enfieldspares
Well-Known Member
You can, believe it or not, in fact neck size cases fired in YOUR rifle using your standard full length dies. I'm sure there's a video on You Tube. Essentially 'smoke' or 'soot' the shoulders and neck of a fired case then running it up and down into the press adjust you standard die.
Aiming to scrape all the soot off the neck with the die but leave the shoulder untouched, so still that smoky, sooty, velvety matt black. Or just 'kiss' it so it's left just pressed down smooth but the shoulder itself not pressed back.
Technically this isn't, strictly, a 'neck size' but, more correctly a 'partial full length size'. For in theory a true neck size die will both re-size the neck AND if required press back the shoulder but not touch the base of the cartridge. It is made that way to not touch the base of the case. Whereas a 'partial full length size' with a FL die, as just described, may just, possibly, touch the case around the base area.
So if using that as a precaution you'd lube the case its entire length and see what YOUR die does on YOUR fired cases. On a .303 British, for example it won't usually touch the base of the cartridge. But on, say, a .270 in a 'sloppy' chamber job Parker Hale...some do exist...I had one...it might!
But for all practical purposes the effect is the same as a proper purpose made neck size die.
Personally for hunting I'd full length re-size every time. Neck sizing is for target shooting really where it's OK if the odd risk of a round that might not load as slick as a FL sized round is acceptable.
Last, just to confuse, where I've used the word 'base' it actually..even though it's at the bottom and far away from the case 'shoulder' and case 'neck' I correctly should have called it the case 'head'!
'Cos cartridge cases like some mythical creature from a magical land have their 'heads' near their bottoms and not on top of their 'necks' or 'shoulder'...up where their 'mouth' is. Which is why they can't speak but only go BANG!
Aiming to scrape all the soot off the neck with the die but leave the shoulder untouched, so still that smoky, sooty, velvety matt black. Or just 'kiss' it so it's left just pressed down smooth but the shoulder itself not pressed back.
Technically this isn't, strictly, a 'neck size' but, more correctly a 'partial full length size'. For in theory a true neck size die will both re-size the neck AND if required press back the shoulder but not touch the base of the cartridge. It is made that way to not touch the base of the case. Whereas a 'partial full length size' with a FL die, as just described, may just, possibly, touch the case around the base area.
So if using that as a precaution you'd lube the case its entire length and see what YOUR die does on YOUR fired cases. On a .303 British, for example it won't usually touch the base of the cartridge. But on, say, a .270 in a 'sloppy' chamber job Parker Hale...some do exist...I had one...it might!
But for all practical purposes the effect is the same as a proper purpose made neck size die.
Personally for hunting I'd full length re-size every time. Neck sizing is for target shooting really where it's OK if the odd risk of a round that might not load as slick as a FL sized round is acceptable.
Last, just to confuse, where I've used the word 'base' it actually..even though it's at the bottom and far away from the case 'shoulder' and case 'neck' I correctly should have called it the case 'head'!
'Cos cartridge cases like some mythical creature from a magical land have their 'heads' near their bottoms and not on top of their 'necks' or 'shoulder'...up where their 'mouth' is. Which is why they can't speak but only go BANG!
Last edited:
