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At times I am called a nitpicker and I do demand quality in my reloads. As component prices sky rocketed, I became more concerned with extending the life of my brass.
I decided to start neck sizing my bottle neck rifle brass. First I tried neck sizing dies from RCBS and Lyman. Both over worked the brass, sizing far smaller than necessary and the expander having to expand much more than necessary. Case necks were more prone to early cracking than when the standard sizing dies were used.
Then, I thought the best possible neck sizing system had arrived. The bushing type neck sizing die by Redding. I purchased these dies in 223 Rem., 30-06 and lately 308 Winchester.
My recent preparation of several different brands of 308 Win. brass taught me a new lesson. My goal with neck sizing has been to use the bushing that reduced the case neck to the diameter that provides the desired bullet retention without any actual expanding of the case neck. I use an expander that fits the sized case neck well without expanding it and bell only for my cast bullets. This keeps working of the case necks to the minimum and prolongs the life of the brass.
My lesson learned is related to something we have all known for a long time but I hadn’t figured on the dramatic differences. We know different manufactures brass can vary a little in neck thickness and uniformity. We also know the brass can vary in the amount of hardness. It is those differences that are causing me problems with my neck sizing goal.
I used the same bushing size and sized Winchester, FC, RP and BHA Match 308 brass, twenty rounds of each. The outside diameter of the different case necks varied after sizing due to the differences, more with the softer RP and the very soft FC brass. The real shock came when I used the .307” diameter expander. The hardest, Winchester brass, outside neck diameter increased only .002’ to .003” but the soft FC brass case necks increased outside diameter by .010”. Obviously, the inside diameters were doing the same thing.
The bottom line of this lesson for me is I will have to find the right size neck bushing for every brand or even different lots of brass if I am to size the case necks so I don’t have to expand them back out. I learned the differences in case neck hardness has the greatest adverse affect on consistent neck sizing. That variation is reflected in the amount of spring back resulting from sizing and/or expanding some a lot and some very little. The difference between the Winchester and FC brass is the best and worst example of the problem.
Since I load a lot of 30-06 and now the 308, I have to purchase four or five more neck bushings. It may be possible the savings I am trying to gain by extending case life is going to be chewed up with the cost of more bushings.
Maybe there is more than one lesson to be learned here?
I decided to start neck sizing my bottle neck rifle brass. First I tried neck sizing dies from RCBS and Lyman. Both over worked the brass, sizing far smaller than necessary and the expander having to expand much more than necessary. Case necks were more prone to early cracking than when the standard sizing dies were used.
Then, I thought the best possible neck sizing system had arrived. The bushing type neck sizing die by Redding. I purchased these dies in 223 Rem., 30-06 and lately 308 Winchester.
My recent preparation of several different brands of 308 Win. brass taught me a new lesson. My goal with neck sizing has been to use the bushing that reduced the case neck to the diameter that provides the desired bullet retention without any actual expanding of the case neck. I use an expander that fits the sized case neck well without expanding it and bell only for my cast bullets. This keeps working of the case necks to the minimum and prolongs the life of the brass.
My lesson learned is related to something we have all known for a long time but I hadn’t figured on the dramatic differences. We know different manufactures brass can vary a little in neck thickness and uniformity. We also know the brass can vary in the amount of hardness. It is those differences that are causing me problems with my neck sizing goal.
I used the same bushing size and sized Winchester, FC, RP and BHA Match 308 brass, twenty rounds of each. The outside diameter of the different case necks varied after sizing due to the differences, more with the softer RP and the very soft FC brass. The real shock came when I used the .307” diameter expander. The hardest, Winchester brass, outside neck diameter increased only .002’ to .003” but the soft FC brass case necks increased outside diameter by .010”. Obviously, the inside diameters were doing the same thing.
The bottom line of this lesson for me is I will have to find the right size neck bushing for every brand or even different lots of brass if I am to size the case necks so I don’t have to expand them back out. I learned the differences in case neck hardness has the greatest adverse affect on consistent neck sizing. That variation is reflected in the amount of spring back resulting from sizing and/or expanding some a lot and some very little. The difference between the Winchester and FC brass is the best and worst example of the problem.
Since I load a lot of 30-06 and now the 308, I have to purchase four or five more neck bushings. It may be possible the savings I am trying to gain by extending case life is going to be chewed up with the cost of more bushings.
Maybe there is more than one lesson to be learned here?