6.5 gas gun fine tuning

Shawn Carverelli

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Nov 17, 2021
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Kennewick
for semi auto gas gun Aero Precision upper/lower in 6CM with a 1-8" carbon fiber barrel. magazine length keeps me from flirting with the lands. Ive settled on 2.785 oal with eld-m ans eld-x. I'm waiting on some 87 vmax to try out as well. May have to seat them shorter than the 108 gr eld's.
Question is....have you'll found neck tension variables will change groups sizes and SD?
Am I asking too much for a gas gun to shoit better than 3/4" @ 100 yards?
Another thing thats bothering me. I hear awesome result in this forum with berger bullets.
Mostly so far with cci450 primers and h4350 the hornady plastic tips shoot 2x better than Berger bthp. And the hornady s feed much better in my AR10
 
for semi auto gas gun Aero Precision upper/lower in 6CM with a 1-8" carbon fiber barrel. magazine length keeps me from flirting with the lands. Ive settled on 2.785 oal with eld-m ans eld-x. I'm waiting on some 87 vmax to try out as well. May have to seat them shorter than the 108 gr eld's.
Question is....have you'll found neck tension variables will change groups sizes and SD?
Am I asking too much for a gas gun to shoit better than 3/4" @ 100 yards?
Another thing thats bothering me. I hear awesome result in this forum with berger bullets.
Mostly so far with cci450 primers and h4350 the hornady plastic tips shoot 2x better than Berger bthp. And the hornady s feed much better in my AR10
Yes they will. You're going to have to run higher neck tension in the AR than you would in a bolt gun as well to prevent them from walking on you or worse, from pushing back into the case upon hitting the feed ramp.

I would even suggest crimping them to ensure smooth and reliable feeding with something like the Lee Crimp Die.
 
so far ive been using petersen srp new brass.
In your opinion is the redding fl S bushing die the cats pajamas for dialing the perfect neck tension....and i was thinking .004 max to .0015 min. Is there a seating die that seats AND crimps simultaneously? Volume loading will take place on a dillon 650, that why I ask
 
so far ive been using petersen srp new brass.
In your opinion is the redding fl S bushing die the cats pajamas for dialing the perfect neck tension....and i was thinking .004 max to .0015 min. Is there a seating die that seats AND crimps simultaneously? Volume loading will take place on a dillon 650, that why I ask...
and thanks- I appreciate your input
 
so far ive been using petersen srp new brass.
In your opinion is the redding fl S bushing die the cats pajamas for dialing the perfect neck tension....and i was thinking .004 max to .0015 min. Is there a seating die that seats AND crimps simultaneously? Volume loading will take place on a dillon 650, that why I ask
I've done very well for myself so far with Redding S type dies.

I load for a .260Rem AR though and found that using the Lee Crimp die gave me the most reliable neck tension and prevented rounds from "walking" on me in the mag or getting pushed back into the case trying to cycle from the magazine.

Nearly all military rounds are crimped to avoid those issues.

On my bolt guns I run very lose neck tension to the point I can load bullets with just finger pressure and then apply a light crimp for consistency and to keep them properly seated for length. You can't do that however with any sort of compressed load or they'll eventually walk out on you even sitting in an ammo box.😂

When I was first playing with neck tension I was also running some loads that were rather somewhat compressed in the .260, 300wm, and 7mmSTW and when I went to load them up a few months later found some of them had grown by a 1/4" or more just sitting on the shelf.

I then understood why some of the competition shooters that ran loose neck tension would only do their final seating at the range right before or even during a match.
 
I've done very well for myself so far with Redding S type dies.

I load for a .260Rem AR though and found that using the Lee Crimp die gave me the most reliable neck tension and prevented rounds from "walking" on me in the mag or getting pushed back into the case trying to cycle from the magazine.

Nearly all military rounds are crimped to avoid those issues.

On my bolt guns I run very lose neck tension to the point I can load bullets with just finger pressure and then apply a light crimp for consistency and to keep them properly seated for length. You can't do that however with any sort of compressed load or they'll eventually walk out on you even sitting in an ammo box.😂

When I was first playing with neck tension I was also running some loads that were rather somewhat compressed in the .260, 300wm, and 7mmSTW and when I went to load them up a few months later found some of them had grown by a 1/4" or more just sitting on the shelf.

I then understood why some of the competition shooters that ran loose neck tension would only do their final seating at the range right before or even during a match.
great info...I'll invest in a crimp die post haste for both my 6.5 a 6 creedmoor.
both gun wear identical superlative gas blocks and Ive got some adjustments to do there as well.
The only powder I want to test that I havent is win staball 6.5
 
ive tried h4350, h1000 rl17 superperformance( loaded not shot) and expecting hybrid 100v shortly.
looks like redding full length s bushing dies might be hard to get- so ill see if I can oreder a pair of lee crimp dies, unless somebody else makesca crimp die as well
 
ive tried h4350, h1000 rl17 superperformance( loaded not shot) and expecting hybrid 100v shortly.
looks like redding full length s bushing dies might be hard to get- so ill see if I can oreder a pair of lee crimp dies, unless somebody else makesca crimp die as well
Hornady Bushing dies are available at Midway and probably through Hornady themselves.


You can always call Redding direct and see what the wait time is if your heart is set on theirs but I've had fantastic luck with my Hornady bushing dies as well. Even the wait time on their custom dies has been very good.

Before I'd worry about other powders I'd suggest just working with what you have one at a time seeing if you can get an accurate load. Otherwise you could invest an awful lot of wasted time and effort, not to mention precious powder jumping from powder to powder.

If you work with them one at a time you may well find a load with your first powder that does everything you could hope for.

If you then want to play with the others just to see if you can do better or do the same thing with less powder or to just have alternatives if you can't find your favorite powder that makes sense.

I learned the hard way you can really get badly scattered and waste a lot of time, money, and resources chasing powders and bullets. A given rifle is only capable of a certain level of accuracy no matter what you run through it.
 
just found out RCBS has a matchmaster line od seater dies with a "bullet window" in front like the old vickerman seater die. those are the bees knees
 
Hornady Bushing dies are available at Midway and probably through Hornady themselves.


You can always call Redding direct and see what the wait time is if your heart is set on theirs but I've had fantastic luck with my Hornady bushing dies as well. Even the wait time on their custom dies has been very good.

Before I'd worry about other powders I'd suggest just working with what you have one at a time seeing if you can get an accurate load. Otherwise you could invest an awful lot of wasted time and effort, not to mention precious powder jumping from powder to powder.

If you work with them one at a time you may well find a load with your first powder that does everything you could hope for.

If you then want to play with the others just to see if you can do better or do the same thing with less powder or to just have alternatives if you can't find your favorite powder that makes sense.

I learned the hard way you can really get badly scattered and waste a lot of time, money, and resources chasing powders and bullets. A given rifle is only capable of a certain level of accuracy no matter what you run through it.
true story...and good advice. I have a load that shoots the hornady 103gr eld-x decently 3/4" @ 100 yards. Just got 200 87gr v-max in the mail today to develop a decent varmint load. Hoping for 3"@500 yards.
Ive got some figuring to do just to see how much neck tension I currently have. 003 should be enough. >.005 I'd think would be overkill.
My 6-284 has a tight neck chamber. I turn the necks for .001-.002 neck tension and load one at a time
 
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