07-26-2022, 11:46 PM
So 6 Arc brass is still nowhere to be found.
I'm not desperate but would really like to increase my brass count.
So..........
Turns out I have some new Hornady and new Starline 6.5 cases... maybe I could try converting some of that?
I settled on trying the hornady b/c it has the potential of being the closest case capacity to current 6 Arc, which is also Hornady. Might try some starline sometime too if I get brave, or bored (!!)
So I also decided to use new unfired brass since I don't want to do any annealing. I figure the new brass has "just" been annealed so doing it again shouldn't be necessary.
I also bought the Frankford universal case trimmer, for placement on my drill (it says use a 1/2" but I have a variable 3/8 and it works fine for this. also a drill press but that seems kind of overkill.
I was going to try to shorten the shoulder on the 6.5 die first but that didn't do anything... turns out that's not needed I can do it all with my 6 Arc die.
First I trimmed back a few cases by 0.025 (I was shooting for 0.030 which is the OAL delta but o well). Chamfer inside and out.
Then lubed them up (RCBS case lube smeared on my fingers and then onto the case), and used the 6 Arc die (Hornady) to resize but leaving the shoulder a bit long, at 1.199" - thinking I would need to do a 2-step. Then went to 1.185 (as it turns out). Worked great. I then just did a few going in 1-step from the trim to 1.185 directly and again, perfect. The final OAL came out to 1.485, datum point on shoulder 1.185. (The trim went down to 1.482 OAL, so the case growth during the down-size to 6mm lengthened the case only about 0.003-0.004")
So now I have 10 test cases downsized from 6.5 Grendel to 6 Arc, in new Hornady.
Some notes, this was with new brass, I imagine although don't know, that it would also work for 1x fired... how many more firings without first annealing, I don't know.
Also, don't know how this translates to, say, 6.5 Starline brass or other mfrs. Maybe yes, maybe no, just sayin'.
Will try attach a pic of my drill "setup" pretty basic.
I'm not desperate but would really like to increase my brass count.
So..........
Turns out I have some new Hornady and new Starline 6.5 cases... maybe I could try converting some of that?
I settled on trying the hornady b/c it has the potential of being the closest case capacity to current 6 Arc, which is also Hornady. Might try some starline sometime too if I get brave, or bored (!!)
So I also decided to use new unfired brass since I don't want to do any annealing. I figure the new brass has "just" been annealed so doing it again shouldn't be necessary.
I also bought the Frankford universal case trimmer, for placement on my drill (it says use a 1/2" but I have a variable 3/8 and it works fine for this. also a drill press but that seems kind of overkill.
I was going to try to shorten the shoulder on the 6.5 die first but that didn't do anything... turns out that's not needed I can do it all with my 6 Arc die.
First I trimmed back a few cases by 0.025 (I was shooting for 0.030 which is the OAL delta but o well). Chamfer inside and out.
Then lubed them up (RCBS case lube smeared on my fingers and then onto the case), and used the 6 Arc die (Hornady) to resize but leaving the shoulder a bit long, at 1.199" - thinking I would need to do a 2-step. Then went to 1.185 (as it turns out). Worked great. I then just did a few going in 1-step from the trim to 1.185 directly and again, perfect. The final OAL came out to 1.485, datum point on shoulder 1.185. (The trim went down to 1.482 OAL, so the case growth during the down-size to 6mm lengthened the case only about 0.003-0.004")
So now I have 10 test cases downsized from 6.5 Grendel to 6 Arc, in new Hornady.
Some notes, this was with new brass, I imagine although don't know, that it would also work for 1x fired... how many more firings without first annealing, I don't know.
Also, don't know how this translates to, say, 6.5 Starline brass or other mfrs. Maybe yes, maybe no, just sayin'.
Will try attach a pic of my drill "setup" pretty basic.
