Hunting with neck sized cartridges

[kodiak1]

Neck Size Only.
Ken.

 

[GameBuster]

For you fellas that partial size your hunting brass, how do you set your dies to do this...

Also, do you find 'em more accurate than full length sized brass and less accurate than neck sized brass?

Seems like a great medium..I've never thought to do this..

 

[gitrdun]

So far, I've full lenght sized all my calibers (.375, .338. .270) when these shoot at or under 1 moa, I don't see the need to mess around and possibly cause some chambering issues with a hunting rifle. I am curious about this "partial" sizing business too though, may give that a try.

 

[Gatehouse]

For you fellas that partial size your hunting brass, how do you set your dies to do this...

You cut and try...Adjust your die so it is backed off the shellholder, resize a piece of brass. Check for chambering in your rifle. Keep turing the die down until it chmabers fairly easily.

The case body is slightly sized, and the neck is sized part way- enough to hold the bullet firmly, but not the entire length of the neck.

This should give your brass a good, aligned fit wiht your chamber.

Also, do you find 'em more accurate than full length sized brass and less accurate than neck sized brass?

Just as -if not more accurate as neck sized.

 

[ipscgraz]

If you are shooting a lever gun you won't have the same mechanical advantage as a bolt action...if you are going to hunt, I would treat it just like a match and drop each and every round into the chamber; anything that doesn't fall in freely with gravity has to go.

 

[horshur]

I always check my rounds to make sure they chamber and I usually set up my FL die so the cartridge is only sized enough to chamber slightly snug. The reason I ask is I bought the Redding Deluxe Die set and it comes with a Neck sizer die in the set, just wondering if its going to be useful or just a paperweight!!

Full length here. Those Enfield were not large chambered just because the machinery was old--designed that way--even a dirty chamber would cycle and fire.

 

[Pepperpopper]

I never neck size only hunting ammo. I like to neck size when I can because I can do it without lubricating the case. It also gives me peak accuracy so I can figure out what loads are working best and see how the gun shoots when all ammo variables are neutralised.

I do neck size varmint loads, and based on that I would say that if you shoot loads that aren't crazy hot, and use for hunting only those cases that have been fire formed just once and then neck sized, you probably won't have a problem. I always seat a fraction back from the rifling, however, depending on the shape of particular bullets, their weight, and the quality of chamber cut in the gun that can sometimes be too loose also.

"My ammo generally shoots a bit better than MOA, and while confidence building, this is far more accuracy than I can manage from field positions other than prone"

Right, but the inaccuraccy is cumulative. If you can only hold 1 MOA in prone, say, and your rifle is 1 MOA, then you will be shooting 2 MOA on targets. That's 5 inches at 250 yards before factoring any other possible source of inaccuraccy, of which there are many. If your ammo was capable of .5 MOA, then your groups would shrink to 3.75" for no reason other than a better load. Often gun writers use the phrase "but that is more accurate than I can shoot", seeming to imply that if the gun shoots 1" groups and the shooter holds 3 MOA, then the overall effect will be 3" groups on target. Not true, inaccuracy always costs. I'm sure you know this, just nailed one of my buttons (good shooting! ).

I do think a lot of these tricks were not intended for the hunting fields, they normally work best with target cut chambers which one rarely finds in factory rifles, let alone Lee Enfields. But it is the kind of thing where one can do the experiment and see what happens.

 

[walksalot]

For the most part neck sizing can only be done with brass fired from the rifle it came from. The brass is fire formed to that particular chamber and would be the exception to the rule if it could be chambered into another rifle of the same caliber.
Having said that, if the hunter is not concerned about the cartridge not fitting another rifle it simply makes sense to neck size only. The brass has much longer life as you are not working it as much. If the fired brass fits easily into the chamber then why is a person resizing it, it doesn't make sense to me.

 

[Brambles]

If the fired brass fits easily into the chamber then why is a person resizing it, it doesn't make sense to me.

If its neck sized then the tolerances are tighter between the cartridge and the chamber walls, if your hunting and get dust or debris on a bullet or in the chamber some how then your bullets won't chamber.

It actually happened to me with Factories, I unloaded my rifle to go down a cliff while Goat hunting last year and I ended up sliding about 50 feet down the mountain, we walked down the mountain a little more and then we got to the areas where the grizz like to hang out, So I went to chamber a round and it wouldn't go in, I must have got something in my chamber and I had no way to get it out, with neck sized only brass you enhance the odds of this happening.

 

[catnthehatt]

Who here hunts with Reloaded ammo that was only neck sized, have you ever had a problem with chambering these in the field?

Do you feel that a case that is properly full length sized will really provide better chambering in the field compared to a Neck sized only. Is the theory to provide better chambering from the mag when the bullet might not be running exactly in line with the bore to start.

Just wondering what your experiances are?

I necksize whenever possible with all my ammo.
Never a problem if it is set up for the rifle properly.
Cat

 

[shotgunjoe]

Neck size my .260 hunting loads,never a problem.

 

[Gatehouse]

I kil lstuff with fFL or PL sized cases...........

 

[beretta boy]

Neck size for a 25-06 bolt, partial full-length for a 35 Whelen pump and full-length for a 45-70 single shot, with a light crimp.

All chamber & extract reliably - every time, bench or field.

 

[BCWILL]

I usually Full Length resize ALL my hunting ammo...and build up my loads to suit this.
The slight accuracy gains vs neck sizing only isn't enough for me to run the risk of a "tight" or stuck case when in the field....just my preference.

However like suggested "TEST" feed ALL your hunting ammo before going out...only takes a minute but will sure save alot of regrets