Best Time To Neck Turn?

Here is probably one of the best articles I have read on this topic..

http://www.6mmbr.com/jgcaseprep.html

:agree:Yeah I have that same page bookmarked. With all the info on the net I found that one to be the best.

With my factory chamber the necks of fired brass are expanded to much to fit properly over the neck turning mandrel, (to loose). Unless your fired brass fits over the mandrel with no play you will need to resize the brass.

When I FL resize the cases it is often to tight so I drop the expander button all the way down and slip the neck over the button and it is then the correct size to fit on the mandrel. Its an extra step but if you are thinking about neck turning then you are willing for that commitment.

When I use my bushing neck sizing die it is nearly always the right size to go onto the mandrel after resizing. Occasionally I will get one with a thicker neck that needs to go over the button once but thats about 1-3 out of 100.

Seeing that I am loading for a SAAMI spec chamber I only remove about 50% or less material from the neck. I have my turning tool set up to leave 0.012" neck thickness. Most of my factory brass is in this range so most cases have very little material removed, basically just removing the high spots. If I get a case that doesn't get any material removed I check the thickness an toss it if it is below 0.011", though this has only happened to 2 of my 1000 cases.
 
A recent article in Handloader ponders weather a lot of reloading processes, including neck turning are really worth the trouble.
The author really only found primer selection to be of consistent value in his particular tests.
Worth the read for insight anyway, last issue I believe.
 
I found that there is a marginal difference in accuracy by outside neck turning.
The calibers that I consistently o.s.n.t. are 223, 22-250 and 243. Seeing I have the time I neck turn anyway after full length resizing. It has to be done only once in my case.

The 243 is done because I resize 308 brass to 243 and the necks are too thick to fit into my 243's chamber.
 
Unless you need to turn the necks for a custom chamber (tight neck) or are using brass that won't fit for other reasons it would be doubtfull that turning your necks would offer any benifit at all in a factory chambered rifle.
 
If you intend to trim the necks to minimum dimensions, you may have to get a smaller bushing if you use a bushing die or a custom sizing die in order to get sufficient neck tension on the bullet. For most folks it is better to only turn the neck enough to uniform runout.
 
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