I ordered 400 brass for a customer's rifle. They did in fact send 400. I need just one more piece of brass. That way I can cut the neck, seat the bullet long, measure CBTO, chamber it, measure it.

So off I went making that one piece of brass.

Once fired 6.5 Creedmoor to start with


I took that dirty brass to the bench grinder that wears a cotton buffing wheel and made it purdy.

Trim it way down with a 6.5mm pilot in a manual trimmer.


Anneal the neck and shoulder


K & N neck expanders. .277", .284", .308", .338"


Well dang! I don't have a .338 pilot for my Forester manual trimmer. So I grabbed some 303 stainless bar and made one in the lathe. Faster than waiting 3 or 4 days on an ordered one to arrive.



I left it too long, before I necked it up. Once the pilot was made, I trimmed it about .005" longer than 8.6 BLK brass


Say a prayer, lube up the brass really well, and run it through a FL sizing die. The one I made is on the left.


Vise the brass in the milling machine and cut the neck. Now I've got the tool I needed to move forward.

Good 'ol American ingenuity. If you don't have the right tool, make it. Love it.

On another note, what are your thoughts on the 8.6 BLK round? I could be wrong, but I view it as a novelty that really doesn't have much practical use that another round can't do more or just as effectively.

I haven't shot it yet. I've scoured the internet looking for information.

On Sniper's Hide they are talking about the 1:3 twist not being so good. Some guys have special ordered a 1:6.5 twist.

One poster stated "the supers are almost at 338 Federal velocity". Seems to me, if a guy is wanting supers more than subs, the old 338 Federal would be an easy button. A whole lot more case capacity than the 8.6 BLK.

But, it's supposed to be good at sub sonic ammo. This rifle, I have to figure out both. Because of the crazy aggressive 1:3 twist, you cannot run a cup and core bullet as a super. You've got to run a long, heavy solid copper. So, I've got 285 gr Barnes TSX for the supers.

I'd be interested to hear your thought after you have run it through it's paces.

Will do!

The high cost of bullets that won't spin apart in my suppressor definitely turned me away from 8.6blk. if the slower twist works out then I might reconsider.

Impressive! You’ve got the tools and the skill.

Just finished 1000 rounds of 285 grain fracturing this morning! I don't know why you would use a non-expanding projectile as a subsonic in this round.

Honestly, I’m not sure why anyone would use it at all. Somebody splain please.

Go watch the Q 8.6 Blackout videos from Africa...there is an appeal here to me. It's the subsonic killing...the 300bo sub is no more than a novelty...this thing appears (key word here) legit. If it didn't require a new suppressor, I'd try one just to try one and see if real world matches the hype. I am still sitting in the bleachers intrigued though. I pig hunt around houses and it would be cool to have a super quiet and slow round that doesn't have the tendency to spin off into oblivion (which is typically the opposite of how I normally think for non-urban hunting...I want to Ricky Bobby everything in short compact packages).

Spin into oblivion! We watched a 45 Colt with 360 grain flat noses track 30’ to the left at 300 yards. Velocity was 880 fps. I did eventually walk it into the target with consistency. The same bullet in the same gun in the 454 didn’t have near that much trouble.

Was it a LH twist barrel?

Ruger Super Redhawk Alaskan. Dang 2.5” barrel with mucho H110. Couldn’t tell you the twist but it went left, had to hold right.

This is my second powder selection. I chose a bit slower burn rate, and larger powder kernels for the first go-round. I wasn't happy with the groups on the first powder. Even though it has proven to be an excellent short action powder for every cartridge I've put it in, with a barrel less than 20". I got pretty significantly compressed charges on the first powder, with no danger. But it didn't group to my satisfaction.

Faster burn rate. Fairly full case, but doesn't seem to be compressed. It is the best I've seen.

200 Yards

1625 fps