I have a friend who has gone out and purchsed dies for this caliber, though has never gotten around to setting up the press, etc.

I offered to load some up for him, but have a vauge memoury that these have a berdan primer pocket that requires a special tool for removing the spent primers.

Is this the case?

Are they a pain to clean out? I seem to recall that you have to use some sort of a reamer to scrape out the remains of the primer, or was that just for some old military rounds?

Or is this all just tripe and the 6.5x68 has a standard boxer flash hole?

RE: Cartridges of the World: 9th ED., P 390. Schuler. Incorrect nomenclature. The round's actual name is 6.5X68 RWS. There is also a rimmed version, the 6.5X68mmR RWS.

I found no info as to primer type, but the 8X68 RWS, which is the exact same case but loaded with .323" bullets, uses Fed. 215 primers (boxer, dia .210"). No reaming, these are not military cases. But some 6.5X68 RWS ammo might be loaded with Berdan primers. Check with the brass manufacturer on this point.

[ 05-09-2003, 22:33: Message edited by: eldeguello ]

You can tell whether the primers are Berdan (invented by and American and commonly used in Europe) or Boxer (invented by a European and commonly used in America) by looking into the bottom of the fired case. You'll have to hold the case to a light source just right in order to see, but the Boxer will, of course, have a single flash hole in the middle, while the Berdan will have two or three flash holes off-center.

Berdan-primed cases can be reloaded, but decapping is a pain. You can get a little tool which will "claw" the Berdan primer out, or you can use the (messy) method of filling the case with water, inserting a tight-fitting dowel in the neck, and hitting it with a hammer to pop the primer out. I'm not kidding.

Express I have and load for an 6.5x68. All my brass is RWS and it is all boxer primed. All lg rifle and mag primers fit just fine. If you have some real old brass you may find some with berdan primers. There are several other makes of brass availible as well. If you are interested in some of my load data send me a private e-mail