Neck tension - opinions

Kelly Timoffee

Kelly Timoffee

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I am doing some reading on neck tension and was wondering what other folks could offer for opinion.

My overall take on what I have been reading is that consistency between rounds is most critical.

OR is there pros and cons to higher neck tension vs lower neck tension.

I am using a collet neck sizer and from what I have been reading and experiencing is that this little guy helps keep things very concentric when sizing necks.

All views are welcome.
 
OP, the collet die will help a great deal, but ONLY if you do each case twice, turning the case 180 degrees between each sizing.

And, yes, neck tension is impt. Since I don't turn the inside or outside of my necks, I don;t like to rely on neck tension alone. That is the reason I use a Lee FCD, that way they are all the same tension.
 
I think consistency is king, however is much easier to be consistent with lesser "interference" Because tension will be less effected by factors such as differing neck thicknesses, springyness (if you will). I personally don't shoot competitively so I don't bother with specalized neck dies or neck turners. I simply aneal them dead soft.
I've never done any fancy measurements on actual holding strength but the tension is enough to be magazine safe. Seating pressure on the press handle is buttery smooth and only a few pounds, you can clearly feel any inconsistencies. I played around with differing mouth chamfers, anealing temperatures and you can feel it in the press handle.

The downsides to light neck tension in my opinion are oal's changing in magazines from recoil, and with low density powder charges, perhaps powder position may affect the bullets jumping from the case at inconsistent burn advancement.

Feel free to scrutinize my logic. I do want to know if I'm off my rocker.
 
My opinion is also consistencey is a more important. As far as neck tension goes if you used bushing dies you would have to experiment and see what works for you. Now there is a great way to justify more money on shooting goodies. SWMBO couldn`t argue with a good science project.:nest:
 
Well, I am using only my Lee collet die after my brass has been formed.

I measured last night , my ID is .279 fairly consistently. However this is with a bullet that is measuring .283 consistently.So, I don't know what you folks think of the .004" interference.The brass is very consistent for thickness at .014" in the necks.

But if everything stays as steady as it is, I am almost feeling to leave well enough alone.

I am not really wanting to turn these necks as it is .308 brass, sized to 7mm-08 and has a little stretching to do yet, still about .010" short.
 
fuzzynuts54 said:
I think consistency is king, however is much easier to be consistent with lesser "interference" Because tension will be less effected by factors such as differing neck thicknesses, springyness (if you will). I personally don't shoot competitively so I don't bother with specalized neck dies or neck turners. I simply aneal them dead soft.
I've never done any fancy measurements on actual holding strength but the tension is enough to be magazine safe. Seating pressure on the press handle is buttery smooth and only a few pounds, you can clearly feel any inconsistencies. I played around with differing mouth chamfers, anealing temperatures and you can feel it in the press handle.

The downsides to light neck tension in my opinion are oal's changing in magazines from recoil, and with low density powder charges, perhaps powder position may affect the bullets jumping from the case at inconsistent burn advancement.

Feel free to scrutinize my logic. I do want to know if I'm off my rocker.
Click to expand...

I'd say that's a pretty good analysis. If I was still shooting competitively, I might get into the last 1/10% of accuracy factors. For most of us, it's simply not necessary. Far more important, especially for a hunting rifle, is reliability, which means that the bullet needs to stay in place despite being fed through a magazine, despite recoil, etc.
 
I had good luck with .002" tension, which often takes a .003 under bushing to get, running with no expander ball. I've had enough trouble getting adequite neck tension with TSX and Banded solid bullets that most of the FL dies that I use for these bullets have .001" turned off the ball for .003 tension. It doesn't seem to hurt anything on standard bullets.

My luck with Lee collet dies is mixed. They make straight ammo with ordinary brass, but neck tension is often very light. Seated into the lands it can be very accurate, but I've never driven home because my rounds were .001" too crooked or missed an animal because the groups were 1/10" too big. I have done it with a bullet stuck in the barrel and an action full of powder.:redface:

In all honesty, after tallying up the thousands of dollars that I have tied up in designer dies, the money would have be far better spent on a few good barrels with a little set aside for quality brass.
 
rookie wildcat said:
OP, the collet die will help a great deal, but ONLY if you do each case twice, turning the case 180 degrees between each sizing.

And, yes, neck tension is impt. Since I don't turn the inside or outside of my necks, I don;t like to rely on neck tension alone. That is the reason I use a Lee FCD, that way they are all the same tension.
Click to expand...

I've heard this too.

In practice, I've found no measureable difference in runout between the two techniques, so I only size them once.

I measured a large sample of each using a Casemaster tool. The 'double-sized' rounds actually averaged slightly more runout but it was a tiny amount.

Why do it twice if it doesn't do a thing?
 
All of my reloading is with Pistol calibre cartridges, but the one I had concerns about was the .45 colt. I load mostly cast .452" cast bullets & after belling the cases, it was possible to push the bullet by hand right down on the powder charge. That was no good! I measured the expander button in the powder through loading die from Lee & found it to be .450"
This in my view doesn't provide good tension or bullet pull, therefor I ordered a new expander button from Lee sized .447

I believe you need crimp for holding a bullet in unisson with case tension. They work together to get best results ballisticly & well as preventing bullet jump/bullet backing into a case from spring pressure from some rifles like Lever actions.

It's an easy fix to reduce expander plugs if needed....
 
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