Gene Beggs
Active member
Well, actually not such a big problem but rather something you should know if you have built a rifle chambered in either of these cartridges. 
Yes, in my never ending effort to make everything perfect and please everyone, I inadvertently introduced a piece of tooling that would someday come back to bite me.
As most of you know, I have taken the Lapua 220 Russian case as it comes from the box and with no changes to the body taper, shoulder angle or internal capacity, created what I call the 220 Beggs and 6mm Beggs. Either can be built as a tight neck benchrest round or a no-turn live varmint/hunting round. Specs for chamber reamers, headspace gauges, sizing dies, etc., were worked out with the Hornady Custom Shop and Pacific Tool and Gauge. Both the 220 and 6mm were headspaced on the standard 220 Russian 'go' gauge. With some minor improvements to chamber specs, all was well. Even with the hottest loads, cases went in and out of the rifle like butter. Velocity and accuracy were equal to that of the 22 and 6ppc using two grains less of popular powders. I thought I had everything perfect! All was perfect until I tried to build a no-turn, .274 neck diameter hunting type rifle. Two issues popped up immediately. One, headspace had to be shortened .010 and two, the Hornady sizing die had to be modified slight by increasing the diameter of the hole that leads into the neck bushing cavity.
The no-turn 6mm Beggs case after firing comes out of the rifle measuring around .273; the hole in the sizing die that leads to the neck bushing cavity is .271 as it comes from the Hornady Custom Shop. Wouldn't you know it? But let me be quick to point out that Hornady did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing! The FL Custom sizing die, available only direct from Beggs works perfectly with 220 and 6mm Beggs chambers up to .269 neck diameters. It's only when you try to make it work with the .274 no-turn 6 mm that you have to enlarge the hole leading into the neck bushing chamber. I hone it out to .276 for my use. Okay, that takes care of that little gremlin now lets talk about the headspace difference necessary with the no-turn .274 neck 6mm.
To my knowledge there have been only two no-turn 6mm Beggs rifles built. One, by the gentleman that brought the headspace issue to my attention and two, the one that I built and was very happy with, I might add. I consulted with Dave Kiff at PT&G and we both agreed that a .010 short 'Beggs go gauge' for use with the no-turn 6mm cartridge should be offered. Damn! What a mistake on my part that was!! Yeah, you guessed it; Those things started showing up everywhere instead of the standard 220 Russian 'go' gauge for which the cartridge was designed. I didn't think that one through very well. When shooters began complaining that they were having trouble with the sizing die, I knew I had a mess to clean up.
So here I sit, with egg on my face. If there is anything about this that I haven't made clear please let me know and I'll do my best to explain it.
Good shootin' to everyone and best of luck in 2018.
Gene Beggs
Yes, in my never ending effort to make everything perfect and please everyone, I inadvertently introduced a piece of tooling that would someday come back to bite me. As most of you know, I have taken the Lapua 220 Russian case as it comes from the box and with no changes to the body taper, shoulder angle or internal capacity, created what I call the 220 Beggs and 6mm Beggs. Either can be built as a tight neck benchrest round or a no-turn live varmint/hunting round. Specs for chamber reamers, headspace gauges, sizing dies, etc., were worked out with the Hornady Custom Shop and Pacific Tool and Gauge. Both the 220 and 6mm were headspaced on the standard 220 Russian 'go' gauge. With some minor improvements to chamber specs, all was well. Even with the hottest loads, cases went in and out of the rifle like butter. Velocity and accuracy were equal to that of the 22 and 6ppc using two grains less of popular powders. I thought I had everything perfect!
All was perfect until I tried to build a no-turn, .274 neck diameter hunting type rifle. Two issues popped up immediately. One, headspace had to be shortened .010 and two, the Hornady sizing die had to be modified slight by increasing the diameter of the hole that leads into the neck bushing cavity.The no-turn 6mm Beggs case after firing comes out of the rifle measuring around .273; the hole in the sizing die that leads to the neck bushing cavity is .271 as it comes from the Hornady Custom Shop.
Wouldn't you know it? But let me be quick to point out that Hornady did nothing wrong, absolutely nothing! The FL Custom sizing die, available only direct from Beggs works perfectly with 220 and 6mm Beggs chambers up to .269 neck diameters. It's only when you try to make it work with the .274 no-turn 6 mm that you have to enlarge the hole leading into the neck bushing chamber. I hone it out to .276 for my use. Okay, that takes care of that little gremlin now lets talk about the headspace difference necessary with the no-turn .274 neck 6mm. To my knowledge there have been only two no-turn 6mm Beggs rifles built. One, by the gentleman that brought the headspace issue to my attention and two, the one that I built and was very happy with, I might add. I consulted with Dave Kiff at PT&G and we both agreed that a .010 short 'Beggs go gauge' for use with the no-turn 6mm cartridge should be offered. Damn! What a mistake on my part that was!!
Yeah, you guessed it; Those things started showing up everywhere instead of the standard 220 Russian 'go' gauge for which the cartridge was designed. I didn't think that one through very well. When shooters began complaining that they were having trouble with the sizing die, I knew I had a mess to clean up. So here I sit, with egg on my face.
If there is anything about this that I haven't made clear please let me know and I'll do my best to explain it. Good shootin' to everyone and best of luck in 2018.
Gene Beggs
