What do ya'll think about a 6.5-375 Ruger?

[MontanaRifleman]

I looked long and hard at the Dakota as a starting platform, but the cost of the brass is what put me off. I've been through enough 378 based Wby cases in my life to know that I want a project where brass is affordable and relatively easy to come by. The nice thing about having the Dakota already out there and established is that it should be relatively easy to extrapolate reloading data. Like if you decided to do a 300/375 Ruger, the 300 Dakota will be nearly identical. Within a few grains I would imagine. For the 6.5/375, you could do some simple extrapolation against the 7mm Dakota and come out close. I had to do the same with the 338/378 before there was published data. Never had any problems.

Pretty much exactly why I decided to go with the 375 vs the Dakota.

 

[hammertyme]

I am currently fulfilling a promise and trying to wear that 6.5WSM barrel out. I am at 250 rounds down the pipe and I still have not cleaned the barrel-still shoots bugholes and there isn't any sign that I have shot the barrel. These are very hot loads- above the accuracy Node!

No exceptions: I have always gotten at least a 95fps velocity gain without adding powder. I have added up to 2 grains of powder after nitriding and it was in two different barrels. In the 300RUM 19" my velocity is currently running quite obscene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did not have the barrel before Nitriding so I haven't a comparison ( before & After).

Remember I shared the 300WSM velocity in the 24" rifle barrel? The 300 RUM shoots the 180grain faster from a 19" barrel.

Documented Fact: 308 Win 208 AMAX, 28" Nitrided barrel 2800fps!!! Accuracy--- one hole for 5 shots.
Documented: M16 full auto- 500 rounds continuous shooting, barrel melted and began drooping. NITRIDE!

 

[ken snyder]

Hammertyme you're starting to sound pretty convincing. Does this nitriding process work on both chrome moly and stainless barrels. Is it better to have a broke in barrel nitrided. (hot button subject) Fluted barrels, do you know if they will come out of the process straight or if they might tend to turn into a boomerang. The gears in my head are turning.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Hammertyme you're starting to sound pretty convincing. Does this nitriding process work on both chrome moly and stainless barrels. Is it better to have a broke in barrel nitrided. (hot button subject) Fluted barrels, do you know if they will come out of the process straight or if they might tend to turn into a boomerang. The gears in my head are turning.

Ken, not answering for Hammertyme, but I'll chime in. I spoke with Tim North (Broughton Barrels) who is making me a 30 cal and 6.5. He said the barrels should be shot before treating. He recommended about 30 rounds and my smith said about the same thing. Tim knows Joel Kendricks (the guy in the video) and the best person to talk to about this would be Joel. His number is in the Accurate Shooter article I posted earleir. I'll be giving him a call this week. Bottom line is, when this is done, you have permanantly fixed your barrel and bore in the conditon in which it was treated. You can't do anymore smithing to it and any roughness that might be in the bore is now permanant.

My plan is to do my usual one shot and clean break-in with low charged E-Tip monmetal bullets. I'm guessing it'll be done in 5-10 rounds, maybe less. Then I'll work up a max load and fire a 3-5 shot baseline group for accuracy with both E-Tips and my primary GS bullets.

 

[hammertyme]

Other than the process is somewhat different, the outcome from Nitriding Chrome-moly and stainless is the same, They are both the same hardness and they are both beautiful black in color!

Being suspicious by nature I tried having a positive attitude and listening to the salesman that did my first barrel. I pretty much do not trust salesmeen and those who are trying to sell me on a product for their buddy. Since I live in a salt water world I could only hope it did not hurt a great shooting barrel. If it did I was only out a takeoff barrel. Ended up shooting just like before and now it was rust proof! I became a believer after the third and forth barrels with the first action were done.

Note: Savage does not stress relieve barrels or actions. Nitriding does stress relieve everything. I had to remove bedding material from a stock when I got the barreled action back as the holes did not line up the same after nitriding. Yes the bolts lined up and threaded in but the alignment was quite tight requiring me to open the holes a hair so that the recoil was on the lug only and not the bolts.

Special Note: Little lady told me just moments ago that she drew a any cow moose tag and I drew an any bull moose tag for this fall!!

Neal

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I am currently fulfilling a promise and trying to wear that 6.5WSM barrel out. I am at 250 rounds down the pipe and I still have not cleaned the barrel-still shoots bugholes and there isn't any sign that I have shot the barrel. These are very hot loads- above the accuracy Node!

