neck turning vs neck reaming

Mudduck

Mudduck

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Im looking to take the next step in precision reloading and in my research came

Forster and Sinclair both have tools for outside neck turning and inside case reaming.
When would you use the inside reamer instead of the outside turner?
Would you use both and if so in what order and why

I have been looking at a number of neck turners ( Sinclair & Forster) but also

http://www.pmatool.com
http://www.21stcenturyshooting.com/ these guys also have a neat piece of equipment to measure bullet seating pressure
http://www.kmshooting.com/catalog/neck-turner-tools/micro-adjustable-neck-turner_complete_standard-pilot.html

Has anyone used more then one of these that would like to share their comparison experience - pros & cons etc
 
A neck turner will give you the same neck wall thickness resulting in more consistent neck tension. A neck reamer for my use has been used to getting rid of donuts at the case neck/shoulder junction on improved cases that have been necked down to a different calibre.

In terns of order, I would turn, shoot then ream if necessary.

I use the K&M.
 
I use K&M the setup is nice and you could measure off the neck turning unit. I'm quite happy with the unit and there's not that many negatives about K&Ms unit IMO.

P1050695.jpg
 
I have the Forster trimmer/turning unit and it works very well. Very easy as you get some mechanical advantage with the trimmer handle. You can also read on it as well
 
I have used both and still do. If I could afford it I would get neck reamers for all my calibers, I have never had to turn my necks after reaming,
this is not true of turning, getting a nice donut free inside will bring you back to reaming. On reforming cases there is no
choice but to ream otherwise it will play heck at the neck shoulder junction, it is very difficult to stop just at the right
place when outside neck turning in my opinion. My neck ream dies are RCBS and my neck turner is K&M.
bb
 
Inside neck reaming leaves a rougher cut surface on the inside of the neck. Outside turning doesn't affect the inside finish, unless you gall it with poor lube on a steel turning mandrel. K&M carbide mandrels, with the doughnut cutter feature, minimize the chance of galling and cut away any doughnut at the neck shoulder junction. Imperial die sizing wax is a very good lube for turning mandrels.

NormB
 
As I'm not crimping my K&M turned brass, I don't want a super polished smooth inside neck surface. I want some grip on the bullet. I can't speak about reaming, but neck turning has reduced runout for me. I only do it once for the life of the brass.
 
NormB said:
Reamed surfaces are rougher than uncut factory brass surfaces. That's my experience. You must have the only reamer that leaves a surface as smooth as a polished one.

NormB
Click to expand...

I didn't state anywhere that it is a polished surface or that I have a special reamer,
never the less the reamed surface is very nice and not rough. Reamers are used throughout
the industry including rifle chambering and if they cut rough then the operator or the reamer is at fault.
When done properly a sharp reamer will leave a beautiful finished hole.
A polished or lapped hole is not a requirement for hand loading ammo and in my opinion
not required, what is more important is to have a consistent surface and a consistent tension for your
loads/bullets to perform accurately. Cutting the outside of the neck to exactly the neck shoulder junction is
much more difficult with an outside neck turner than inside reaming and you still have
to ream the inside donut anyway, so only part of your inside is reamed, that is more
incinsistent than reaming through and through, that is my experience. If it wasn't for cost I would
own a neck reamer for every caliber I reload.
IMHO
BB
 
bigbull said:
I didn't state anywhere that it is a polished surface or that I have a special reamer,
never the less the reamed surface is very nice and not rough. Reamers are used throughout
the industry including rifle chambering and if they cut rough then the operator or the reamer is at fault.
When done properly a sharp reamer will leave a beautiful finished hole.
A polished or lapped hole is not a requirement for hand loading ammo and in my opinion
not required, what is more important is to have a consistent surface and a consistent tension for your
loads/bullets to perform accurately. Cutting the outside of the neck to exactly the neck shoulder junction is
much more difficult with an outside neck turner than inside reaming and you still have
to ream the inside donut anyway, so only part of your inside is reamed, that is more
incinsistent than reaming through and through, that is my experience. If it wasn't for cost I would
own a neck reamer for every caliber I reload.
IMHO
BB
Click to expand...

Most reamed holes are polished/honed to remove the reamer marks especially when reaming stickier metals like brass. If you take 2 new pieces of cartridge brass and ream one, anyone looking at the 2 surfaces will be able to tell which one was reamed by seeing the roughness on the reamed one compared to the untouched one. Your statement, implied my statement that reamed surfaces in brass necks are rougher was in error. It is not. I didn't say it wasn't usable, just rougher. I didn't say rough, I said rougher.

I prefer not to change the surface texture inside my BR and F-Class cartridges. The turning, over a properly lubed carbide mandrel does this.

Practically all cutters on neck turners are now tapered making it easy to blend the cut to the neck shoulder junction, and with the K&M doughnut cutter any doughnut is removed. You are correct when you say there is a small part of the turned neck, near the shoulder that is reamed with the doughnut cutter, that can clearly be seen because it is rougher. The base of my bullets don't touch there anyway.

The cost as you pointed out to ream your various calibers can get high, so can buying various caliber carbide mandrels.

NormB
 
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NormB said:
Most reamed holes are polished/honed to remove the reamer marks especially when reaming stickier metals like brass. If you take 2 new pieces of cartridge brass and ream one, anyone looking at the 2 surfaces will be able to tell which one was reamed by seeing the roughness on the reamed one compared to the untouched one. Your statement, implied my statement that reamed surfaces in brass necks are rougher was in error. It is not. I didn't say it wasn't usable, just rougher. I didn't say rough, I said rougher.

I prefer not to change the surface texture inside my BR and F-Class cartridges. The turning, over a properly lubed carbide mandrel does this.

Practically all cutters on neck turners are now tapered making it easy to blend the cut to the neck shoulder junction, and with the K&M doughnut cutter any doughnut is removed. You are correct when you say there is a small part of the turned neck, near the shoulder that is reamed with the doughnut cutter, that can clearly be seen because it is rougher. The base of my bullets don't touch there anyway.

The cost as you pointed out to ream your various calibers can get high, so can buying various caliber carbide mandrels.

NormB
Click to expand...

That is a reasonable response, one thing that I don't understand is why would you go through all
the trouble and expense aquieryng tooling to ream the donut if your bullets don't seat that far,
how would removing the donut be of any benefit to you, is it only esthetics?
My bullets do go that far that's why I ream the inside clean through so the donut does not affect my load.
Further more the residual effects upon firing throws the inside finish of the neck out the window, cleaning
the inside of the neck will clean out most marks from the bullet firing, this alway happens since I run a brass
brush in the inside to clean the firing residue.
BTW I also use the K&M cutter, I have for over twenty years.
Sounds Good, it looks like we both like our own methods.
Cheers
BB
 
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