Kneck sizing with a full length sizing die?

tbrwlf

tbrwlf

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I have been reloading for a long time. But I have always full length sized.

Now my 8X58R brass is splitting. And these aren't cheap to replace.

One reason is because it needs to be annealed. I am figuring out how to do that. Any good suggestions would be appreciated.

The second reason is because I am full length sizing because that is the type of die set I have. Can someone put in straight forward terms how I can kneck size with my full length sizing die?

Thanks in advance.
 
When Setting your dies, smoke the neck of a fired case. As you turn the die down, keep checking how far the case is being sized. Once you get most of the way down the neck, see if the brass wil chamber in your rifle. If it does, tighten the adjuster and size them all, if it doesn't, keep lowering the die until it does. You might need to bump the shoulder slightly to get it to chamber. Annealing done correctly, will certainly help your brass last longer.
 
Check the net for annealing, 6BR page or ammosmith. Some good advice there. Ive annealed with a drill mounted socket with success.

Try placing a flat washer on your shell holder then run the die to touch while the ram is in full extension. This is not the best or most accurate method and could induce runout issues, but for hunting ammo it worked fine for me. What you are doing is extending the die outwards by a set amount based on the washer which you hope is flat.

Alternately, just back off your die until the amount of neck you want sized is achieved. This is the less precise method as the die can be mounted minisculy offset. Use a O-ring on the die like the lee set ups to possibly reduce the potential (i have not confirmed this).

Suggest a lee collet die and dont look back if you are looking for more precision. If you cannot find the correct die, another 8mm die with wider body dimensions may work. The genous is that the neck is sized to a mandrel in these dies. Good luck.....
 
"...figuring out how to do that..." Put the cases into a container(something the size and shape of a foil roasting pan will do) of plain tap water up to just below the shoulder. Heat the necks and shoulders with a regular propane torch until the brass changes colour and tip 'em over. Red hot is too hot.
 
I think annealing your necks and shoulders will solve your problem even if you full length resize. When full length resizing, the common approach to setting up the die is to have firm contact with the base of the die against the shell holder. If you ordered a set of competition shell holders, assuming Redding makes one for that shell holder, each one is incrimentally thicker than the one before it, and in this manner you could fine tune your sizing.

Another way is to take a felt marker and colour the neck and shoulder of your brass. Run the brass up on the ram, then thread the die down until you feel contact. Inspect the brass, and adjust the die downward a quarter turn, then run the ram up again. Continue until you can see that about half of the neck length has been resized. If the case will chamber in your rifle without difficulty at this point you're good to go, other wise continue until it does. It can be tricky to find the sweet spot if the shoulder needs to be bumped, but once you're there, you can lock the ring in place.

You might benefit from a Redding Competition Die Set. This uses bushings to size the neck and a seperate body die is included in the set which will allow you to bump the shoulder back.

The way I anneal is to set a propane torch as low as possible and hold the shoulder and neck of the cartridge in the flame while turning the case in my fingers. When I can no longer hold the case in my fingers its done. The results are surprisingly uniform, and the full circumfrence of the case is annealed.
 
After annealing thousands of cases, this is my method.

-Set up a table and stool in a full dark room(I use the cold cellar)
-Chuck a lee, threaded collar, shellholder(the trimmer type one) in your cordless drill/driver.
-Place a bucket of water on the table.
- Apply the bernzomatic propane torch flame to the shoulder/neck of the rotating case.
-The important part ... watch the flame colour behind the neck, when it goes from blue to yellow, it's done. About 5-6 seconds.
-Dip the neck immediately in water, remove case from holder and recharge.

Never let the neck go cherry red = ruined case.

The glow from the torch alone is adaquate illumination to see what you are doing.
 
TERMINATOR101CA said:
The time to your pain threshold will get shorter every time if you're doing a bunch of these without a couple of minutes in between, so they won't anneal properly or consistently.
Click to expand...

The way I do is with wet hands, so my pain threshold remains pretty consistent as are the results, but you don't want to do batches of 100 either. I clean cases with an ultrasonic cleaner, and that's when I anneal, quench the cases, and cool my fingers. There seems to be some disagreement upon the necessity to quench the cases after annealing, but I prefer to do it to ensure that the case heads don't soften. Usually I clean a dozen cases per batch with the ultrasonic, then anneal a dozen cases while the next batch is cleaning.
 
God, Either some guys on this board are tougher than nails, or I'm just huge clutz, probably both. I burned my poor little fingers so many times the first time I tried annealing, there's no way I'd be ballsy enough to hold the things with my fingers. I had a baking pan with water, a torch, and I used a stick to knock over the cases after. At first I used a thick leather glove, until that got burned all the way through, and my finger tip, got a a nice little 22 cal ring on it. I still found ways to burn myself, but of course, that traces back to the probability that I'm a clutz, and the whole propane torch in a dark room thing.
 
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