Help me troubleshoot neck tension

[Tikka223]

I just loaded up 20 rounds to do a ladder test and noticed that some bullets seated with a normal amount of effort while others took noticeable more effort. I’m now worried that it could throw off my ladder test results.

Brass: Lapua, it’s been fired maybe 2-3 times and each time resized using a Redding FL die. The brass is also relatively clean as I just put it through the ultra sonic cleaner.
Bullets: 178gr Hornady ELD-X. Usually I shoot Sierra 168gr SMKs with this brass and haven’t noticed any issues with neck tension. My SMK loaf has also been very consistent and accurate. Seating die is a Forsner Bench Rest.

Any suggestions? Could it be an inconsistency with the brass? The bullets? Something wrong with my FL die?

Any idea how much of an impact it may have on my ladder test? I will either shoot it at 200m or 300m or somewhere in between where I can see the bullets holes through my 21x DMRii scope.

 

[FirearmsEnthusiast]

A couple of thoughts:

1. Do you lube the case neck inside before resizing? Could be more friction on the neck on certain brass. Tumbling or ultrasonic cleaning as you mentioned doing reduces the natural lubricating effect of carbon residue inside the neck from previous firing.

2. Do you have the capability to anneal? 2-3 firings isn’t much on Lapua brass but curious if annealing necks would help.

Keep us in the loop!

 

[Tikka223]

I do lube the casings inside and out but maybe I should be more generous with the case lube. I wish I had the gear to anneal but sadly no.

 

[Mystic Precision]

If using an ultrasonic cleaner, good idea to use a graphite neck lube to get things as consistent as possible. Why I don't clean my brass that way.

Outside neck turning with an eye on the neck base and get rid of any brass flow that might create a donut. Then thinning case neck so that elasticity can be retained. This with annealing, and proper neck "lube" lead to the most consistent seating pressures.

Too clean is as bad as too dirty.

Jerry

 

[Carbon12]

I just loaded up 20 rounds to do a ladder test and noticed that some bullets seated with a normal amount of effort while others took noticeable more effort. I’m now worried that it could throw off my ladder test results.

Brass: Lapua, it’s been fired maybe 2-3 times and each time resized using a Redding FL die. The brass is also relatively clean as I just put it through the ultra sonic cleaner.
Bullets: 178gr Hornady ELD-X. Usually I shoot Sierra 168gr SMKs with this brass and haven’t noticed any issues with neck tension. My SMK loaf has also been very consistent and accurate. Seating die is a Forsner Bench Rest.

Any suggestions? Could it be an inconsistency with the brass? The bullets? Something wrong with my FL die?

Any idea how much of an impact it may have on my ladder test? I will either shoot it at 200m or 300m or somewhere in between where I can see the bullets holes through my 21x DMRii scope.

i lubricate the bullet shank with Redding graphite powder before i seat it. It really helps with neck friction/tension consistency. I can see this on my chronograph with low velocity spreads and i can feel it on the press handle when i seat the bullets (a lot less force is necessary). I highly recommend it. It a lot of clean cases the brass has a “sticky” grip on new bullets. The graphite powder eliminates that.

 

[the_tracker]

Try sliding one of your bullets into a fired case. If you can't easily do so, you may have donuts inside the base of the neck which means reaming required. The donut will prevent the bullet from seating uniformly. Ditto on the annealing. I use an Annie induction annealer for every reloaded case, including Lapua.

 

[Tikka223]

Worst case scenario I’ll just load up another 20 rounds with more lube and shoot the test again. Right now I’m just looking for a note to explore. Will be loaded with Varget from 42.6-44.4gr in .2 increments. I have two loaded of each load. Not a huge sample but hopefully it gets me in the right ballpark. With all that burning powder and pressure I’m hoping that a little bit of extra resistance won’t throw the whole test off.

 

[Tikka223]

Try sliding one of your bullets into a fired case. If you can't easily do so, you may have donuts inside the base of the neck which means reaming required. The donut will prevent the bullet from seating uniformly. Ditto on the annealing. I use an Annie induction annealer for every reloaded case, including Lapua.

I will have to try this.

 

[coyoteking]

Is there a specific type of dry graphite required for lubing necks? Will this stuff work?

 

[MartyK2500]

If using an ultrasonic cleaner, good idea to use a graphite neck lube to get things as consistent as possible. Why I don't clean my brass that way.

Outside neck turning with an eye on the neck base and get rid of any brass flow that might create a donut. Then thinning case neck so that elasticity can be retained. This with annealing, and proper neck "lube" lead to the most consistent seating pressures.

Too clean is as bad as too dirty.

Jerry

What Jerry said,
I was having huge issues before he diagnosed my problem via email 2 years ago.
Back at the time i was wet SS tumbling because it was all the rage back then (still is).

Since i got back to dry tumbling as suggested,
All my neck tension/bullet seating pressure issues we’re instantly corrected.
No i do not lube inside of neck, i don’t do it with graphite either.

The mild carbon residue inside not so clean brass necks left there by dry tumbling,
Was more than enough to cure my issues.

 

[Tikka223]

Thanks for the tip on lubricating the case. I loaded another 10 rounds and put the power in the case then lubbed the inside of the neck before seating the bullet. It made a big difference on the amount of perceived force that I was using. I’ll be curious to see if the results show a difference.