Neck tensioning sequence

[Bigjay73]

I am in the minority, but I have never seen a difference in annealed brass vs no annealed brass as far as accuracy goes. I don't keep brass past 10 firings though, so I don't worry about weakening the brass.

 

[MThuntr]

I am in the minority, but I have never seen a difference in annealed brass vs no annealed brass as far as accuracy goes. I don't keep brass past 10 firings though, so I don't worry about weakening the brass.

I'm of the group that if you don't anneal at the beginning and every firing then it's not worth doing at all. I don't have evidence to back this up but to me doing it once or twice in the life of the brass doesn't seem to do anything for neck tension, brass life, etc. I currently do not anneal but as I switch to higher quality brass I am going to start.

 

[cahunter805]

Is not a bushing die the best way to get consistent neck tension when sizing? Help me understand..

The best way to achieve consistent neck tension is to neck turn the brass with a carbide cutter mandrel that also cuts the inside neck as well to eliminate any donut that might be present. Then size the brass down and set the desired diameter with the correct size mandrel. It’s more consistent due to less spring back and most mandrels are available in .0005.

A bushing die works well also though and is quicker but still benefits from neck turned brass as well.
The reason for neck turning brass is to eliminate inconsistent neck thickness which when you size your brass is transferred to the inside of the case neck and makes uneven pressure on the bullet.

 

[Caseknife]

I've been reloading for about 40 years and have only had neck tension issues with loads for a buddies '06. In all reality no idea how many times the cases had been loaded. Just started annealing last year when I purchased an AnnealEze, fun to anneal all the brass in my inventory. Have never neck turned brass, never felt the need to get that in depth in reloading when with a little load development, I can usually get a rifle to group less than an inch at a hundred yards which is plenty good for any hunting I do. If I screw up a shot, pretty sure that it is me and not the rifle. Pretty much neck size only for specific rifles. I don't worry if the bolt is a little stiff to close, not into dangerous game and most of my shots are less than 100 yards. One of the kind of bad habits that I have developed is to not cycle the bolt with gusto when shooting at an animal, but to catch the spent case and put it in my pocket. Can sometimes lead to a bloody pinky finger when it gets caught by the bolt lug and shears a bit of flesh off

 

[Redmt]

I must be doing it wrong. I decap, tumble pin clean in 2 steps. I do like the idea of sizing dirty brass. Next I size usually with a FL die, trim if necessary for OA case dimensions. I prime in another step then load. I do prefer to use a Lee factory neck die for neck tension in all calibers. At my level of shooting ability and quality of rifles I point and shoot and something falls down. You can't eat a target.

 

[AlaskaHunter]

Is not a bushing die the best way to get consistent neck tension when sizing? Help me understand..

Most bushing dies set a more consistent outside neck diameter, while mandrels set a more consistent inside neck diameter.

 

[Redmt]

Most bushing dies set a more consistent outside neck diameter, while mandrels set a more consistent inside neck diameter.

It may have been an anomaly, but we ordered a neck bushing die from one of the major die makers and it was oval shaped by .002 Customer service wasn't much help. One the other hand, I have had wonky dies from another mfg. I've pretty much centered up on all RCBS dies for everything.

 

[cahunter805]

It may have been an anomaly, but we ordered a neck bushing die from one of the major die makers and it was oval shaped by .002 Customer service wasn't much help. One the other hand, I have had wonky dies from another mfg. I've pretty much centered up on all RCBS dies for everything.

RCBS dies have been the worst for me. One neck die had such bad runout not sure how it made it out of the factory. They did replace it though.
Redding is my go to for most dies these days.

 

[Redmt]

RCBS dies have been the worst for me. One neck die had such bad runout not sure how it made it out of the factory. They did replace it though.
Redding is my go to for most dies these days.

I'm going to bet that no matter what brand there's going to be a couple bad ones in the batch. Quality control across the board needs to improve.

 

[std7mag]

The only issue i've encountered with neck tension is my 284 Win with RCBS dies.
Both the F/L & neck sizing dies turned it into a 270-284.

I happened to notice when i was setting seating depth on a bullet i hadn't loaded for previously. Large bulge where the bullet was resizing the neck.
I popped for a Forester F/L die, which in reality wasn't that badly priced. $48. And took care of the issue, so well worth the money.

I don't turn the outside of the neck, but rather size without the expander, then inside neck ream.

 

[Don Fischer]

I use RCBS full length sizing dies. I’ve never had a neck tension issue with them. I size and deprime at the same time. Seems like a waste of time to do them separately.

Some of the older guy's probably know this. My first RCBS Jr had a slot cut in top at the front where a priming tool went. Size the case bring it down a bit and instaall a primer from the primer feed tube then seat the primer. Wish I still had one of them even though I might not use it that much. Got to the point where I wanted to clean out the pockets before re-priming.

 

[Don Fischer]

Ya know with all the things re-loaders do to make each loaded round as much like every other nobody I have ever heard of could place several bullet's in the same exact hole on purpose!

 

[eoperator]

I rarely - anneal, clean, deburr flash hole, use expander mandrel, never turn necks, adjust powder charge 0.1 grain, adjust seating depth 0.003, change primers or do 21 trick plays while reloading.

I use quality - full length dies(with button), press, SCALE(a&d 120), brass, powder and bullets. If a load doesn't work change powder or bullet. You will know right away if your bullet/powder get along with the personality of your barrel.

Getting repeatable results from traditional load development procedures for me has been inconsistent.

 

[RealMuddyboots]

I let my rifle tell me if I need to change anything. Hunting rifle? Less than MOA? Go hunting. Hunting versus LR hunting versus target all have different load parameters for the most part.

 

[Wind Gypsy]

I have the same K&M neck turning and mandrel setups you're using. I got them back when I thought it was a good idea wasting my time with wildcats and forming brass that needed neck turning. I still find the mandrels useful for setting neck tension but I typically just use a 0.0025" undersized mandrel for every bore size and dont mess with it beyond that. If that doesn't shoot good, it's probably just not going to shoot good consistently. The neck turning gear is useful if you have brass develop donuts at the neck shoulder junction.

Most of my sizing dies are Redding FL Bushing dies that the internet said were the best when I was getting started. Since Ive seen a number of people i trust say they have better results with cheaper dies and other brands and standard FL sizing dies as far as runout is concerned. The only real main negative with most FL sizing dies is they overwork the neck. IMO about the best option out there for the $ is forster FL dies with honed necks to your desired diameter. They are pretty cheap.

IMO just starting with the best brass available does as much good for you as any of this stuff. yeah, you can turn necks so they are consistent but the rest of the case is still going to have inconsistent thickness and the more it stretches from firing, the less straight the case is going to want to be.

 

[WapitiBob]

new brass; Century 21 primer pocket uniformer to set pocket depth
I anneal after every firing on an Amp
Willis die to size the body
Body die to set the shoulder
neck bushings to set the neck dia, .315, then .312, then .310 for .0035 tension
seat primer .002 below flush