Neck Sizing, Bump Sizing or FL Sizing what's everyone doing?

mareshow

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So I'm trying to decide on what to do with a new rig i'm building in 6.5-284 Norma, After doing some research I think that Neck sizing is the best for brass life and accuracy, but that being said is bump sizing better if I want to use the gun for hunting?

So what is everyone else doing?

Also for Lapua brass prep what is everyone doing? I'm assuming a little bit of outside neck turning? how about primer pocket hole prep and such? Never bought brand new brass from lapua before so just curious. Does everyone FL size the first time?
 
Personally I use Lapua Brass, I always FL size the new brass and neck size only after that until I get a round that is hard to close the bolt on, then I FL size that batch (50) of brass again. Normally I anneal after every 5th use of the brass but other than that I dont neck tune or do anything with the primer holes. I have found that lapua brass is very consistent in this aspect but you will get others that disagree for sure. Unless you are a world class shooter or using different brass I feel neck tunning is not worth it.

Edit: you may get more replies if you post this in the reloading form, lots of knowledge in there
 
Size the fired case as needed for proper chambering and bullet tension... yep, kind of vague but it covers the goals of what we are trying to do.

There is no one answer cause the dies and process needs to adjust to fit the rifle you are loading for. Think fitting a foot to a shoe. You don't just buy any "size 9" shoe and call it done. It has to fit. So you size your fired case as needed for proper function/chambering. Maybe this can be done with a FL sizing die or maybe better using a body die and bumping the shoulder.

Most match shooters are going to lean towards neck and then shoulder bumping cause it gives them more options to cater to the quirks of the chamber.

If you lucky that a FL die and your chamber are a correct fit, fly at it.... but that doesn't always happen.

Yes, outside neck turning is very important as it is one of the steps to controlling neck tension. If you want to use a bushing neck die, this becomes critical. Another positive is reducing the chance of getting donuts in your cases.

YMMV

Jerry
 
Neck turning can be detrimental to brass life. It depends upon chamber clearance. If you have a factory chamber , then neck turning means you will need to stretch and compress the brass more aggressively after neck turning, which is worse.

This also leads into a conversation about the case manufacturer, because a turned Lapua case can be thicker than an un-turned Winchester case.

For neck turning to extend brass life you need to minimize the clearance between the neck and chamber, so to this point... what is your chamber neck diameter? Do you have your own chambering reamer?

Basically you are looking at the ideal chamber neck equal to bullet diameter plus turned brass thickness at the neck times 2 plus about 0.002"

Further to this, you need to give consideration to throat depth. You want to be sure that the throat allows the bullet of choice to be seated far enough out of the case that the shoulder at the boat tail is forward of the shoulder to neck junction on the case. If it is, then you will be clear of any donuts. If you are not familiar with donuts google the dreaded donut.

I double check my loaded round neck diameters to monitor for the development of donuts using a redding sizing bushing that is 0.001" smaller than the chamber neck. If that slides over a loaded round, its good. If it binds, then I need to turn the donut out.

The nice thing about neck turning is that it allows you to more closely control neck tension and as a result of that, control muzzle velocity.... at least isolate one variable.

As for the cases, I've grown impatient in recent years and just give a very light shoulder bump after every firing. I say impatient because the way I used to size was better... When I'm really trying to keep things tight, I start with FL resize and shoot once for practice. That produces a 1x fire formed case which is good for competition with neck resize only.

That creates a 2x fired case which for me is even better for competition... again with neck resize only.

I might get one more firing, depending on how hot the load is, but after that, I go back to an FL resize and the cycle repeats as above.

The nice thing about a tight neck is that you barely resize the neck and that means you cant induce runout between the case neck and body. The more you have to resize the neck, the more you will introduce runout, regardless of the dies you have.

I dial in my neck tension to within 0.0002" but that's because I have some custom made expander mandrels in 0.0002" increments.

Keep in mind that even with a tight neck chamber, resizing and firing does work harden the brass, just more slowly than a loose neck. To compensate for work hardening, you will need to use progressively smaller sizing bushings over time. So keep this in mind when ordering your sizing bushings.

Now in addition to better brass life, a tight neck with turned brass should better align the bullet as it starts into the rifling. This should (at least in theory) translate to an accuracy improvement. I think it does.
 
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When I started trying to reload 'better than factory match-grade' I went to the Redding Comp Match dies w/bushings and so neck sized, bumped when bolt became hard to close and neck turned but now I have gone back to f/l sizing every time. What I've found more important than fiddling with brass is investing in a new more precise scale which is accurate to two decimals ( expensive and, yes, a new subject.................)
 
It depends on what you are using the rifle for and where you are using it. If you ask most benchrest shooters I bet they will neck size only as long as possible. PRS shooters and hunters probably FL size or bump.

A nice tight brass to chamber fit is great until you get dirt or rain in there and then you see people run into chambering issues.

For my use I like to bump the shoulder 2-3 thou every time so I know that every round is going to chamber. In my opinion the accuracy gained through other methods is lost if you can't get a round down range so this seems to be a good compromise for my purposes.
 
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