6x6.8 help!!

H

HardwickN

New member
Ok so about 5 years ago now I got a 6x6.8 upper from a guy on another forum. I had help loading for it the first time around. Had no issues. Then found the load it liked and loaded a bunch for. Its having feeding issues now and if I just single load for it it has ejection issues. The guy that helped me load for it has loaded a bunch ch of wildcat rounds and has been loading for a long time. How ever after it started having issues I got stationed in Korea for a year and then Germany for 3. Now I'm back I started loading for it with once fired brass from the past. I noticed the shoulder was a little rounded on the old loads so I turned the die in 1/8th turn to bump it back.
Info on the rifle. It 6x6.8 shilen match. Supposedly the guy who chambered it got dies from Hornady.
I'm at a loss.
 
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When you say ejection issues, you mean when fired, or extracting unfired rounds?

Are the dies you're using the same as you were using before?

Feeding issues, same magazine? Did it possibly get dropped and bent? What exactly is it doing?

6x6.8 should feed from a magazine perfectly. I've had issues with Grendel based rounds and needed to bevel the ejector and round the extractor corners.
 
Extractiing unfired rounds.

Same dies as before and I'm going to try a different mag for the feeding issues. I honestly can't remember if it's the same mag or not. Any mag y'all recommend?
 
Usually sticky extraction of unfired rounds is a shoulder bump issue. Take you fired brass, resize and try the empty case. Thread the die down little by little until it chambers and extracts as it should. Once you get to that point try several to make sure. This is made easier with some cartridge headspace measuring tools but you can do just fine by trial and error.
 
Mags I use regular cheap 6.8 ASC stainless mags as do a lot of people and they work well. Are you sure the mag you're using isn't a normal 5.56 mag?
 
Yeah it's a 6.8 mag. I'll try the empty rounds. I tried one before I loaded it and didn't have an issue. I'll try a couple more.
The feed issue is it gets jammed about half way in. The back of the round is up above the bolt face. So it's like instead of seating into the face it skips over it.
I have a picture of what it does to the round. But I don't have a way to upload pictures.
 
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I think 204 AR is on the right track. If unaired rounds are difficult to extract, the bolt is probably under pressure from a case that is slightly longer than the chamber.

Set your sizing die up so you have a cam-over on an empty press, then size a few pieces of brass and try them in your chamber. If the bolt closes with ease and you can extract them with ease, then go ahead and load them and try them in the chamber again.

Keep in mind: if you have reloaded your brass several times, even if you bump your shoulder back to where it needs to be, the fatigued brass will spring-back, and be tight in the chamber.
 
If empty brass chambers fine then it's probably a seating depth issue.

Pictures, upload to IMGUR and then click on the picture and copy/paste the bbcode.
 
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There is another possible problem: if you have your seating die set-up in correctly, you could be hitting the crimp-ring in your seating die and slightly bulging the shoulder. You may not even be able to see it in the brass, but it would make for difficult extraction.

Back your seating die off one full turn and adjust the stem to the desired seating depth. This will ensure that your cases are not coming in contact with the crimp-ring.
 
Yeah it could be those things also, accidently crimping or cases too long. Could also be too thick of necks. If these are the same cases that worked before you can probably cross that one off though.

Any progress?
 
Yup same cases. It's all ssa brass.
But I think Mike hit it. I was crimping e re so slightly. Backed the die off a full turn. The new mag Is helping but I can still see on the brass where is getting swiped by the top of the chamber.
 
I have this problem with some older 6.8 loads I put together. You definitely hit it on the head with the taper crimp bring slightly too aggressive. I switched to a Lee FCD and no issues. If you lay the brass on a table, sometimes you can see the bulge on the shoulder and a sliver of light under the body of the case.

You can pull the ones with the bulge and resize, you can take your firing pin out and slam the BCG home and it will resize, or you can just attempt to fire what you already have loaded and keep an eye on the bolt to make sure it fully seats. If it doesn't, rap on your forward assist until it goes in.
 
I would suggest you resize the cases properly rather than trying to do it with the hammering BCG. You'll eventually get it to fit but they will be inconsistent.

I would also NOT pull that firing pin. It is needed to keep the cam pin in proper orientation. If thee pin rotates in the slot it will jam the bolt and you will have a good time getting it to free up.

Greg

BTW I've never crimped a 6X6.8 case since I got the second one off the lathe when we were developing it.
 
Originally Posted By: GLShooterI would suggest you resize the cases properly rather than trying to do it with the hammering BCG. You'll eventually get it to fit but they will be inconsistent.

I would also NOT pull that firing pin. It is needed to keep the cam pin in proper orientation. If thee pin rotates in the slot it will jam the bolt and you will have a good time getting it to free up.

Greg



amen to that.

the forward assist was put there for "OH *&^#" scenerio's - its not intended to be a resizing die. If you're not fighting for your life, and you need to use the forward assist to chamber a round - thats a sign that you need to stop, reassess the situation, find the issue and correct it properly.

if that means you need to clean your gun, get out the solvent and brushes and do your part. if it means you need to pull some rounds down and resize the brass, head on over to the bench and get to it.

while in this case it may not be a safety issue to bump it in, you never know when it might turn out to be something bad by just forcing that bolt closed and pulling the trigger. generally speaking it can be a bad habit to get into as a big picture thing.

I'm not willing to risk my equipment or personal safety to force a round down the pipe when there are other options available to me.

YMMV.
 
The biggest thing I've seen with letting the BCG do the case forming using the buffer spring is that the cartridge gets jammed in there and A won't fire or B is almost impossible to extract without mortaring the gun if there is no leather mallet handy.. I hate doing that in the middle of an F-Class match with a $2,000 AR. Not only is it a pain for screwing up a shooting rhythm it is disquieting to the shooters laying on the mats to either side. I've done it once at the Senior Olympics that I won but never again. Better an extra 0.001 shoulder set back than being 0.001 over height.

I've used the FA to get some rounds chambered during some of my SORT/SWAT days when we ran my coworkers through annual re-qualification and the guns weren't maintained by the Locksmith AKA:Armorer from the first batch to the last so each rifle had a lot of rounds on it being dirty as pigs when done. We of course trained everyone to whack it when loading from the first time we started teaching them the use of firearms. Way too many bolt riders out there.

Greg
 
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