through the die" type operation. Now, I've formed 8x57 Mauser and 7.7 Jap from '06 on quite a few occasions, but this was the first time I tried to both shorten AND reduce the caliber. Despite what my case forming books told me, it simply wasn't worth the sweat equity and time. Nope, I'll just order a lot of fresh brass from one of the distributors.

My next forming adventure will be of necessity.........forming 6.5 Dutch from 303 British. The case walls on the Brit cases are somewhat thinner, so hopefully it will work out.

[country gent]

When sizing down and shorter you may need to run the brass overran expander rod to finish the neck out. Most use the mandrel from their neck turner for this since it gives a good fit when turning the necks later.

I my also if I can find the right die first push the shoulder back close to where it needs to be the neck down and just bump the shoulder into place and correct angle.

Reforming brass to another caliber is rewarding and interesting but can also be a lot of work to get it right.

What you might try with your cases is to trim close to length and then fire form with a light charge of pistol powder and a wad of cotton. blow out to the chamber and see what you have then

[uscra112]

When fireforming brass from a parent which is a bit undersize at the base, wrap some tape about 1/2 inch wide around the base to center it in the chamber. The body will form correctly, and after removing the tape, a second firing will fill out the base section.

[Three44s]

When fireforming brass from a parent which is a bit undersize at the base, wrap some tape about 1/2 inch wide around the base to center it in the chamber. The body will form correctly, and after removing the tape, a second firing will fill out the base section.

That is very clever! Such talent exists amongst the members of the Cast Boolits!

Thank you uscra112!

Three44s

[uscra112]

Not original with me. Just another bit of wisdom acquired from 50 years of reading the old books and magazines, going back to, among other things, the very first issue of The American Rifleman. It used to filled with things like that, right up until LaPierre and company turned it into a tabloid.

An amazing number of cases (hundreds) have been based on the .30-06. It's even possible to cut it down drastically enough to make .45ACP. Now THAT requires some serious "neck reaming", but it's been done.

[EDG]

I have used .30-06 brass to form test cases for the 6.5X55.
I have also used 6.5X55 cases to form 7.5 MAS brass.

Both make poor cases since the head of the case is so far under size.
If you want cases for the 6.5X55 just buy a few boxes of PPU ammo.

In addition the use of a neck reamer is sort of a sorry process.
Most Mausers have a neck large enough for reformed brass. The only real way to know what fits is to measure the neck of your chamber and most shooters do not have the ability to do that. So they assume or guess. Neck turning takes a little more thinking and planning and effort but it is a functionally superior process because it is more flexible. You can actually adjust the neck turning tool. The reamer is not adjustable. To think a reamer magically solves your problems without measuring the chamber neck is over simplifying things.

[MostlyLeverGuns]

There are a few books on case forming, Ken Howell, John J. Donnely(Amazon), and George Nonte all cover all kinds of good, OK, and not so good ways to form and fabricate cases from existing cases and using copper tubing, solder, interesting reads for gun nerds.

[gnoahhh]

Sorry I didn't get back to this post guys. I was trying to make some readily available......and cheap.......plinking ammo out of 30-06, so nothing precision or spectacular. One thing I didn't post originally though: when sizing the '06 and moving the shoulder back, the brass at the base of the neck was pushed IN somewhat, creating a blockage. In other words, you couldn't seat a bullet (or boolit) deeper even if you wanted to. It wasn't supposed to do that, but it sure as heck did!

By the way, all the brass was carefully annealed before any forming operations.

So, the brass was basically too thick for an easy "run 'er through the die" type operation. Now, I've formed 8x57 Mauser and 7.7 Jap from '06 on quite a few occasions, but this was the first time I tried to both shorten AND reduce the caliber. Despite what my case forming books told me, it simply wasn't worth the sweat equity and time. Nope, I'll just order a lot of fresh brass from one of the distributors.

My next forming adventure will be of necessity.........forming 6.5 Dutch from 303 British. The case walls on the Brit cases are somewhat thinner, so hopefully it will work out.

That ring you allude to is a common side effect of operations such as this endeavor. Do one of two things, either ignore it and keep the base of the bullet located above it or run the neck reamer through to clean it out.

I feel for the ultimate in concentricity, the trick of reaming first then neck turning is the way to go. But that is a lot of extra work and you have to ask yourself is it worth it.

When setting out to adjust neck diameters/wall thicknesses, you need to consider your chamber dimension, brass thickness and inside diameter in terms of there being correct inside and outside diameters of the case to allow the brass to expand sufficiently upon firing for safety reasons (not a huge concern at really low pressures but a big concern at higher pressures), and sufficient tightness to grip the bullet before firing. A thousandth or two in both instances is sufficient for our cast bullet use. Bear in mind too that after it's all accomplished the brass is customized for that particular gun. Chamber casting to determine chamber neck size is the very first step.

This is all done of course in the pursuit of ultimate accuracy. You have to ask yourself if it's important to you under the given circumstances.

[3006guns]

All great information guys, thank you!

The trick of using some tape on a cartridge base to keep it centered goes back a long ways. I learned it from my old mentor when I discovered the classic case "bulge" after firing Norma 6.5 Jap. Norma had copied a late war case, which had a smaller diameter. A single wrap of 1/4" wide Scotch tape eliminated the problem and produced a very reloadable case after firing. I understand their current production has remedied the problem.