Frank

WW brass re-formed & fire formed fired twice.

53.8 grs of water.

Boats

My new Winchester cases are 57.5 gr of delicious Oregon water

Frank

Bill,
I changed the case capacity of the 257 Roberts in  QL to your 53.8 gr of water and with the sierra 117 BT i get the following,

40.0 gr, H414,  46,300 PSI not CUP
   "        4350,  47,800 "
   "        H4350, 47,500
   "        AA4350, 46,900 
Velocitys ran 2900 to 2947 for all above with a 27.5 long barrel

For the FB 87 gr bullets, the pressures are within the above range using,

40.0 gr
RL15
Varget
4895
AA2520
Velocitys 3185 to 3230

Frank

some years back, before Rem brrought out the 260 Rem as a factory rd I had a custom BLR rebarreled and chambered for the 6.5-.308 wildcat  (AKA 6.5 Redding---same chamber and reamer design Rem adopted for the 260 rem)   I was forming cases out of a mixed bag of  Mil and Civilian cases 308.   I had major case sticking and pressure problems with the mil cases.  I had to do a lot of neck turning to get reliable functioning.  there was a lot of variation in empty fired case weight with the military cases as well. Heavier cases showed more pressure/more sticking/flattened primers.  Thicker walls and less capacity I think.  MUCH more consistency with al of the civilian 308s even form different mfgs.
I was really thankfull when the factory round came up and really stocked up on it.   Still a favorite round and would love to find one of the Miroku lo 'walls chambered for it.

Thanks Frank, Will do and also have the drawings from the CH Reamer CPA used and the CH4D Sizing dies.

DWS To stay consistent have been working out of half a 100 round lot of new Factory WW brass. Only played with 2 of the older cases to see if they were different. Work those in when I get it all down pat. It's easy to take .0015 off just at the web half inch up from the rim, then they fit fine.

Been turning necks 2nd pass took them down .0015. Ending up with .0135 case neck thickness on 20 test cases. Here is a table of neck dims

4D reamer spec.  .2880 mouth 

Cerrosafe cast .287 mouth

CH4D case spec 
taken from several
fired cases in the chamber 
he used to cut the sizing die  .291-288

Boats case spec
taken from fired  .287

Boats new loaded 
Dummy case spec  .284

Boats pre turned 
loaded case spec  .287

Looks like my chamber is a bit tighter than CH4D's sizing die is cut for. Ought to cerrosafe the sizing die to confirm.

Loaded dummy chambers much easier than before. Am going to go ahead and do 20 at that dim. Then load up and test mid week. 

To make sure of everything re-calibrating my Harrell's measure table of charges and re-check my seating depth to make sure bullet is just off the lands

So far have no chronograph, save that for last step. For now will see how the point of impact works up the target from my recorded zero at 100 yards with the 29.5 load.  If all is working properly she ought to be able to at least reach 90 or 95 % of the quick load charge without primer pressure or extraction signs

Boats

Screwloose good advice on the STP however using Franks SAAMI dims found what the Cartridge base issue is.

.200  up from the rim

SAAMI 30/40 Chamber   .4577
WW 30/40 new Brass     .452
WW 30/40 Brass formed .452
Rem-UMC New Brass      .456
R-UMC base turned        .454   

My chamber is tight. Not a problem as long as I get the fits right.  Wildcats are not factory and need special treatment. Only thing is it's not going to be a bench rest or competition rifle. All field use so need a little bit more clearance all around to provide reliable chambering & extraction. One reason for Wildcats is tinkering and it's a easy job to turn .002 off the Rem-UMC cases at the web. Part of the game

Boats

Do you need my Pact crono???