neck resizing question

ALMAR

ALMAR

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I always resize my brass but I just got a new savage 10 and the brass are still within specs after being shot. The fired brass load perfectly and the bolt closes with ease which makes me wonder why I would want to resize at all except maybe for the primer removal.

I'm still pretty new to reloading maybe I'm missing something?
 
if its still within the specs of your caliber you shoudnt worry too much.
were you shooting low power loads? remember to check the lenght, too short can cause accuracy problem.
if it chamber well its good but the bullet seating length difference between two different rifle can affect accuracy.

never try to shoot a load that dont chamber well, on anything other than trail-boss you will blow something up if you are too tight againts the rifling.
 
I am no expert as I have only been reloading a year or two, but I find it a little odd that the bolt will easily close on fired brass w/ no resizing.

Be that as it may, You certainly don't need to FL resize the cases. If you have a neck die, just use it. If not, back your FL die out a little and run your brass through it. It should de-prime for you while sizing only the neck. Start with the die backed out at least a full turn or more and take it from there. Look closely at the neck when you pull the case out and you will see the line where is stopped getting sized, try to adjust the die down to size as much of the neck as you can without contacting the shoulder. As long as you have sized enough of the neck to equal the diameter of the bullet you should be fine for neck tension on the bullet.

I think you will find that most guys will tell you to FL size all the time. That may be good advice to avoid possible sizing issues. However, you can often get away with neck sizing only, especially with this particular brass as it obviously already fits the chamber. Eventually though, the brass will stretch enough that you will have to FL size it in order to get in back to spec size so it will chamber properly.

Be safe. Good luck!
 
The bullet's I plan to use in these are speer BTSP's and cannot be pushed in by hand so there is still a lot of tightness there. When I fire rounds in the m1a, the brass cannot chamber again unless you resize but these...another story. Found it strange too.

The brass length is 2.005-2.008

Some where lapua brass that were loaded rather mildly with 22 gr of sr4759 under a 200gr cast but the brass from Remington core lokt 180's are the same....just found it odd in a good way...I guess.
 
The late Jim Hull of the Sierra bullets testing lab preferred full length resizing and he said the following humorous saying about preferring full length resizing over neck sizing only.

"I get my best accuracy when the case fits the chamber like a rat turd in a violin case"

A full length resized case is supported by the bolt face in the rear and centered by the bullet in the throat. Meaning a full length resized cartridge case does not touch the chamber walls and neck area and this extra wiggle room allows the bullet to self center in the bore.

If a neck sized case is distorted, warped and has excessive runout the bullet will not be in perfect alignment with the bore and your group sized will be larger.

If you do not have a custom made rifle with a tight chamber and perfect brass you are better off full length resizing in off the shelf factory rifles.

Below is Kevin Thomas of Team Lapua USA and he worked under Jim Hull until he took over his job at Sierra bullets.

KTLapua-b_zps8d1abc2c.jpg
 
Well put Ed.

OP, I would never argue with Ed. I have received nothing but good advice from him.

I still say you do not have to FL size, but as I mentioned earlier there are those who believe it more practical! (and apparently at least one of those people has shot and reloaded far more I, and most other shooters!)
 
Just because they have expanded. I understand they just came out of that chamber, but in my experience they don't like to go back in there real easy until they are resized.
 
labrador76 said:
Just because they have expanded. I understand they just came out of that chamber, but in my experience they don't like to go back in there real easy until they are resized.
Click to expand...
You must have a screwed up chamber, they should go back in easy, they can't get bigger than chamber when they fire, never ever had that problem yet with sticky brass that was shot out of the same gun.
 
labrador76 said:
Just because they have expanded. I understand they just came out of that chamber, but in my experience they don't like to go back in there real easy until they are resized.
Click to expand...

I haven't found that to be the case at all. If they don't easily go back into the chamber that they were fired in, I would suspect that the chamber isn't true.
 
Johnny G1 said:
You must have a screwed up chamber, they should go back in easy, they can't get bigger than chamber when they fire, never ever had that problem yet with sticky brass that was shot out of the same gun.
Click to expand...

Like I said, I am no expert. But,

I think the question here is, "how easily does the bolt close?" The OP said is closes with ease. I can also put fired brass back in my rifle w/o sizing at all, but the bolt does not close on it as easily as it does on FL sized brass. I think this is part of the reason why some people believe that neck sized brass produces more accurate rounds, because it "fits" the chamber better.

Following your logic, there would never be any need to FL size the brass, one could simply squeeze the necks and load away. In my experience, if only neck sizing load after load w/ the same brass, eventually the bolt becomes very hard to close and the brass needs to be FL sized to bump the shoulder back and get the case back to factory spec size. Once this is done, the bolt again closes very easily.

In Eds earlier post there is a statement that says something to the effect of, "FL resized brass does not touch the chamber walls", therefore, IMO there is room for it to expand when fired, which makes the fit a lot more snug in the chamber than before it was fired.
 
Over the years I have tried pretty much every kind of reloading die, full length, kneck size, shoulder bump die etc. More often than not I now just set my full length die to just partial size enough to push the shoulder back a few thou. May not work for everyone but for me it makes it easy to chamber all the rounds whether it is one of my bolt guns of the semis.
I usually load toward the top end of the scale with most of my rifles so found that after 3 or 4 times fired and only kneck sizing the cartridges would be too tight for reliable chambering. Found this to be the case with both my 6mm PPC rifles and a .308 as well.
Many people much more experienced than me run almost any rifle you can imagine with bullets touching or jammed into the rifling. I load the PPC rifle with the bullet jammed into the lands and will do the same with my 308 when I start reloading the heavier bullets in it. If you start with a slightly reduced load and work up from there watching for pressure signs there is no danger of blowing up your rifle with the bullet touching the rifling. If you are already at maximum pressure and then decide to jam the bullets into the rifling there may be a problem though, I'm not going to try that to find out!
Rodney
 
ALMAR said:
I always resize my brass but I just got a new savage 10 and the brass are still within specs after being shot. The fired brass load perfectly and the bolt closes with ease which makes me wonder why I would want to resize at all except maybe for the primer removal.

I'm still pretty new to reloading maybe I'm missing something?
Click to expand...

Sounds like you may have a tight neck chamber, or, some thick necked brass. Or both.
I would be concerned if a fired case will hold a bullet without resizing. Are you sure this is happening?.
A bullet should slip back into a fired case neck with no effort, if the chamber/brass specs are proper.
Pressures can rise dramatically if the chamber neck does not allow the bullet to be released with some clearance.

Overlong necks can crimp in against the bullet when chambered as well.
Be carefull with these things.
 
labrador76 said:
Just because they have expanded. I understand they just came out of that chamber, but in my experience they don't like to go back in there real easy until they are resized.
Click to expand...


Wait til you load some very light charges and the shoulder to base distance gets shorter every shot. Not all things are as simple as they seem.
 
Dogleg said:
Wait til you load some very light charges and the shoulder to base distance gets shorter every shot. Not all things are as simple as they seem.
Click to expand...

That would be interesting! Certainly not something I have encountered in my limited experience. Then, I tend to push toward the fastest, most accurate, safe load. I just can't find any interest in going the other way!
 
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