The biggest problem I found with loading into the leade was if I needed to extract a round, my neck tension often was not enough to keep the bullet in the case and ended up with powder in the action and a bullet that needed to be pushed out.
Frustrating during practice, infuriating during a match!
The rifle was super accurate though.
I ended up backing off another .010 with little accuracy loss , but reliable exctraction.
A happy compromise.
Cat
Then use some discretion and seat a few thou deeper. This isn't a diss. Anyone who has gone down the accuracy road has gone through this.
With the vast majority of "off the shelf" hunting rifles, turning case necks is a waste of time and can lead to other negative issues.
Some people swear by it but it's mostly a "feel good thing" and I've proven it to a lot of people under real time conditions at the range.
That doesn't mean there aren't a few "unicorns" out there, just remember when people go on about a load or a process, it's what's worked for them in their particular rifle and it's a good place to start.
Hunting rifles "should not" have their bullets seated so they are "JAMMED" into the leade. Eventually that will be a recipe for what you describe.
The chambers of most, not all, off the shelf hunting rifles are "generous" to say the least. This is done purposely, within specified parameters because most shooters don't hand load and not all commercial loads are created equal, even from the same manufacturer.
Experienced hand loaders get to know how to set their full length case forming dies so most of the case stays fireformed to match that particular chamber, sizing only the neck, maybe setting back the shoulder a couple of thou and just sizing a very minor portion of the case wall beneath the shoulder. All of this effort is done to ensure the bullet is engaging the leade in a repeatable concentric manner to keep the bullet as close as possible to the "axis of the bore"
You wrote about having so much neck tension that when YOU jam the bullet into the leade, it sticks in place.
I've seen people do the same thing more often than I can count. I've seen it happen on hunting trips, of which early on in my hunting/reloading endeavors even did it myself.
When I first got into competitive shooting, I tried to do all of the same thing with my hunting ammunition as I did to, hopefully, make my match ammunition "consistent as possible from one round to the next, first time, every time" Not all of them are interchangeable.
I even went so far as to polish the FL sizing die "neck" area so it didn't impose more tension than was needed to hold the bullet "snug" when in the magazine during shooting. This effort also included turning a new expander ball which was a few thou larger than the original.
I did all of this so I could seat the bullet out far enough to "JAM" it into the leade and not have the issues with extraction you described. It worked in that rifle, but the whole set up was "PROPRIETARY TO THAT RIFLE"
It almost sounds like your dies are imposing "too much tension" on the bullet. This can also create some serious issues with accuracy and it's why so many people try to alleviate the issue by case neck turning. Save yourself a lot of hassle and just get a slightly larger expander ball or mandrel, whichever you dies use.
