6mm remington brass help

@Riceguy My nephew lives out there and he is always begging me for things. Born and raised in the middle of the San Joaquin valley. Went in the Marine Corps in '68 and never came back. But still have a lot of friends/relatives out there.

A question for other 6mm Remington shooters. My rifle does not like boat tails. I get better performance with flat based bullets. Tried Berger VLD's, Hornady A-Max's, Speer SBT's (and more) and I have gotten the best results with 100 gr Sierra SPT #1540.
How do you guys do with boat tails.

You can also take some of the other diameters off the cartridge drawing and see if you are over by comparing to the chamber drawings. Lengths and tapers are difficult to measure outside of a well equipped inspection lab, but basic diameters are not.

Using the ink method as recommended is a great starting point.

My visual guess is that the diameter right above where you see that "ring", when compared to your chamber is too large from being fired in a loose chamber, but that is a weak visual guess. See if the ink there indicates a suspicious point and then measure it.

If you have wet tumbled with pins, you can also see well enoug inside with jewelers magnifiers to see the issue and feel it with a bent paper clip. I hope it just needs to be sized down, but it isn't the end of the world if it is scrapped. I would mention that to the shop that sold it to you...

The brass you bought is stretched when it was shot in another rifle ,you buy it and use it but it needs to fit your rifles chamber , that means full length resizing it in steps till it fits your rifles chamber ,use one piece of brass to do this , these step are talked about in the die mfg's directions . Did you try the marker trick ? What kind of Die's do you have ,with respect this is where reading is so important ! Brass once fired in another rifle will not always fit another ,chamber of the same Cartridge . I can't Stress reading enuff to fully Get n understand the basics of reloading , and yes I've made the same mistake yrs back ! The better you inform us the better we. Can help you you thanks !!!.

Rewiltshire, some rifles only like flat base (sptizer) bullets , your ahead of the curve to know this about your rifle Congrats !!! Just depends on your barrel . My 6mm is a 1/10 twist 243 ,24 inch bbl and she'll shoot bt's& spzers thks .

@jjmp My #1 is a 1B with a 1:9 twist. I am old and retired, so I have a lot of time to play around. In my club we have NBSRA shooters and I was the scorer for the matches. Learned a lot from those guys (they all shoot flat base bullets in their 6 PPC's). We also have a couple Marine and Army snipers. Access to a fine 200 yard range, a lot of 'expertise' from fellow club members, experimentation with bullets, primers, cases and powder, and a whole lot of range time. Plus the wife likes to get me out of the house and her way.
My Club:
http://www.cbr-pc.org/

shamu2240 said:

Hello everyone, I need some Help. I'm brand new to reloading, reloading for my 6mm Remington because I live in California. That means I can't find ammo for it, never mind lead free. So my first batch of 60 rounds, once fired brass from my rifle, came out pretty good and shot better than the factory loads I have for it. Still need to tighten them up a bit. The problem I'm having is that I bought some once fired brass from a local reloading store and didn't realize they had a weird ring near the base of the case until after i cleaned them up. So I went through the process clean, full length resize, measure, trim etc... I thought the full length resize would take care of the ring. So I went ahead and loaded up about 50 rounds and they will not chamber in my rifle. I've also got about 90 cases I didn't load up...luckily. What can I do about this problem, can it be fixed and more importantly what is it? View attachment 122573 View attachment 122577

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There's lots of variables here to consider. I'm not too certain about your first sentence when you wrote about your first 60 rounds coming out pretty good? Does that mean that you reloaded 60 rounds of ammunition and then fired good? I like to start at the basics, if you are new to reloading let's start at the beginning. (1) make sure that the headstamp on the once fired brass is the proper headstamp for the caliber you are trying to reload. Sometimes used brass doesn't always turn out to be what it is supposed to be. Also I bought some "once fired" .270 brass, turned out the stuff was junk because it wasn't once fired and all the primer pockets were expanded. I believe that the brass was more than once-fired and that it was fired at high pressures to get the primer pockets to be expanded as they were. (2) From your photo is looks like your sizing die is not set to the top of your shell holder, if it isn't it would be good to set it there, or at least check to make sure. (3) After checking the resizing die, and resizing your brass, I would check all of the measurements with a good set of dial calipers to make sure that you are within the proper dimensions of the cartridge. I would definitely check the overall length of your cases to make sure that they do not need trimming. If they truly are once-fired cases they ought not have to be trimmed, however you never know. If you've already used your sizing dies for the first 60 rounds that you have shot, all the dimensions for your brass ought to be in tolerances. (4) After full-length resizing your once-fired brass I would try some of that brass in the chamber of your rifle, without a bullet on it. (5) If your brass closes easily on the resized brass, then I would start checking the overall length of your round COAL to make sure that your bullet is not seated out so far as it is jamming into the rifling. (6) If you have a crimp seating die, you could have the die set down so far that it is crimping the top of the casing when you seat your bullet and it is causing the top or side of your brass to bulge out (this really could be your problem). To set your seating die, place a resized case in your press, and run the ram of the press all the way up. Next start turning your seating die down until you start to meet some resistance. If you have a crimp die, this will mean that the crimp section of your die is hitting the tip of your brass. When this happens, back the die out 1/2 a turn, and lock your seating die. (7) After all the above has been done and checked I would make sure that your primers are seated, if they are protruding even a little this could cause binding when you close the bolt. I know that I wrote a lot of information here, hope it makes sense. Don't give up you can figure this thing out!! It's just a matter of trial and error. If factory stuff works, you can make ammunition that will fit and work better.