No exceptions: I have always gotten at least a 95fps velocity gain without adding powder. I have added up to 2 grains of powder after nitriding and it was in two different barrels. In the 300RUM 19" my velocity is currently running quite obscene!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I did not have the barrel before Nitriding so I haven't a comparison ( before & After).

Remember I shared the 300WSM velocity in the 24" rifle barrel? The 300 RUM shoots the 180grain faster from a 19" barrel.

Documented Fact: 308 Win 208 AMAX, 28" Nitrided barrel 2800fps!!! Accuracy--- one hole for 5 shots.
Documented: M16 full auto- 500 rounds continuous shooting, barrel melted and began drooping. NITRIDE!

That all sounds too good to be true, not being skeptical or doubting you. I sure hope I see the same results

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Just spoke with Joel Kendricks about treating actions. He said some he can and some he can not. He will not be able to treat my Howas because they are made of investment cast. There are some others he can't treat including custom actions. He said Rems and Savages are OK. Botttomline... probably best to give him a call to be sure.

-Mark

 

[Aldon]

A bit of thread resurrection here but after reading through the 30-375SI thread, i could not get the idea out of my head of doing something similar with 6.5. I like the SI improved shoulder.

Did anyone ever accomplish one of these rigs?

Did the melonite at least help with barrel life? Thus far?

It seems this would get close to the 6.5 STW. Is that assumption close to correct?

Thanks~!

 

[Kingfisher]

I've had the 6.5/375 Ruger reamer sitting in the drawer now for 2 years, which is terrible since it's on loan from a guy I know that built one, but he said didn't need it back any time soon lol. I'm still determined to put one together, and after picking up a Stevens 200 donor last year, I'm pretty sure that just for fun, to get the party started I'll probably go ahead and build it on that. Otherwise all of the parameters will stay the same. Lilja barrel in a #17 aka Sendero contour, etc. With 2 kids in the last three years, I haven't had a lot of spare cash to throw around. In the meantime, I'm going to rebarrel my CZ-550 Varmint in 22-250 over to 6XC to pass the time.

 

[Aldon]

Kingfisher,

Do you have dimensions/specs on the reamer? Was it custom made to your friends specs?

Wondering about capacity and neck length etc.

What shoulder?

I fully understand plans vs family needs

 

[Kingfisher]

Aldon, I have them around here somewhere. They were pretty straight forward though. It was a simple neck down job. Shoulder angle was maintained. Only problem with this reamer is the lead and I also believe that the neck dimensions need to be a little larger otherwise neck turning is required (it may be necessary anyway). However I was going to have the neck & lead cut separate. Or if it looks like that's going to be too difficult I'll just have a new reamer made to my own specs. The guy that loaned it to me had custom dies made for necking it down etc. I was just going to use 338 RCM and 300 RCM to get down to 308 then from 308 to 264 should hopefully be doable via a single pass in the 6.5/375 die. Redding has the proper dimensions for the dies on hand and last time I checked they had a few in stock.

Beyond that, the case capacity is the same, everything else is the same. I checked my emails and it looks like he was getting 3200 with the 140's out of a 26" barrel if I'm reading this right. I did find the pic of the reamer dimensions, if you'd like them then PM me your email and I'll email you the diagram. PTG has it on file.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

I wonder if they (the developers of the 26 Nosler) read this thread a while back?

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/what-do-yall-think-about-6-5-375-ruger-68438/

I've since changed my mind and have decided on the Dakota as the parent case for this wildcat when I do it.

I meant to post this on the 26 Nosler thread.....

 

[Kingfisher]

Funny... I was just wondering the same thing. I'm really curious to see the measurements. I want to know just how close my 6.5/375 Reamer is. The guy that I got it from had some problems with the neck diameter because he was necking down 375 Ruger. However, the 26 Nosler brass wouldn't have those issues. That said, the base dimensions etc. might also be slightly different. Hopefully they'll post details soon.

 

[MontanaRifleman]

Funny... I was just wondering the same thing. I'm really curious to see the measurements. I want to know just how close my 6.5/375 Reamer is. The guy that I got it from had some problems with the neck diameter because he was necking down 375 Ruger. However, the 26 Nosler brass wouldn't have those issues. That said, the base dimensions etc. might also be slightly different. Hopefully they'll post details soon.

Did you ever have the rifle built?