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Old May 26, 2017, 06:56 PM   #25
stagpanther
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Join Date: March 2, 2014
Posts: 11,655
After a little side trip to work on some 25 x 45 loads--I'm back to the 6mm predator project--it's a tough one for me being my first wild-cat. Right now the problem is getting the cartridge from magazine to chamber in good style--there are no problems with the gun itself in terms of cycling, firing and ejecting--but I have reason to believe that I'm getting fairly poor results as a result of slight damage or slight bullet set-backs that are occurring on the way into the chamber. Feeding is a bit tricky due to the slightly lower cut ramps and the lack of lift from the case shoulder.

I ordered cavity back magazines--mostly because they are cut out in the front, allowing bullets to be set significantly further forward than the standard 2.26. Thei mags come with a 6.8 spc follower, though the website says their fine with grendel cartyridges as well. Although I haven;t actually tried them in live fire--I've found that because the gredel cases stack a bit wider in the 6.8 magazine, there is a tendency for the rim of the top cartridge to pop into the recess of the cartridge underneath it. While this is not much of a problem given the force of the BCG stripping it--it still changes the presentation of the cartridge--I've decided not to use them for the 6mm predator for the time being--though I still have a use for them in my 6.8 build.

Using a feed lip tool I bent the feed lip up a bit to get a bit more pitch to the case upon getting stripped from a C products mag. So far dummy round tests show promise.

Here is a batch of 108 ELD match bullets--I'm kinda out on my own since I don't know of anyone trying them yet--though they seem to fit fine--they have a BC of .536.



I'm trying a couple of different things with this batch to see if it makes any difference. I decided to use Lapua brass instead of hornady's for forming--and, not surprisingly, the difference was very noticeable. The neck and shoulder area seem to be better defined--my impression is that the "flow" of the brass under forming is better than that of hornady brass. I can feel the difference as the bullet is seated--it feels like the neck tension stays with the bullet further down the neck. Also the primer pockets are tighter and have a much better grip on the primers than the hornady cases do.

The other really big problem I am having is trying to get some kind of crimp on--all I have is a redding gredel bushing die and hornady seating dies--no way to get a crimp on the 6mm neck. I do have a 6mm PPC factory crimp die on the way but it won't be in for a week or so. After trying (and failing) with several improvised die conglomerations--I came up with a concoction that (amazingly) seems to work--by stacking a couple of bushings in the redding forming die (so the seated bullet can clear) and with the bottom bushing of .266, I could actually add a nice little crimp to the case mouth, and more importantly not distort or collapse the shoulder--which grendel cases are prone to do when using a regular crimp.
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