Ruger’s Hawkeye Long Range Target 6.5 PRC Part II

My writing routine is to type a few sentences, then reference “Common Errors in English Usage” just to see how many mortal and/or venial grammatical sins I had committed.The report on that research is typically, “All of them”. The truth of the matter is, my writing stems from the stream of consciousness school of expressed thought… which is a lot like building rat rods rather than hot rods. Rat rodders are hot rodders who can’t paint, do body work or excel at quality fabrication. Anyway, Part II…

Shooting two types of factory ammunition can become somewhat monotonous, especially when there are potentially many options open to handloaders. The 6.5 PRC is intended for long range target and hunting applications, but there is no reason it can’t be used by folks who hunt someplace other than the Arizona desert and with bullet weights other than 143 grains with a little bullet/powder juggling. Now that’s an odd visual.

All bullets of a common caliber may not be useful when handloading all cartridges of a common caliber. It is therefore handy to have a cartridge overall length gauge to check bullet clearances to rifling and to verify there is enough parallel bullet shank surface to seat a bullet without encroaching on the bullet’s ogive and to learn if a bullets cannelure will line up with a case mouth at an optimal cartridge overall length.

There are a number of types of COL gauges, however, one of the most versatile is Hornady’s overall cartridge length gauge. Versatile because inexpensive modified cases are available for most cartridges and where a modified case does not exist, as in the case of very recently released cartridges or wildcat cartridges, they are easy enough to make.

Concentrically is important when drilling out the primer pocket, so I chuck the case in a bench lathe and use a stationary chuck and drill in the tail stock. A 5/16-36 plug tap is used to thread the resulting hole. Usually these taps are matched up with an L drill (0.2900″), but I use a 7.2mm drill (0.2835) which more consistent with the taps minor diameter and holds up better in use with relatively soft brass. The final step is to open up the case neck without expanding the neck OD. I use an adjustable reamer to get a bullet slip fit without wobble and finish it off with a rolled piece of 1000 grit wet and dry paper… left over from when I was trying to master body work. All of these tools are inexpensive. i.e. the tap can be found on Amazon for $8.

Handmade tools are even better when they are put to use…

Dimensions indicated are for the subject rifle and gauging gear and techniques employed. They are noted for reference only. Loaded COL was determined using several considerations: sufficient bullet clearance from leade, sufficient bullet neck engagement, alignment of position of cannelure to case mouth. The nominal minimum seating depth applied was 0.300″, which ignores length of bullet boat tail taper where present and includes only parallel bullet shank surfaces and assures full 0.272″ neck engagement. I know, I know, short, fat case designed to avoid deep seated bullet intrusion.Theoretical benefit for most, probably born out of heavy bullet  factory ammunition considerations. In the data presented here, no powder charge selected was compromised by diminished case capacity associated with excessive bullet seating depth.

This time I remembered to photograph them before I shot them. Makes for a much better illustration than a picture of shot brass and a descriptive caption that eludes to pointed bullets once being part of the assembly. None of the charges were compressed, but then I guess that depends upon your definition of compressed. If the neck of a case is not partially or entirely filled with powder, and the bullet doesn’t require the use of a ramrod to seat, in my book that is not a compressed charged.

A first pass at getting components and load data sorted…