Decapping & Resizing Lapua 6.5 Creedmoor
- Thread starter perazzisc3
- Start date
Deprime with Redding decapping die, comes equipped with small dia pin. Previously used hornady decapping die on hornady brass but they don't have a small dia pin. For sizing I'm using a Redding fl bushing die with Redding competition she'll holder to bump shoulder .002. Bullet seating with a LE Wilson micrometer hand die and arbor press.
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I have the Redding decapping die, as well - and it works fine. I use a Forster FL size die (non-bushing) that has been custom honed to the neck diameter I need. I don't decap with that die, but it's decapping pin will also work on Lapua brass. Note that in my case, Forster had to trim a bit off the bottom of the die so that I could get a .002 setback - this apparently sometimes occurs with minimum dimension match chambers.
Technically, depends on your brass. With Lapua and Hornady brass, I have .289 to get .002, so .288 bushing should do it with that brass. Don't know what you'd need with other brass manufacturers.
Measure the outside of a loaded round and subtract to get however much tension you desire.
You can also add up the components to achieve that (^^^) number. Obviously measure your own to get an exact answer.
Lapua creed small primer brass is reported to have a .014" neck in what Im seeing online in limited searching. So .014x2=.028 for the total brass thickness of both sides of the bullet. .028+.264=.292 So .292 should be the diameter of the total loaded round. If you want .003" of tension you will want the sized diameter to be .292-.003 for .289.
But depending on how large your fired neck is in comparison to the sized neck dimension and annealing and case hardening and cleaning etc can vary the amount of spring back so you may need a bushing that is .004 smaller to account for a .001 of spring back or so to net .003.
I dont think you would be dissatisfied with a .289 bushing. I think thats what many people are using anyways as it will net you between .002 & .003 or there abouts depending.
Now it can get deep. If you bushing only then you will be forcing the inconsistencies to the inside of the neck which is best suited to neck turned brass. Unturned will have varying internal dimensions and thus varying amounts of tension imparted on the bullet. Lapua should be fairly good though in this aspect, uniformity is one of their selling points. To escape that issue you can use an expander ball to push the inconsistencies back to the outside of the case and uniform the tension. However you would want the bushing to squeeze it an extra .001 down from the desired goal so that the expander has something to work on. So it really depends on what you want to do and how far you care to dive into the neck tension issue.
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