Seating die for 6.5 Swede?

[wrench]

I got that beautiful NOE 6.5 Swedish group buy mold recently, and cast the first bullets from it yesterday.
They came out just gorgeous, and I was anxious to lube some and try 'em out.
Short story, I have both RCBS and Hornady dies in this caliber, and neither one would allow seating a bullet sized at .2665" They are just way too small on the inside.
I ended up using a .308 Win seater die, just to try some out.
I know this has been discussed before, but what do you guys use:confused:

[Larry Gibson]

I used a Lee 7x57 seating die before I honed out the bullet seating guide in my Hornady 6.5x55 seating die. The 7x57 seater worked fine but would not apply a roll/taper crimp so I honed out the Hornady die to seat and crimp.

Larry Gibson

[zomby woof]

I'm sizing mine at .269" using an M die and seating with LEE dies neck sizing with an RCBS. No problems here.

[462]

I have several Hornady New Dimension and many Lyman Precision Alignment seating dies, and have honed all their sliding sleeves so they accept fat-for-caliber boolits.

[largom]

I used a Lee 7x57 seating die before I honed out the bullet seating guide in my Hornady 6.5x55 seating die. The 7x57 seater worked fine but would not apply a roll/taper crimp so I honed out the Hornady die to seat and crimp.

Larry Gibson


+1 on Larry Gibson's advice. I make all of my own seating dies based on the Hornady design. If you have a lathe [or a friend with one] you can make a new seating stem to fit the honed out sleeve with a nose cavity to fit your boolit.

Larry Miller

[geargnasher]

I seat mine at .271" with the Lee seater die, no problems here. I've had to hone out a few seater dies in other calibers to work with the larger cast boolits, though. It doesn't take much to take a couple thousandths off of the crimp shoulder.

Gear