6mm PPC difficulties

[Raifuru]

I know its not the gun and unfortunately I can't narrow it down as I have mixed my fire formed and the chap who owned it before me (who knew what he was doing) it before formed brass.

When I got the gun it came with some loads that were shooting very nicely. Unfortunately as I was using different bullets, I relied on my own OAL measurements and scrapped his data. I have just come back from the range and my loads that should be 2 thou long are not even allowing me near closing the bolt (2.132 OAL) and I would estimate the bolt is 100-150 thou' off closing. Okay, I can see my OAL measurement was bad (not sure how it went tits, but it has).

So I left the long rounds in the box and used some loads I had estimated the OAL as 2.020 and a few fired, but then I started to get some that would not chamber. I would say out of the 20 I tried, 10 would not chamber at all. I now have fingers bleeding where I was having to remove the semi closed and stuck bolt. There is obviously something else wrong that is not the bullet jamming in the throat. Because I resized with a stndard die, the neck tension is very high and I cant break them down with a KH.

 

Any glaringly obvious observations?

I fireformed with 65 VMax and 29 graains of Benchmark. I necksized the 220 brass and just trimmed the necks to around 80% off the total, so just shaved really.

I then resized after shooting with the redding FL die. On these loads, I opened the necks with a KM mandrell and ran them through a LE Wilson PPC dies with a .268 bushing. They all had the same treatment, but have obviously got a variation somewhere. Some of the brass has been fired twice, some are first after one fireform shot.

 

 

Sorry for the length of the post.

[triggersqueezer]

sounds like you need to bump your shoulders back

[Raifuru]

Would a body die do it?

[1967spud]

yes bell us im here

[Raifuru]

Thanks Mark, but not sure yet. I blacked up a loaded case that was jamming at the range and tried to chamber it. I have it a wee shove and then removed the bolt. there were signs of the black being scraped off on about 60% of the neck. So it looks like the neck OD at .269 is too large for the chamber.

The gunsmith is checking the reamer data for me to see what the spec is. I thought it was a no turn neck, but must have been mistaken I now have 80 rounds to break down.

 

Can anyone recommend a bullet puller? I have used the Kinetic ones, but they are pretty poor if the tension is very high.

[The Gun Pimp]

First job - strip the pin/spring assembly from the bolt and try your sized brass in the chamber. Does your bolt close without any resistance - it should if you've done everything right.

 

Once you've sorted the brass problem, you can start with the bullets.

[Raifuru]

If the neck OD and the chamber were both say .269 if I chamber a case without a bullet in the case, would the neck not "fit" the chamber as the bullet is not there to resist the chamber squeezing the brass?? I have just tried some of the brass I used to load the stciky loads and the brass without bullet and primer easily chambers. I loaded a case with a bullet but seated well back and it would not chamber.

[Foxshooter]

The Hornady collet puller is very good

 

Mark

[onehole]

OMG,,,,if anyone wants to play tight necks or don't know what they have bought then take care,,,,,,this is classic misunderstanding and dangerous,,,,,,,,,,,,,Raifuru if you want to pull a round just put it in the shell holder on the press raise it up through the top of the press grab the head with a pair of pliers and lower the ram,,,,only loss is the butchered head.,,,,,O

[baldie]

It should be CLEARLY stamped on the barrel at the side of the proof marks , what the neck diameter is, if it is anything other than standard.

Anything that does not have a standard diameter neck will fail proof these days as they are not only testing headspace , but neck diameter too with all new , integral gauges, to CIP standard. They have to be informed before proof testing, just what the neck diameter, if non standard , is.They then test it with the correct diameter neck gauge.

Whatever you do, don't shoot the gun again until you know exactly what the neck diameter is, you could blow the gun, and more importantly, yourself, up.

[Raifuru]

Indeed no shooting. The Smith should let me know what the details of the reamer are, so I should be okay when confirmed. I was under the impression that I was at .272 and that should have been okay.

Thanks for the info so far and needless to say it will not be used until I have the info.

[17 Rem]

I thought the standard neck of a 6ppc was .270", not .272"?