DanDeMan wrote:KB,

The Hornady 204 brass is excellent, what I'm using. Winchester's 204 brass is cheaper at $26/100. Using that brass for the CPT loads should be just fine, but for rams, given the higher pressure load, I'd go with the Hornady brass. The ram loads for the 6-04, 6.5-04 and 7-04 will all have about 55,000 PSI of pressure. The tougher Hornady brass should last while the Winchester might suffer from loose primer pockets after a few firings. That happened with my original 6.5-TCU, so Lapua brass was used for the ram loads, Winchester for CPT loads. Norma is excellent, but more expensive at $62/100.

The 6-04 will not have an advantage over the 6.5-04 with respect to wind deflection. But, the 6.5-04 will perform much better on rams with the 123 SST bullet for only a small increase in recoil.

For a 6-04, HP Hunter rig weighing 8.5 lbs, the recoil would be about 7.2 ft-lbs when launching the 107-gr SMK to 2,800 fps.

Bob Mc Alice wrote: (dec. 2012) That was some good reading, Dan. I had no idea you were/are that into cartridge design and experimenting. Keep us informed on progress with the 7-04 rifle. I am looking forward to reading a full blown, in depth shots fired report. I would expect no less from you.