John,
I was surprised to read that the following on the Accurate Shooter Forum:
At present, unless we determine there to be any issues with this, we are looking at Small rifle Primers, with the 1.5mm/.060" flash hole, the same size we've used in the 308 Palma, 6mm BR, 6,5x47L and 220 Russian cases. There were several of us that pushed for this, so I'm hoping for the best.
Kevin Thomas
Lapua USA
I'm more than a little surprised that Lapua(or the American Contingent at least) wants to, in essence, reengineer this cartridge with a Small Rifle Primer. Frankly it amazes me they would even consider it. Especially given Lapua brass is almost a lock to be the hardest and strongest case of anything on the market. Difficult reading pressure from case head marks especially given relative hardness rates. Rifles chambered and designed around the current Large Rifle Primer 6.5 Creedmoor would likely require bushing the firing pin hole and a supported .0625" BR diameter firing pin... It would also seem to be an open invitation for some "hand loaders" to push the pressure potential on already reasonably stiff maximum pressures of 62,000 psi SAAMI and essentially the same thing CIP at 62,150 into dangerous territory. Greg Tannel at Gre-Tan mentions avoiding the tendency to push one of his bushed firing pin holes and properly supported firing pins past reasonable pressures. Mentioning how easy it is with this modification, for Small Rifle Primers, to lead to 65,-70,000 PSI and failure without the classic pressure signs.
At the same time I cannot help but think of Hornady's design specifically included the AR-10/SR-25 into the design parameters for this cartridge. With that in mind a small rifle primered 6.5 Creedmoor Case looks like a liability nightmare. I may be seeing dragons where none exist, however, I honestly do not see the upside of what would essentially be a bastard case amongst everything else on the market. It could so easily lead to the ASSUMPTION that components were going to perform similarly and wind up with a real problem especially on a chambering/cartridge tailored both for bolt and gas guns...
Thoughts?
Regards, Matt Garrett.
Chesapeake, Virginia.
