Anyone with a 25-06ai please grab your callipers!

[orch]

I've been shooting and loading for my 2 25-06ai's for 5 years and only really noticed a big (I don't really no if it's a big problem or not since the rifles both shoot quite well inspite of what if have discovered to have been doing for years) problem with my full length die....

Problem is the my full length die squeezes the shoulder diameter over 0.006" smaller before I can achieve 0.002" shoulder bump.

Fired cases from both guns measure 0.455" diameter at the shoulder body junction
(Measured 10 cases fired in each gun and they all measure this exactly)

Cases full length sized in my Redding fl die measure 0.449"
That seems excessive to me and I really started noticing that there is a lot of resistance in the sizing stroke and even with adequate imperial sizing wax it leaves a rough ridge on the shoulder/body junction.

If anyone else shooting a 25-06ai would be kind enough to measure some fired and full length sized cases that may help me determine if my barrels were cut with an out of spec reamer or if my full length die is out of spec... I found some saami case dimension specs for the 280ai and it shows 0.4550" as the shoulder diameter so I think it may be that my die is too tight


With my original gun that I got 5 years ago I would always just neck size until I started getting tight chambering then I'd aneal and full length size which was about every 5th firing on the brass... By about the 8th firing primer pockets started getting loose so I tossed the lot so I really only had to full length size once per life time of a lot of brass. I can't really recall the brass being hard to resizes at the time, maybe annealing made it eassier?

Got my second gun last year, shoots the exact same load equally as well... I tried to keep the brass for each gun separate but inevitably got them mixed up... Using a Hornady case comparator the new gun's head space is 0.002" longer than the old gun...
Neck sized brass from the new gun will chamber ok in the old gun but it is noticeably tighter...
Recently got a new press and was trying to set the FL die to headspace brass so it would be 0.001" in my old gun and 0.003" in my new gun and just run with my full length die all the time instead of neck sizing so I could just run the same brass in both guns and not have to worry about keeping separate brass for each gun... I guess I'm worried that if I'm moving the brass that much on the shoulder it might lead to over working the brass and maybe case head separation or something...

Any help would be awesome!

Thanks

Orch

 

[scottishkat]

I am not shooting the 25-06 AI but will offer this. Measure the die and call redding and see if the die is within specification. If it is not they will replace it.

I purchased a 6.5x284 die from redding that was labeled 6.5x284 and was actually closer to 6mmx284. They replaced it at no charge Sinclair actually sent me a box to ship back as well.

Is there a difference in outside diameter of your case mouths after resizing with the FL and NK dies?

I checked some new brass for my 257wby and the case mouths are .280 outside and .252 inside. If yours are much smaller than that your die may be out of spec.

Good luck and shoot straight

Bob

 

[Cheyenne 1]

Just measured a few they are .456 right at the shoulder. These have never been full length sized.

 

[orch]

Thanks guys... Emailed Redding about it they said shoulder/body junction diameter of 0.449" matches their specs for the 2506ai... But figured it shouldn't be hard to size or leave a rough ridge on the shoulder... So I'm sending it in with some fired brass for them to check.....

I have since measured some -06 based AI shells from various guns that some of my buddy's shoot and all of them measure 0.455 +\- 0.001" in fired and full length sized cases.....

Anyways I'll wait and see what Redding says but I'm skeptical that I should be squeezing down the diameter of the case that much....


Thanks

Orch