I have a couple of boxes of Norma brass made for reloading the 6.5, the letters Re are on the headstamp but I have had problems with these cases, they swell up near the rim and are next to impossible to resize without shaving off some brass, has anyone else had this problem with this caliber or other Norma brass?
Freddy-
This is a common problem with the 6.5 Arisaka. The best explanation is in an article in
Handloader #111 from 1984. For unclear reasons, the Japanese reduced the size of their service cartridge sometime before WWII, but kept chambering their rifles for the original larger size. This did not make much difference to their military, because they did not reload the swelled cases. The size differences were not enough to make the smaller cases unsafe.
Commercial cartridge cases like Norma are based on the smaller cartridge size. When fired in a normal chamber, they will swell, as you have noted. Most current sizing dies will size the swelled case back to the smaller dimensions, which results in a lot of working of the brass.
There are a couple of solutions to the problem. Use your commercial cases and neck size your fired cases, ignoring the swelling at the shoulder and base. You'll have to find a neck sizing die for this. Using partial sizing with a full-length sizer probably won't work, because the swollen base will be slightly resized, pushing forward the shoulder.
My own temporary cure is to use a Lee collet die for the 6.5x55 Swedish mauser. This resizes only the front of the neck, but it's enough to get the rifle firing acceptably, and is safe. Eventually I'll have Lee make a collet die for the 6.5 Arisaka.
An alternative solution, described in the article, is to swage .308 brass to the base size of the original Arisaka case, to fit the chamber so the cases don't swell. This will require a special die set for resizing, as well as a swage.
Best of luck.
--Bob
