Armory Sponsor
Posted: 7/12/2026 9:47:58 AM EDT
[Last Edit: lazyengineer][Edited]
|
Short summary: For 6.5 Creedmoor, what practices are people who anneal and who use bushings and/or mandrals, using? My sizes to date were for unannealed brass, and I don't think are right for annealed brass which has less Springback. Is anyone using a 0.292" Bushing? Longer post: In the last year or so I have started annealing everything. I'm using one of those self feeding rigs with a propane flame, and so wait until winter time, and just bulk anneal all my inventoried up brass of all sizes. Now that such brass is cycling my heavily into my reloading (I've been dating heavy, and so was reloading less). SO anyway, now I'm cycling that brass in, and my resizing is different. Annealing mitigates springback, which is good because resizing gets more uniform and consistent, for more uniform headspace and neck dimensioning. Which is great, but up until now, my bushing and mandrel sizes were tuned for non-annealed brass. In particular. I historically I would run tight. And using .288 for 6.5 Creedmoor casings as my bushing size, and then mandrel up, to .263,which would spring back to a tight but good fit. Using those sized pieces now isn't working as good for me. Biggest issue, is apparently that's a good bit of difference in mouth size, that the mandrel was pushing back out. And now that it's annealed, the shoulder is soft. Resulting in the mandrel will sometimes just collapse my shoulder, in the press! I went up to .290 neck bushing, and it still will sometimes collapse with a .262 Mandrel. So, this week, I just got a .292 neck bushing bushing. But am a little concerned that might be too big. Is anyone else *who is annealing first*, also running a bushing that big? I run a bolt RPR and a gas operated SFAR. And reload everything from Hornady, to S&B to you name it. |
|
I played around with bushings and mandrels a bit trying to work my brass less in the sizing process with my 6 CM. Does it work? Yep. Is it worth the extra equipment needed? Probably not. I found no real difference in running annealed brass thru a FL die vs the bushing die with SAC bushings as far as practical accuracy or lifespan goes. Ive also messed with bushings on my 6 Grendel as thats a wildcat that uses a Redding 6.5 Grendel die with the appropriate bushing to bring the neck to the 6mm bullet. As a reference I do anneal every piece of brass every firing, even on my blaster brass, before sizing. Post sizing annealing does nothing. My general setup is a 2 thou under mandrel, so 223 is a .222, 6mm is .241, 308 is .306, etc. Ive thought about a 1 thou under mandrel in my bolt guns, but the 2 thou is producing good accuracy, so why mess with it? I can see why you would use a 1 thou mandrel, especially if you are seeing a thou springback post sizing unannealed brass, so good call there. If you are crushing/collapsing shoulders, just increase your bushing size, but not so much that your mandrel suddenly doesnt do anything at all. In your case? Yeah, jump to the .292 bushing, and test to be sure the mandrel doesnt fall into the case post sizing, and sets the neck ID properly. |
| My 6.5CM die right now has a .291" bushing in it...I have bushings from .287" up to .295", but biggest I have used so far is .291", thats on the hornaday brass I sized last for my buddy.....That is using Redding 3 pc comp dies (shoulder die, bushing neck die and seater die), and I also use Sinclair mandrels to set neck tension..All my bottle neck brass gets annealed every loading.... |
| To the OP you realize that each brand of brass has different neck wall thickness thus alters the calculations for appropriate bushing size. |
jme and I am a NRA Endowment Member
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
R W Emerson
Don't be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make the better.
R W Emerson
|
Originally Posted By rn22723: To the OP you realize that each brand of brass has different neck wall thickness thus alters the calculations for appropriate bushing size. This^ I could go see what bushing I use, but I use Alpha brass and anneal after 3 firings. If you don’t use/do that, and use the same bullet, the spec won’t help you. I do find that 1.5-2 thousandths is GTG, for me. |
10/22/14 I stand with Canada
|
Thank you for bringing up the neck wall factor. We cannot logically make recommendations with the key data missing. We’re talking about bushings that set the O.D. and mandrel that set the final I.D., without discussing the neck thickness it’s just meaningless. In my .260 Rem heavy gun I may use a .289 bushing with Black Hills (Remington) brass that I cleaned up the outer surface by uniforming the necks to 75% of the surface touched with the cutter. My notes say 0.0134” wall thickness. Same gun I am using a .293 bushing for the Peterson brass that I have not uniformed (will not turn necks again) or annealed yet. My loaded diameter with the Peterson brass is 0.294” My loaded diameter with the cleaned up BH/RP brass was 0.288” My loaded diameter with my brass converted from Lapua .308 brass that was full match prepped and neck turned was 0.290”. |
|
So far, here is what I have learned All annealed .290 is still a bit tight, and sometimes a mandrel can collapse a shoulder. Not common, but can happen .292 is just right for all brass I've tested (rp, horn, lapua, win), except for S&B, which is now too loose. |
Armory Sponsor