Reloading for my 6.5/06

[IndyJay]

Gentlemen:

I began reloading for my 6.5/06 last night and now I have a question. Since there is no designated COL, I fiddled with the seating die until I could produce a dummy round that seated the bullet (125gr. Partition) so it's base was even with the end of neck/beginning of shoulder point.

It cycled fine through my action so I began to load some cartridges. My question is this... Is this a safe/proper depth or should I seat deeper/shallower? Or shouild I wait to see if I get any signs of pressure once I take it to the range?

Thanks,

<FONT COLOR="#800080" SIZE="1">[ 02-28-2003 07:39: Message edited by: IndyJay ]</font>

 

[Calif. Hunter]

In general, it is considered that one bullet diameter "should" be the minimum amount of the bullet inserted into the case neck. There's lots of reasons for this - concentricity of the bullet-case-chamber, ensuring that the bullet doesn't back out of the case completely from recoil as it sits in the magazine, etc. I usually go along with this, but more often seat them just as you describe or close to it - but always leaving room in the magazine so the bullet tips don't touch the front wall of the magazine.

 

[WDSWIFT]

Indy, while I agree with what Rick said, you might find that your rifle likes them longer or shorter. You might want to try seating them out a little farther (closer to the lands) and check your group sizes. My 6.5-06 likes the bullets pretty close to the lands best, but on some bullets I have to seat them a little deeper to get good magazine feed with it. So it is a trade off sometimes.

With 95gr Vmax's in my 6.5-06 there is only .247 of that bullet down in the neck (excluding the boat tail)and to date I've had no problems with it.

Hope you like that 6.5-06 as well as I like mine!!! WD

 

[danr55]

You already have two excellent pieces of information. The one thing I would caution about is trying to seat the bullet too far out. With cartridges that are chambered to take longer bullets like 140 grain and 156/164 grain bullets, the throat of the chamber is often too deep to set lighter bullets like the 85 or 90 grain bullets close to the lands. So you have to seat them back further. Another danger in seating bullets too close to the lands of the rifling is the rapid rise in chamber pressure that can occur when the bullet contacts the lands too long before the base of the bullet exits the case mouth. This can have a terrible effect. Ideally, the lands will fully engage the bullet at the same time the base of the bullet clears the case mouth. This allows for maximum transfer of pressure with minimum effect on the bolt face and cartridge case. If the bullet clears the case mouth before the lands are fully engaged, chamber pressure can drop drastically and you loose performance. This factor explains why some rifles will shoot lighter bullets quite well, while others of the same caliber struggle with them.

If you have a chance, have a cerro cast mold made of your chamber. That way, you can measure the point where the bullet will make total engagement of the rifling, and you can seat all of you bullets appropriately. YOu may even find that by having a good gunsmith recut the chamber, you can improve the performance of your rifle.

 

[deadeye2]

I never load bullets larger than 125 grs. in my 6.5-06. It just doesn't seem to like the heavy bullets. I seat all my loads out to the lands and back them off about 10/1000. This gives me my best groups.
Be safe, have fun!