6.5 PRC Dies

[Backcast88]

Picked up a Seekins Havak PH2 in 6.5 PRC last week. I cleaned the barrel, mounted my scope, and sighted it in. Its a shooter with factory 147 ELD-M but I like loading my own ammo so I need to get dies for it. I have always used regular FL sizing dies and non micrometer seating dies for my 270 Win, 270 WSM, and 30-06 from Redding and Hornady. Looking at doing something a little different with this rifle and could use some input from the group.

Options are:
1. Redding Type S Match FL set with SAC bushing
2. Forster Ultra FL Bushing set (using supplied Forster bushings)
3. Forster Benchrest Ultra FL set and have it honed by Forster
4. RCBS Matchmaster FL set with SAC bushing

These are the dies I can get pretty easy and have access locally to replacement parts if necessary and would prefer to go with one of these options if possible.

I've got an expander mandrel already for fine tuning neck tension if needed. I have Lapua brass on order and plan on running that for my hunting and target loads. I also plan on keeping the factory Hornady brass to make some loads to foul up/warm up the barrel. Obviously the bushing dies will accommodate this with ease by running different bushing for different brass thickness. One of my questions with the honed FL die from Forster, the Lapua and Hornady brass will likely have different thickness and I would order it honed for the Lapua brass. Does that make the Hornady brass unusable in the honed die since neck tension will be less? Or should it have enough neck tension for my intended use?

I appreciate any input that is offered.

 

[Harvey_NW]

I've been down the rabbit hole of micrometer stems, bushing dies, mandrels, blah, blah, blah. I pretty much exclusively use Hornady custom grade FL die sets on anything that's not a wildcat, because once I understood the sample size it takes to actually prove a small change in perfecting something in the sizing/seating process, it absolutely wasn't worth it. And I never even saw anything I thought was an actual improvement in all the smaller sample testing I did. I now polish the expander ball down to .0025/3 under bullet diameter for approximately .004" neck tension, make sure I'm getting consistent .002" shoulder bump, and load away.

The only one that makes sense to me is the honed Forster die to not work the necks as bad, but I also think people overexaggerate the effect of a couple extra thousandths of movement of brass, especially if you're annealing. Otherwise, split necks would be more prevalent, but there are a plethora of cases where the primer pockets got toasted before the necks split where the loader used a standard FL die. Depending on how tight you're trying to keep the tolerances, if the Hornady brass is thinner thinner than Lapua then you may not get enough tension to use it, but if it's thicker it will just provide more tension that you could adjust by expanding.

If you decide to go with a bushing die anyway, I suggest sizing down a couple extra thou from what you calculate if you go with a SAC bushing. They are slightly tapered, and IME a bushing .004" under loaded round neck diameter wouldn't hold a bullet from being moved by pressing by hand. There is a thread with other users having the same issues somewhere here, but I don't remember which one. I think the numbers are closer on the other bushing manufacturers, but it has always made more sense to me to undersize it a bit and then expand to desired diameter.