Neck turning brass

Tam the Gun

Well-Known Member
Hi everyone, I am interested to hear from the SD community with experience of neck turning brass.

What at are the benefits, is it less pressure in chamber, prolonged brass life or better accuracy?.

I am achieving good results from reloads but wonder if there is any benefit in neck turning my brass.
 
I have just ordered a rifle in .284W and have been told that I will have to turn the necks of the necked out 6.5-284 Lapua cases that are the most accurate to use. I am assuming that they won't chamber without being turned down, but I'll find out when I start.
 
As I understand it unless you have a tight neck chamber as many bench rest rifles do you are wasting your time neck turning and may be actually making things worse by increasing the amount the case neck has to expand to fill the chamber mouth.
 
For my probably wrong view, its when the brass is used it slightly "grows" around the neck, and you have can have a thick ridge of brass building up by the shoulders, so you turn them down a tiny amount to keep them uniform. I know someone who does it, but then he weighs and checks the volume of every case he uses, he also checks each bullet is central, and checks the speed of every batch of bullets he makes up.etc etc etc . I lovingly call him anal,,,,,,,,,,,,,he lovingly points out he shoots better than me.
 
ok to put a few thought on this

if you are using bushing type dies its better to neck turn to get the full benfit
also necking up 6.5 to 7 mm neck turning will help eleviate possible donut issues
 
As I understand it unless you have a tight neck chamber as many bench rest rifles do you are wasting your time neck turning and may be actually making things worse by increasing the amount the case neck has to expand to fill the chamber mouth.
This. ~Muir
 
Interesting article and replies, thanks all.

i don't think I will be rushing into it just yet. Sounds like it could be a lot of work for very little gain.
 
Tam,
neck turning can help. The whole theory on accuracy is that everything you use is going to be the same. Neck turning even to take the high spots of the necks allows the bullet to stay central to the bore during obsturation. If you have a high spot, it can essentially be enough to mis-align the bullet when it is entering the lands.

It is a simple process to take off the high spots on the case, it gets a little more labour intensive when you have to turn for a tight neck chamber.

You can borrow my tools if you want but I dont think I have a mandrel for .300.
 
Tam,
neck turning can help. The whole theory on accuracy is that everything you use is going to be the same. Neck turning even to take the high spots of the necks allows the bullet to stay central to the bore during obsturation. If you have a high spot, it can essentially be enough to mis-align the bullet when it is entering the lands.

It is a simple process to take off the high spots on the case, it gets a little more labour intensive when you have to turn for a tight neck chamber.

You can borrow my tools if you want but I dont think I have a mandrel for .300.

very kind offer RandR, thank you.

have you neck turned the brass on your latest project to achieve the bug hole you showed me the other day?.
 
That's probably true if you actually are on a quest for greater accuracy.

I count myself among those who have enough accuracy, but who strive to improve their shooting.
:)
Very true.
If you look at your groups and say this would have measured x" if you omit this flyer or it would have measured y" but I pulled this one, then all the neck turning in the world isn't going to help you. Annealing and crimping will yield better results, also getting SD and ES down in the teens to single digits. Neck turning does have its place if you are shooting a heavy bench gun with a hydraulic trigger removing all human error, which to me is who has the better equipment not who is the better shooter.
 
That's probably true if you actually are on a quest for greater accuracy.
I count myself among those who have enough accuracy, but who strive to improve their shooting.
:)

Very true.
If you look at your groups and say this would have measured x" if you omit this flyer or it would have measured y" but I pulled this one, then all the neck turning in the world isn't going to help you. Annealing and crimping will yield better results, also getting SD and ES down in the teens to single digits. Neck turning does have its place if you are shooting a heavy bench gun with a hydraulic trigger removing all human error, which to me is who has the better equipment not who is the better shooter.


Way to go..!
Full length size to fired case headspace dimension, crimp your carefully seated bullet & anneal each 3-4 firings.
Do your part & watch those groups close up.
 
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Hi everyone, I am interested to hear from the SD community with experience of neck turning brass.

What are the benefits, is it less pressure in chamber, prolonged brass life or better accuracy?.

I am achieving good results from reloads but wonder if there is any benefit in neck turning my brass.


As stated in my original thread above I am already achieving good results. I simply wanted to know if there was any benefit from neck turning.

From the replies and useful articles I don't think I will personally be taking it on as an addition to my reloading ritual of annealing, crimping etc.

Thanks all all for sharing your advice.
 
Reforming brass and wildcatting are totally differnt spheres to the usual reloading and often requires more drastic actions. When a case is shortened by more than the normal trimming ....................... say shortening by a few millimeters the new neck is now formed from what was the case wall and as many case walls are tapered and often thicker at the bottom that the top the new neck is of thicker brass than the original so requires thinning. This was often done by reaming but case neck turning seems to be the new fashion.

I helped in making some cases for the 6.5x53 Rimmed Mannlicher cartridge using 303 cases. It required numerous steps and neck reaming to get the neck thickness right. The forming dies had a neck reaming die. It was interesting but not exactly my idea of normal reloading the cases had to be then loaded with a fire forming load to finish forming them to the chamber before proper reloading could be commenced. I only helped out the once ...................... mind you he did not shoot the rifle that often but it seemed a lot of work really.
 
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