6.5 SS (Sherman Shortmag) Q@A

[lancetkenyon]

Hoping to revive the thread with a question about the 6.5 SS. Relevant to anyone who is chambering it since the release of 6.5SS head stamped brass and the Hornady 6.5 SS bushing dies.

Rich,
I just received the aforementioned brass and dies from your site (THANKS!), so now I am in the position of needing to size-down the 7mm necks. I have never neck turned nor necked-down a caliber before, and I have it from several sources that stepping it down with bushings is ok, yet others say conventional dies only for better concentricity etc. I have pored over as many "necking-down" threads as I could and am still unsure. Lacking a conventional sizing die for a magnum 6.5mm with 40deg shoulders (that I know of) I think stepping down with bushings is my best/only option. I'm doing wildcats on a budget (which is only possible through Rich's efforts) and ordering a custom die for this is probably out of the question.

Can I get away with necking this down with bushings-only from the 6.5SS hornady die? Brass's neck OD is 0.312 , ID 0.284. My plan was to order the following bushings: 0.304, 0.296, then finish with a 0.291.

Do you require and/or suggest neck turning these? I've read in previous posts that the necks are already properly sized for this brass to allow for the thickness increase during necking-down. Does that check out?

Maybe that is not your first choice! I hope to hear your top recommendations as well, but again, I'm in a place where I'm willing to suffer through less-than-perfect brass before spending a few hundred more dollars on neck-turning equipment and/or more custom dies. Thanks


Question is of course open to the floor as well.

FWIW my build is going to be a 24" Mullerworks #4 contour on a Bighorn Origin SA; hoping to send 156's at 3000

I use the Whiddon 6.5SS bushing dies from Rich. My brass all came at 7mm too. I stepped my bushings down in both the original 30° shoulder that needed fire formed, and the newer 40° shoulder version which just need minor final forming. I think I am close to your bushing sizes.
.314 new
.306 1st pass
.297 2nd pass
.291 final pass and subsequent resizes.
I do run a .262" expanding mandrel through after the final initial neck sizing pass.

 

[Luckyshot7]

Excellent. Just the specific bit of info I was looking for. Thanks Parshal and Lance

Coyote Tracker, pretty awesomely specific gain-twist barrel. This is going to be my hunting rig as well. Picked the SS because it seems like the baddest thing I can stuff into a SA (my only action) with a 6.5 cal can (my only can)

 

[Mike D Texas]

I use the Whiddon 6.5SS bushing dies from Rich. My brass all came at 7mm too. I stepped my bushings down in both the original 30° shoulder that needed fire formed, and the newer 40° shoulder version which just need minor final forming. I think I am close to your bushing sizes.
.314 new
.306 1st pass
.297 2nd pass
.291 final pass and subsequent resizes.
I do run a .262" expanding mandrel through after the final initial neck sizing pass.

Thanks for that info Lance. It will be useful in the future.

 

[HydroCarbon]

Thank you guys! Rich, Lance and many others. I'm building a 6.5 SS. 20" Bartlein #13, 7.5 twist on a Kelblys Nanook SA w/ Mesa Altitude stock…patiently waiting! Decided on this about 10 days ago.

 

[Brianc74]

Tag

 

[Will83]

Tag

 

[HydroCarbon]

Ready to roll! Found some 140 Berger Elites to start with, end goal being 156 Elites.

 

[elkaholic]

Thats a beaut!

 

[HydroCarbon]

Thank you! Todd Baures at 307 Long Range Precision did a great job.