A few of you may remember that I am having a 6mm-06 Ackley built on a Mauser 98 by a local gunsmith. Seems like the poor fella doesn't think the reamer will cleanup the 243 Win chamber on the A&B barrel. I assured him that it would since my pal that owns the reamer did a H&R single shot by hand, and it looks clean as a whistle. Anyway, he is wanting a round to test fire, and since I had ONE 25-06 in my case collection (with many more coming ) I went to sizing and loading one test round for the Doubting Thomas 'Smith. I've never down sized a neck on a wildcat, only upsize (my 6mm PPC). I used Imperial Sizing Die Wax on the neck and made a few passes into the FL die, until the whole neck was 6mm down to the shoulder. My problem is that when I made the four mini passes to dial in the die, the neck's EDGE got a bit lopsided, scalloped, if you may. So then just for formality, I trimmed the neck to an even length (didn't measure, just evened it up). I then passed the shell over my 6mm mandrel die that I use for changing .220 Russian brass to the 6mm PPC, and loaded it with a Federal Magnum 215 Match primer, 53.5 gr. RL-22, and a 107 gr. Matchking and seated it to the length of the Mauser's box (should be plenty enough to form a good 40 degree shoulder). One test round ready to go.

So here's the question: How do I properly downsize the 25-06 brass without having the scalloped edge. Was it the fact that I made multiple passes to get the die set correctly? Or, maybe the fact that it was the first application of the Die Wax? Any tricks of the trade would be appreciated! Also, when downsizing necks, do I need to get an inside neck reamer (supposedly gets rid of the "doughnut at the base of the shoulder---on the inside)?

THANKS for any info you could provide.

Going from .257 ID to .243 ID is such a small reduction that all you need do is run a properly lubricated case into the sizer with a single stroke. Necking down almost always leaves the case mouth very slightly long on one side. Since you're going to need to trim and chamfer the mouth anyway, this is no big deal.

quote:

Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Going from .257 ID to .243 ID is such a small reduction that all you need do is run a properly lubricated case into the sizer with a single stroke. Necking down almost always leaves the case mouth very slightly long on one side. Since you're going to need to trim and chamfer the mouth anyway, this is no big deal.

How about using the inside neck reamer???

Unless your chamber is real tight in the neck area I wouldn't worry about neck reaming. I needed to ream mine but I was using 280 cases.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
Unless your chamber is real tight in the neck area I wouldn't worry about neck reaming. I needed to ream mine but I was using 280 cases.

Wow, you were using 280 Remington cases to make 6mm-06 cases?!?!? Were you doing that since the 280 cases have a longer neck?

quote:

Originally posted by woodsracer:
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Stonecreek:
Going from .257 ID to .243 ID is such a small reduction that all you need do is run a properly lubricated case into the sizer with a single stroke. Necking down almost always leaves the case mouth very slightly long on one side. Since you're going to need to trim and chamfer the mouth anyway, this is no big deal.

How about using the inside neck reamer???

You won't need it. In fact I didn't need it with my 6mmx.270 IMP. using .270 cases. Just never ran into any problem Just run it through the die and trim ,like the man said. roger

quote:

Were you doing that since the 280 cases have a longer neck?

It was my own wildcat case. A 280 blownout with the shoulder moved forward.

quote:

Originally posted by ramrod340:
It was my own wildcat case. A 280 blownout with the shoulder moved forward.

Sounds about like mine.The only reason the shoulder on mine got moved forward was because of the injestion of too much Golden Wedding causeing the reamer to go in about .050" farther than it was suppose to.With the heavey Original Barnes' bullets it was a fantastic deer slayer. roger

Mine started as a 280 wildcat. Shoulder moved forward. .062" and blown out to .459 and 40Deg.

Frequently, I have taken .308 to .243 in one step without necessity of intermediate steps or inside neck reaming.

Thanks fellas for your reassurance!!! After what you have noted, I may wait to order the brass until I get the reamer and the completed barrel job back. Then I can actually measure the reamer itself to determine it's exact neck length, and based on that I may use 270 Win brass, and then trim to the correct length to have as long of a neck as possible (since it recedes a bit after fireforming---especially in an Ackley chamber), while fitting in my chamber.

A 308 down to a 243 Win sounds a bit scary though!

Dear Woodsracer,
Ask your `smith to provide you with a chamber cast. This will tell you all you want to know. You can also get the chamber print from whomever made the reamer with a phone call oe email. Make sure of the overall length of the case as the last thing you want is the edge of the neck being too long and crimping down on the bullet as you go into battery. This will make your pressures skyrocket! Make sure of your shoulder/neck to case mouth dimension. As the 270/280 cases are about .050 longer than the 06 you may have to trim them. No big deal there. I would use the 25-06 cases and neck them down to 6mm. This is what I did for my 6mm/06 [std] and no problems at all. I then used Lake City NM 30-06 cases and did the same thing except I sized them down to 6.5/06 and then outside neck turned them and THEN went down to 6mm. I did this as the NM cases are hands down better cases and longevity was increased greatly. If you think this is funny? I also make all my cases for 308 length wildcats[ 25 Souper and the AI] and also the 250 SAv. AI and 22-250 from Lake City NM 308 brass for the same reasons. Lot more work but the cases last forever. Good luck with your 6mm/06 AI!

Aloha, Mark