neck turning

[btlbrn]

Am thinking of taking it up a level, any of you all turning necks? How is it working out for you? What brand of tools are you using?

[Joe O]

I can do no better than to refer you, to the Sinclair reloading book .Practice on old, or otherwise unusable brass.Buy the best adjustable turning equipment,you can.If you are loading for a factory chamber,you only need to clean up the neck,about 90%.For a custom neck size,you want to end up with the loaded round, .002 less than the neck size.For High round count varmint guns,I prfer a no turn neck of .003 larger than my loaded rounds.

[Rick in Oregon]

Joe purty much said it, but consider if you have a factory rifle barrel, you will not see any gains on the target by neck turning. However if you have a custom barrel/chamber with tight neck dimensions, then you'll reap the full benefits of neck turning.

If you decide to go that route regardless, only turn off about 50-60% of material, just to take off the high spots, assuming you're using the expander ball on your sizing die. If you remove too much brass, you won't have enough neck tension to properly hold a bullet in place, then requiring bushing neck dies to sort it out.

I only neck turn for the rifles that actually require it....rifles with custom chambers with tight necks that require turning or they won't chamber....usually wildcats with brass formed from other calibers. But these are also my rifles that shoot bug-hole groups usually under 1/4" .....but it's alot of work to get there.

This is THE book for advanced handloading techniques and practices, and covers outside neck turning in great detail among other accuracy-oriented bench tasks. My friends at Sinclair tell me it will still be a while until the next edition is ready for print, but they're working on it as this is written:



Moral: If you have a factory chamber, best to concentrate on other aspects of precision handloading other than outside neck turning.......JMO

[stef]

I think neck turning in most cases is a waste of time with good standard factory brass fired in a well made standard chamber.

If your rifle is chambered to use brass with reduced neck dimensions for picky (how well can you hold?) or precision bench rest shooting you have no choice. I turn necks when I neck down brass like .308,.30-06 to 6.5-.308, 6.5-06. I quit turning when I am able to just "slip fit" a bullet of that caliber into a fired case. Usually the necks are "cleaned up" at that point, about 15-20% removed and neck walls are uniform. The exact amount to be removed depends on the chamber and brass neck wall thickness. The first time I turned down necks for a .22-.250 from .250 (about 40 years ago, 100 pieces) I got carried away and turned them down so far there was not enough neck tension to hold the bullets. I guess if .20 BR were to be made from 6mm BR neck turning would be needed.

I use a RCBS hand neck turner and turn the brass with the back or crank portion of a Redding case trimmer. I also like to use Lee collet dies to avoid excessively reducing the neck down and then back up with an expander plug because this work hardens the brass causing split necks. Trying to restore brass necks that have been turned down too much will also cause work hardening and split necks as the necks expand when fired.

Annealing brass - this seems to be the next step after neck turning (necks only - torch & heat paste ) usually can be avoided if brass and chamber neck dimensions are about right and work hardening is minimized. This would usually be the case with factory brass fired in a good standard chamber. Lee Precision recommends annealing if their collet dies don't provide enough neck tension.

[btlbrn]

Thanx to all!!!!!! I think this is the "BEST" forum I have found in a very long time great knowledge. And great sharing!!
P.S. Rick, please let us know when Sinclair gets the new book released