neck vs full lenght resizing die

[finnbear270]

Wow. I missed the part about it being for a Blaser rifle. You may even need small-based dies for a straight pull.~Muir Glad to see I haven't cornered the market in missing bits! Steve.

 

[Offroad Gary]

Full length size everything now – shot a 1” group at 300 yards the other day with the crappy old blaser .308 (many times fired mixed brass, trimmed to length, powder weighed .1 gn either side of desired weight 48.9 – 49.1 gns, 8x56 scope, gun never cleaned) – I hate that gun so much I bought another in .243!

I’ve found neck sizing ok for 1 or 2, but then they get hard to chamber, and sometimes you can get misfires if the bolt isn’t pushed all the way forward.

So its agreed then – full size for a blaser!

 

[KevinF]

Neck sizing

Lee collett die for me for the last six years. Upwards of 300 rounds a year, new cases full-lengthed first time, then necked six-seven times, then thrown. But it is a crappy Remington twist and pull action...

KevinF.

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

so partial resizing sounds like the best of both worlds, any good sorces of advice on how to do it?

 

[KevinF]

so partial resizing sounds like the best of both worlds, any good sorces of advice on how to do it?

Nick -

Why would you want to do anything but neck size for a conventional turnbolt (ie: non-Blazer) rifle? Unless the rounds are going to be used in more than one weapon - in which case you'd not get the accuracy benefit of setting OAL to the optimum dimension - neck sizing stresses the cases less, doesn't require lube (calm down Offroad Gary!) and, I am told, can result in better consistency too.

Rgds.

KevinF.

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

well because i don't have a neck resizing die for a start
what has neck sizing got to do about OAL i don't understand? i thought that was the total bullet length?
i am a real newbie to all this

 

[finnbear270]

Nick, It sounds like you need a little more reading of the manual. Steve.

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

Nick, It sounds like you need a little more reading of the manual. Steve.

I still don't get it, why can't you set OAL if you fully resize your cases. it seems to me that all it is adjusting the bullet sizing depth.

Have reread the relative parts (which albeit are brief) of the manual, what is it I am not getting?

It also mentions partial resizing and suggests it is a good idea.

 

[enfieldspares]

Partial resizing sounds like the best of both worlds, any good sorces of advice on how to do it?

Buy a wax candle! Then use it to put soot on the shoulders of your fired and already treated with re-sizing lubricant case.

Back off your sizing die maybe three or four turns. So that it does not contact the case shoulder. Run the case up into it and leave it there and then turn the sizing die down by screwing it down with your hand until it touches the shoulder.

You should be able to feel this.

You can see this if the soot is still "matt" or if it appears as if it has been touched or pressed down by the shoulder in the sizing die.

Bring sizing die down a quarter turn, run the case up into it, lower it down and re-inspect.

Carry on doing this until the soot is shown to have been well pressed down by the shoulder in your sizing die. It will no longer be "matt" in appearance.

Well because i don't have a neck resizing die for a start

You don't need one. See below:

IF YOU STOP HERE THEN YOU ARE NOW NECK RE-SIZING ONLY USING YOUR FULL LENGTH SIZING DIES. IF YOU WANT TO GO A LITTLE FURTHER AND PARTIALLY RE-SIZE CARRY ON AS BELOW.

Now turn the sizing die down another quarter turn or half turn or more if you wish according to how much you want to partially re-size and the job is done.

Lastly take another of your fired cases and put soot on the shoulders and run it through the die as now set as a check. Then compare this when it comes out side by side with a third fired and unsized case. This will show you by how much you have now partially re-sized the case.

You do this check with this second case as sometimes this "up and down and adjust" with the first case will not give you a true indication of by how much you have partially resized. Why? Because the first is being re-sized "step by step" whereas the second (like all subsequent cases) in one single increment.

Hope this helps? We used to do it a lot with the 303 cartridge as elsewise case life was greatly reduced if performing a total full length re-size.

Personally I agree with those that ALWAYS full length re-size. Modern cases are cheap in common calibres and replaceable at a cost in more expensive calibres.

I see no need to compromise 100% feeding reliability on a stalk that has maybe cost £100 plus petrol etc., for the sake getting a fifth reload out of a 50p cartridge case!

