6.5 stuff .

[RBHarter]

I've never been much of a 6.5/264 guy , 7mm is some sort of a wonder lust yet everything is in 30 cal ....... Dad was hung up on 25 cal but had a couple of 06's for heavy lifting .

To the point .
Dad hooked me up with a 264 WM which took me forever to find correct brass . The first thing I found was that it's too much of a good thing . Probably won't shoot it much .

Oppertunity knocked and I was able to secure some alternate dies to go with RCBS set . I don't know what brand the neck die is , red box that is formed like the CH boxes . The other is a match seater , are Wilson's packed in single tubes ? It looked like an inline seater in the picture . It's possible that the red box is 3 dies . That makes the least preferred cartridge I have access to the highest precision die set I own .

Dad wanted a 257 Roberts for decades and after some trades , favors and a dab of money for parts I got him a beautiful 95' built . Unfortunately we never got the chance .
The other gem in the bucket of oppertunity is a set of 6.5-257 Roberts dies . If these RCBS dies are cut as tight most of them it should make an ideal neck dies for the 95' .

The best part is that there's another set of 264 WM FL in with this for the princely sum of $23 in the mail Monday .

Anybody have a set of 6.5-257 dies that can validate a .258 neck ID without the expander ?

Any insight on what the inline seater I guess it could be a CH as easy as a Wilson .
Is one significantly longer than the other ?
Anything I should know about the inline die and it's general use ?
Will it be fussy about RN or RNFP cast ?
Any hope of it working with a paper patch .259-120 ?

I feel reasonably sure I can get my money back on just the inline seater if it doesn't work out . The extra dies/sets can't hurt the value of the FN 98 .

Someone was looking for a 6.5-257 die set somewhere so that's probably not a problem to unload either .

 

[JonB]

SNIP...

Anybody have a set of 6.5-257 dies that can validate a .258 neck ID without the expander ?

I have a older Lyman 6.5 x 257 die set. I just tested the FL sizer without neck expander spud, The neck ID of a Winchester brand case was .253
The expander stud is marked .263
It's a long story on why I ended up with these Lyman dies, but the conclusion is, I'll probably never use them, as I had a custom Lee Neck sizer die made, as well as a custom FCD for my Custom T38. Also, I modified a 7mm STW Bonanza BR seater for this gun.

When I originally bought my gun, it came with a vintage set of 6.5 x 257 dies made by Bystrom (they made Dies for Herters for a while). While I never checked what size the Neck was after FL without the expander spud, I do know that Spud was .262 or .263 ...because that's why I sold them and that's why I had Lee make custom dies.

I'd be curious if you RCBS dies are sized for using .264 bullets (like my two die sets were) ...which is weird, because the wildcat was primarily done to Jap T38 guns, which had a .267 or .268 groove dia bore.

 

[RBHarter]

.253 ...... That's probably about what the straight 257 R ..... Over sized expander ball in a standard die .......

The RCBS via Huntington's is a special order die set so hopefully its more special than changing the expander ball .
All of which comes from a guy that did exactly that for 2 cartridges , one a deliberate wild cat and one just a loose sloppy barrel .

I have what I presume to be a type 99 Sporter 7.7 but no 6.5 .

 

[RBHarter]

I was able to get a really good look at pictures of the 264 dies today . The seller has been on 6/12s at a Nevada mine so I don't mind the lag time , shut down now , I guess the single cab of 30 yr dump truck isn't enough isolation ...... Anyway they are an individual Bonanza Bench Rest sizer and it's companion seater die .

 

[RBHarter]

Got them in hand .
The Bonanza Bench rest set for the 264 WM is nice , clean set .

The other set is a little more interesting .
The neck OD on a formed piece is ideal for 6.5 and the cast 257 so that works for the no touch , no expander Roberts .
Little surprise when I ran an orphan piece of 06' through it comes back with a "40°" shoulder at .450 OD . Talk about a no touch neck die !
I never heard of a 6.5-257 Roberts AI but that is what this looks like .

I don't guess at $22 I got hurt on the 264 WM Match Bonanza dies . Isn't Bonanza the one that Forester bought out or merged with and the CoAx guys ? In the Redding , CH class aren't they ? They have a little sitting around grunge but I'm happy to add the premium parts to the RCBS set ..... As if the barrel would out live the dies .

From those that have used up barrels does powder selection and load intensity have a significant impact on the "barrel burner" ? Say if I took the WM down to x55 AI or 6.5-06' or less vs smoke and thunder 120s at 3800 fps ......or the like .

 

[fiver]

heat and pressure is what torches a throat.
220 swift throwing light bullets at warp speed ='s no more throat in a hurry.
same with them all.
back it down a click and case life goes up, barrel life goes up, and generally excellent accuracy is still in there somewhere too.
the 264 win run closer to a 6.5-06 will probably last 5-6K rounds instead of 2.5-3K.

 

[RBHarter]

The H1000 data based start load for W857 is pretty mild about 2800 with a 140 .
A 260-120 NOE patched up , yeah I know a real glutton for it , with Unique at a start load , about 15 gr is a great load in it .
I have enough 1x brass that full tilt loads I could sell it just about used up with dies an 2x brass and feel good about a deal .

I should probably put up some pictures one of these days .

 

[fiver]

2800 with a 140 is what the little 6.5's wish they could do at full pressure.
look at the ballistics of the R.P.M. there is no handicap there.

 

[RBHarter]

I figured that was about classic 06' and BC made up for 10 gr out about 300 yd , in case that was a handicap . I don't have that actually chronographed but that's what the books suggest . At 80 yd a Power Point makes a big hole in a hog .

Thanks for the reassurance of my thoughts on the loading .