neck sizing question/sizing new brass

nelly250

nelly250

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hey guys, i just tried to neck size a couple .300 wsm brass for the first time with a redding neck die. I am new to this reloading business and up until this point have only full length resized. So I ran a case through the neck sizer die which seems to have really squeezed in the neck (as in made the circumference less). I then full length resized a different case to compare and the neck sized case definately has a tighter neck.

If it makes a difference the die was threaded in untill it just touched the shell plate.

Is this normal? I haven't tried to seat a bullet into a necked case, but i am postive it will be a much tighter fit.

Another question (for those of you who are really patient:) ) I bought some new brass which needs to have the necks uniformed (made round), can I just run the case part of the way until the full length die - so as not work the brass as much? or would the neck sizing die be a better choice?

Cheers, and thanks to all.
 
Does the neck sizer have an expander ball? If it does, have you measured it, and compared it to the full length resizers expander ball. I guess you'll only know if it's a problem when you try to seat the bullets. Don't forget to chamfer the mouths, if the neck tension is too high, you might shave the bullet bases when you seat them.
 
well it has an expander, not really a ball, but same thing. I just compared the two, and thats definately what the problem is - the neck sizer expander is much smaller, it appears to be the same size as my .223 expander. Would it be safe to assume that the full length expander should be the same size as the neck sizer expander? Thanks
 
Granted they are called expander balls, they don't look like a ball. They are a tapered piece that hold the deacpping pin in place. Redding usually sends a pin retainer that does nothing but hold the pin in place, as well as the ball which uniforms the case mouth on the way out from resizing.

You can easily set up your full length dies for neck sizing. If you back out your FL die a bit, Push the ram of your press to its bottom position and place a penny between the shell holder and the backed off die. Turn the die until it makes contact with the penny and then lock it into place. You should only be sizing the upper 2/3 of the case neck if you have the set up correctly. You can set it up to size the whole neck if you adjust the depth of your die. You should visibly be able to see the sized portion of the case neck.

Check to see what the outer diameter is of a full length resized case neck and one of your neck sized case. Then compare that to a fired case. This should give you an indication of how much neck tension there is on the brass from each set of dies.
 
Is your neck die a bushing die? I had the same problem with my redding bushing die for 300WSM cause I had the wrong size bushing. I ordered the bushing to be .002" smaller than the loaded round, but still was too tight. I have a 0.335" bushing now and it seems to work well with Federal and Norma brass. Different makes of brass have different neck wall thicknesses, usually .011 to .013, and without neck turning this could make your neck bushing too small for the make of brass.

Also I find with new brass, when uniforming the lenght on the case trimmer, the trimmer pilot usually helps to round out the crooked brass, but I usually count on fireforming the brass to round the necks out if I am not neck turning. Mysticplayer has a cheap method of doing this with a bit of powder and cream of wheat to avoid wasting bullets for fireforming.

After 5 or more firings you may find that the necks become too loose to hold bullets, this is because the brass becomes hardenned and needs to be annealed. I find this is more of a problem with my 300WSM than any of my other calibers. Annealing WSM brass every 2-3 firings is a good idea to maintain uniform neck tension. I just read about a guy who anneals brass every firing and is on his 59th loading for a batch of brass.
 
I am assuming that you do have a bushing die from your second question. There really isn't an expander ball on a bushing die decapping rod. The decapping rod has a small knurled end (ball) that is just used to hold the decapping pin, it is not used to "push" the neck against the sizing walls as on a FL sizing die.

One benefit of the bushing die is to not over work the brass. This is why you don't require case lube with a bushing die. Another benefit is that you generally have better brass runout when not working the neck with an expander ball. The only downside of just neck sizing is that after many firings, the brass gets hard to chamber. That's why its a good idea to bump the shoulder back regularly, and or regularly anneal the brass.
 
turns out the die came with wrong the expander ball. I emailed redding and they got back to me impressively quick + they're sending me the correct expander.

Problem solved -thanks again to everyone for clearing that up for me.

Diesel Weasel - I don't have the bushing die, but your description of the bushing die decapping rod sounds like what my NK die came with - must have gotten mixed up somewhere. Also, interesting info about annealing 300wsm - I was hoping I wouldn't have to mess with annealing, but I'll certainly pay more attention to it now and may end up giving it a shot. Cheers
 
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