Which neck sizer dies to buy?

John_R

Well-Known Member
I am thinking of buying neck dies, as I have only got the RCBS two-die sets at the moment.

Is something like the Redding Series A neck die the right sort of thing? I am currently reloading for .243 and will at some time be doing 7mm-08 as well.

Thanks,

John
 
If its for a factory rifle i would'nt bother,in fact I tried a neck die standard factory rem700 and case got stuck in chamber,F/L sized same case ok

redding or forster do neck bushing dies.
these allow you to adjust the tension with different sized bushings,if you wish.
 
Yes, I have those sets at the moment. I just like making things as well as I can, so if I can improve home loads by neck sizing only, as well as extending brass life then I fancy having a go! I have read about winding the FL dies out a bit so they just bump the shoulders, but I see both good and bad reports about doings things that way.
 
just buy a standard redding neck die. I cant see the point in a bushing neck die. if your shooting a factory rifle. and not neck turning brass. for the simple reason if the brass has different neck thickness then your get different neck tension.

and could do more harm to your grouping then good.
 
John

I would suggest getting the best brass you can, before spending any money on dies. Change only one thing at a time and see what improvements you get from the change. I find it very hard to justify the money I have spent on dies (or anything else) because I don't take the time to only change one thing and see what has really made a difference.

In terms of the full length resize v neck size debate, I only full length resize and I have some 7 times fired Sako brass that is still performing well. The only question I have re this brass is whether or not to anneal it, in order to get the neck tension more consistent.

Good luck. JCS
 
I generally only neck size using a Lee Collet die and it works very well for me - as with everything in life it took some experiments and trails before I got the process working just the way I like it.

I have a Blaser R93 and was told that because there is no rotational cam type action on extraction that you couldn't neck size for them because the world would end, well something like that anyhow. This has turned out to have no foundation in fact so I would be pretty confident you could make it work for any rifle should you wish, and should you be willing to spend a little time getting into the swing of it.
 
John,

If you really MUST neck-size, the Lee Collet type is a good choice. Very quick to use, no lube needed etc. I loaded thousands of very good cartridges using a cheap Lee Hand Press and collet dies in .243 Win, .308 Win, 6.5X55mm and even .300 H&H Mag at one time - last named just fitted the Hand Press! You can do your sizing in an armchair while watching the telly too! I don't think today's collets are nearly as well made as early models though and often have bits of metal in the gaps in the collet tines. They can be a b*gger to disassemble these days too while early models saw the collet section push out with a bit of finger pressure.

It's a myth however that neck-sizing gives more accuracy in a typical (read factory) chamber. In fact, it often gives poorer accuracy because the chamber is neither perfectly concentric nor perfectly aligned with the bore.

So I'd stick with the FL die if I were you. BUT ..... take a lot of care on headspace. Many people push the shoulder too far back using standard dies setting them up in the default mode with the die body in hard contact with the shellholder and press under tension. That may be exactly right for your chamber or you may set the shoulder back too far by several thou' shortening brass life. You can do this by disassembling your bolt and removing the mainspring / striker / cocking piece assembly using the body only (Essential!). Set the FLS die up as normal in the press - remove the decap / expand stem to avoid overworking the case - and then back it out from the default position by say a turn and a half. Lube and size a case and try chambering it in the rifle. It shouldn't go in as the shoulder will be too far forward. Screw the die in a little and try again. Repeat until the case chambers as a crush fit and then keep on going turning the die in by tiny amounts until you just get completely friction free chambering. Lock the ring there and resize a lot of cases ensuring they all chamber freely. The shoulder should now be just a thou' or two shy of the front of the chamber. Sometimes this position is where you started with the die in hard contact, sometimes you can see serious amounts of daylight between the die body and shellholder. You have to disassemble the bolt to be able to feel any resistance caused by a tight case to chamber fit, and the idea is for the bolt handle to virtually drop closed under its own weight. Hold the bolt handle / knob gingerly between thumb and fingertip and don't push down at all as there is a lot of camming power.

You get the same results quicker but more expensively measuring fired cases using callipers and a Hornady L-N-L comparator body and case headspace gauge. Measure several fired case head to shoulder datum point distances and set the die up to produce cases a thou' or two less for target / pest rifles, maybe a little more for larger game rifles that must function reliably in every condition.
 
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Thanks very much to all. I suspect I'll work with what I have for now, but the 7mm-08 is going to be a semi custom so that might be where I experiment further.
 
Laurie
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Agree 100%
 
I knocked this out the other day. I guess it is my take on the LNL headspace gauge. It fits into the LNL OAL body, and the bullet and neck of a loaded .243 round will snugly fit into the hole. The total length of the LNL body plus this adaptor is exactly 1.5" so that makes it easy enough to work out base to shoulder datum distance.

The only question in my mind is if I should make the hole just a bit bigger so I could fit a .243 neck in there before it has been sized.
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John

The .308 Win family measure the length to the shoulder at the 0.400 inch diameter, so drilling/turning a 400 thou hole would be the way to go I think. The exact diameter isn't a big deal as all you are interested in is a consistent set of measurements from your measuring set up. You will take your fired cases, get a set of lengths, bump the shoulders back with the resizing die and get a slightly shorter set of lengths.

Secondly, with a smaller hole, you can measure the lengths of your rounds to the ogive.

Good luck. JCS
 
I already have the OAL insert for the .243 along with the comparator body, so it dawned on me how I might make that adaptor for headspace. I'll size a few cases and see how consistent measurements are. :)
 
Further to the above:

I found something a bit puzzling over the weekend. I started bumping back shoulders on some cases that were fired in my rifle. Prior to sizing I saw that on the headspace comparator there was a bit of variation (about 3 thou) in the shoulder to head length. I decided to bump back enough to get them all down to the same length, and just did five before trimming them and stopping to check they would chamber OK. On the comparator they were all exactly the same so I felt happy they were consistent.

The bolt was stiff to close, so I went back to the rest of the fired (unsized) cases and chambered a few of those, and the bolt closed perfectly. I took a few more and FL sized them with the die in hard contact with the shell holder, and those also chamber perfectly.

Where could the extra resistance be coming from in those that were only partly sized?
 
..Where could the extra resistance be coming from in those that were only partly sized?

On the down stroke the full length resizing die squeezes the case and shortens the length to the shoulder. On the up stroke, the expander ball stretches the case again as it pulls through the neck. As described in Laurie's post above, gradually screw the die down until you achieve the resizing that you want. I aim to move the shoulder back 2-3 thou, but it's easy to get carried away and I was moving the shoulder back ~8 thou (too much) until I noticed what I had done.

An interesting experiment to do is to remove the expander ball assembly and run a case through the die to see what happens length wise.

Best regards JCS
 
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