Lastly always try and use trhe same make of dies with the same make of shellholder. That is RCBS dies with an RCBS shellholder.

Why? Because most are set as a "pair" if you like. Made so that if you screw RCBS dies down to contact the top of a correct RCBS shellholder for that calibre (with no case in it) the case, when you do put it in, will be full length re-sized to correct USA factory dimensions.

The only exception being tungsten carbide dies and straight wall cases where you use a 1p coin to actually set a small twenty-five thousandths of an inch gap.

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

Thanks ES, great answer
I think you are right the dies I am using are Redding and the shell holder is RCBS. I need another Shell holder for my hand priming tool so I will rectify this tomorrow.
Cheers
Nick

 

[finnbear270]

In full agreement of full length sizing of hunting rounds!, plus if your bud is on the same cal, he's got backup he can use, & contrary to some peoples thoughts on here, I ALWAYS test chamber all rounds intended for live quarry, you really cannot imagine the colour of the air if you get trouble out in the field!.............. It goes without saying that said testing is always done in a safe environment.

 

[Brithunter]

Years back when I shot Practical Pistol that was known as :-

Sexing the ammo

Every one was run through the chamber to make sure it chambered with no hang ups. I got very adept at removing the firing pin from my Tang Ultra

 

[KevinF]

what has neck sizing got to do about OAL i don't understand? i thought that was the total bullet length?

Nick -

It has nothing to do with it. My point is that the only reason to full-length resize (other than not owning a neck sizing die!) is to make the rounds fit any rifle of that calibre. OAL is optimally set for each weapon, so if you load for two or more rifles of the same calibre, you are unlikely to be able to find an OAL that works optimally in all.

The candle method of partial resizing may or may not work - but, lube, candle smoke, twiddling, more candle smoke...

Ehhh, life's too short.

Buy a neck sizing die. Load. Go shooting.




KevinF.

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

what has neck sizing got to do about OAL i don't understand? i thought that was the total bullet length?

Buy a neck sizing die. Load. Go shooting.

Now that I do understand

 

[bogtrotter]

If you are using the brass in the rifle it was fired from then it should only need to be neck sized
remember to run it through the die twice, run it through give it a quarter turn then run it through again
Dont use any brass fired from another rifle.

If you want to use brass fired from another rifle then full length size and lube every case
if you don't you will end up with a case stuck in the die.

I also full length any new brass.

As someone said it a good idea run all your loaded ammo through the rifle to make sure
that it chambers ok without any tightness, sometimes you wil get one thats a little
tight with experience you will get to know whats to tight and what will be ok.

 

[caorach]

I fired my first 6 successfully neck sized rounds in my Blaser yesterday with no problems at all in terms of chambering or extraction.

They were neck sized using the Lee collet die and so far this has been a success. I would certainly say that it is worth getting one and giving it a try and they are relatively inexpensive. I'm sure a lot of the usual reloading suppliers would post you one for around £20.

 

[Nicholas Fahey]

I'm sure a lot of the usual reloading suppliers would post you one for around £20.

I have one on the way (along with a few other goodies). Now all I need to remember is to save my brass during the heat of the action! Was out yesterday and didn't think about keeping my brass until it was too late.

 

[smullery]

Interesting comparison on Chuck Hawks.

http://www.chuckhawks.com/neck_vs_full_resizing.htm

Stan

 

[Mauser66]

Great article Stan. That's really interesting. So my neck sizing and flash-hole deburring efforts weren't a waste of time after all. I started flash-hole deburring a few years ago when testing .270s. I was trying to get the powder to burn as efficiently as possible and found that a combination of magnum primers and flash-hole deburring helped powder burn and also as a side effect improved groups...and by a long way. Being too busy I just hadn't bothered with it before, but it's easy to do and only needs doing once.

 

[caorach]

I must confess that a major driver for me when it comes to neck sizing is that there is no requirement to lubricate the cases and, even worse in my view, to then spend time getting the lube off again. The load I'm currently using is at least as accurate, and probably much better, than I can shoot. However, it helps confidence to have a load that goes well for you. However, as detailed in another thread it is a fairly low velocity load and now I'm working up to full book max loads so it will be interesting to see how they work when neck sized.