shamu2240 said:

Hello everyone, I need some Help. I'm brand new to reloading, reloading for my 6mm Remington because I live in California. That means I can't find ammo for it, never mind lead free. So my first batch of 60 rounds, once fired brass from my rifle, came out pretty good and shot better than the factory loads I have for it. Still need to tighten them up a bit. The problem I'm having is that I bought some once fired brass from a local reloading store and didn't realize they had a weird ring near the base of the case until after i cleaned them up. So I went through the process clean, full length resize, measure, trim etc... I thought the full length resize would take care of the ring. So I went ahead and loaded up about 50 rounds and they will not chamber in my rifle. I've also got about 90 cases I didn't load up...luckily. What can I do about this problem, can it be fixed and more importantly what is it? View attachment 122573 View attachment 122577

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Also what make/style rifle are you reloading this ammunition for??

There has got to be some new brass somewhere, With the time it has taken to figure this out I would just start anew.The 6MM is a great cartridge.

Rewiltshire, yur#1 is one Fine rifle Beautiful lines and Pretty as she's accurate I'm sure !. A1st cousin owns one like yours but in a 7rem/mag ,which I've had the pleasure of reloading for , new with a green barrel she took to my reloads, like a duckling to water ,I'm sure the bbls not broke in yet ,but fine Rifles indeed. Yes it's fun to learn from others but it takes a good person for all that knowledge to stick too ,in the first place , good one you ,thks for the link ,& keep enjoying your self !, regards great talking to you !.

Shamu, for now save the bullets that don't fit, they can be pulled apart later. Do you have friends or relation that reloads ? Do you have reloading manuals ? All great start up stuff , thks keep us imformed ok ?! Thks

@jjmo I wanted a #1 in 6mm Remington. Found a used one in a local gun store and bought it. It came with a Leupold M8 6x. I replace it with a Burris Eliminator. Took a little work to get it programmed correctly, but isn't that what range time is about. So far longest shot was 325 on a nice 4x4 Mulie. The 6mm Remington cartridge will handle a lot of animals - proper shot placement! Where I hunt there are both Mule deer and Whitetails. Going down to Texas later this year after Quigley in Montana (Yea, I shoot a 1874 Sharps also - one shot, one hit). A friend has Axis deer on his property. Want one of those tall racks on my wall.
If you question the shot, don't take it!

jjmp asked a good question regarding manuals. Have as many reloading manuals as you can. There is even one of those 'one cartridge' manuals that incorporates all the different manuals for one specific cartridge that is very helpful. Many years ago I started with a Lyman, now I have a shelf full. It's kind of like a party with your friends, the more the better. Hodgdon even has a nice one online. You will need to try out different components to find the best combination for your rifle. Just because one guy has a load that works well in his rifle doesn't mean it will do the same for you. Also as Terry Scott stated, why not start out with some new brass, it is available online.

shamu2240 said:

I think I'm SOL on these. I tried running it through the resizing die again, about 12-15 times, and made very very small adjustments to the depth of the die trying to see if it would work it out. No change at all. I'm in Huntington Beach, you?

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"made very very small adjustments to the depth of the die trying to see if it would work it out" In full-length resizing small increments are not made, the press ram is brought all the way to the top, and the die is screwed in to meet the shell holder. If the resizing die is not hitting the top of the shell holder that can/will cause the ring at the base of your cases that are in your photographs because that is where the resizing die was stopped. From your photographs it appears that the resizing die has to be adjusted in almost 1/8 inches+ or more deeper; that's what it looks like (another poster "just country") wrote the same thing in his post to you. If your brass was fired using high pressure loads, sometimes that ring will show up on the brass, however full-length resizing will eliminate that ring. Please read my previous/other post, if your resizing die is not hitting the top of your shell holder before you start the full-length resizing process this has to be done, "especially" if that brass was fired in a different chamber other than what it was shot in originally.