6.5 cr components

[jippy1]

so, I had barely dipped my toes into the reloading / hand loading pool, in late 2020.
family member health issues necessitated that I shelve everything, even shooting, spring of 2021.
coast is clearer now, and fixing to start feeling my way around again.

I have maybe 200ish rounds of once-shot brass, fire formed in MY GUN, but it is of SEVERAL DIFFERENT BRANDS

I have maybe another thousand once-fired, mostly hornady brass, from mine, and a variety of other guns.
I was a brass biotch, at K&M's long distance course, April of 2021

if I reload "mine" or "our's/their's", I only have access to "regular" NON-match LARGE Winchester primers

I just found some new LAPUA small primer brass available
and some federal GMM small rifle primers.

since I don't have an abundance of ONE BRAND of brass, fired through MY RIFLE, . . .

should I just make the plunge, get the Lapua brass, and MATCH primers, and switch from large to small primers for 6.5???

 

[sboone]

Yes if you want a more consistent load, but you should use your current brass to work a loading process into muscle memory and figure out your equipment that way you don't bone the nice lapua brass and put wear and tear on premium components until you're comfortable with your process and it's results.

Sort all your LRP brass by brand and start there reloading those cases and go from there. Work up a safe light load that shoots in your rifle, then when you switch to SRP lapua brass, back off the powder charge, get it once fired and full length resized, then work back up to you previous charge weight where you had a good load and tweak it if you need to.

 

[acudaowner]

If you got the parts to reload Id say jump in and enjoy it I know I have been . While most of my friends had to stop shooting I have been loving having the ability to make my own ammo . I am not so thrilled by the 24-7 hunt for replacements it's just turned into a never ending hunt for supplies but in it's own way it makes finding primers , and powder more fun for me I guess . I can regret the shear amount of money I have been spending on reloading supplies but have only my own greed to blame . lol , Best of luck to you in this venture .

 

[DownhillFromHere]

There's no single answer, right or wrong. If you're just starting out, there's something to be said for gaining experience with your Hornady brass (only because that's what you seem to have most of). If you want to get anal about it, you could weigh the mixed-lot cases and sort them into batches separated by some number of grains (when I started, I just mixed all my Hornady brass together... it's questionable to me whether the return on effort is worthwhile).

If you already have large Winchester primers, use them. If you have to buy primers... I'd look for CCI or Federal. Availability comes into the mix again. And cost. Are match primers really worth an extra $10 or more per thousand? Questionable in Hornady brass... maybe even in better brass.

With all that said, certainly there is no reason not to buy Lapua brass and Federal match primers.

No reason not to do both, if time and $$$ permit.

And be aware that Lapua and Hornady brass are pretty much at opposite ends of case capacity spectrum, so, as has been stated, the powder charge will be different for the different brands.

 

[jippy1]

nvm

 

[jippy1]

and for my .308, I have a bunch of MY hornaday fire-formed stuff,
and two new cases of Berger ammo.

where does Berger brass fit in the desirability heiarchy

 

[DownhillFromHere]

what's lrp vs srp

Large Rifle Primer / Small Rifle Primer

If you load 6.5CM in SRP brass, use magnum primers like CCI 450 (vs. standard srp like CCI 400).

and for my .308, I have a bunch of MY hornaday fire-formed stuff,
and two new cases of Berger ammo.

where does Berger brass fit in the desirability heiarchy

Berger ammo is loaded in Lapua brass.

 

[jippy1]

so would MAGNUM cci 450's be better than federal GMM small, but NON-MAGNUM?

 

[DownhillFromHere]

so would MAGNUM cci 450's be better than federal GMM small, but NON-MAGNUM?

Google is your friend. There are a number of references out there.
https://precisionrifleblog.com/2012/07/02/most-accurate-rifle-primers-for-precision-reloading/