Most of you probably don’t know, but THOD bequeathed the.25 Camel to me prior to his departure from this mortal realm.
I had plenty of instructions from THLD - as you would expect.
The .25 Camel is a 6.5x47 reamer - with a .257 bore guide, run into the chamber an extra 1.5mm, he had wanted his own proprietary cartridge for 30 odd years, and the 6.5x47 was the reamer his mate and gunsmith had on hand..
No, nobody ever called Humpy “average” or predictable.
“40gns of ‘08 in those cases I made Dave, thats all you need” was the oft mentioned answer.
“You need to make the cases from .308 brass mate, nothing else is up to the job” was the secondary repertoire when asked “why .308”.
Its probably a good thing that while Camel was alive, I went through the whole 9 yards.
Resizing .308 ADI (civilian) brass through the 6.5x47 body die - set 1.5mm from the shell holder (hey wait- the bottom of the case isnt being resized, back through a .308 body die).
Then its the trimming - holy mother of god…. the trimming on a hand cranked LE Wilson… 2.5mm from EACH MOFOing case. And there was 100 of them.
I could hear smart arsed responses as the blister formed on my hand from that old Pusser - “Pongo’s are all bloody soft, in my day…..” So I just didn’t tell him - and chuckled at my own expense (I actually did tell him later, in our final short coherent phone conversation, he laughed his arse off).
I digress,
Then the cases were annealed, then back through the .25 neck die on his Simplex press.
Simplex presses - a lot like Mark.
Rough around the edges but ready for some good work.
Then ultrasonic cleaned and then tumbled - I am a brass snob and dont deny it - I like shiny brass.
Marks 40gn load of 2208 with a 100gn Sierra HP in Lapua formed brass I chrony’d at 3164 fos average and an honest 1” group.
And 87gn Speer HP at the same 40gn charge averaged at 3257fps and sub 1”.
I procrastinated for a while, sick of trimming etc. and a mate was shooting a 6.5 Creedmore next to me one day at the Darwin Rifle Club…
An expended cart case missed his hand on ejection and rolled beside me. Once I picked it up an epiphany slammed into me.
That long tall streak of pelican shit was a man before his time - I got home and grabbed my digital callipers - that 6.5 manbun case was a poofteenth longer, same case head size and the neck was a bit shorter!!
Once it was sized, shaved and polished - it was good to go - Camel had designed the .25 Needmore!!!
Winchester “Match” brass:
39gn of 2208 gave an average of 3074fps and a 0.42” group. Not sure whats going on with the “shot location” for the app though……
40gn of 2208 gave an average of 3123fps (only 61fps difference) and a 0.51” group.
For shits and giggles I did 2 rounds at 41.1gn of 2208 to see how the cases would handle the pressure. Ok s lil firing pin cratering - obviously over max charge - but holy shit 0.16” for the 2 shots………
RAF productions finest output is that .25 Camel.
I cant wait to have it laying against another “wrong goat” or a deer.
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