Success stories for neck-sizing brass with straight pull bolt action rifles?

[wasa]

What has been other people's experience with neck-sizing brass when reloading for straight pull bolt action rifles? I have an MRA Renegade (223 Wylde) and an MRA Maverick (308 Win) and have mixed success with feeding neck sized reloaded ammo.

Part of my desire to neck size is the effort on my hands - lubing, resizing, trimming, removal of lube is taking a toll and since I collect my brass every trip I'd much prefer just to neck size. I'd say at least 80-90% of the neck sized ammo works fine, but every once and a while a round fails to chamber and trying to get that cartridge out of the chamber is difficult pulling on the single side handle.

Tips? Tricks? Or, is this like with semis, pumps, and levers, it is always best to FLR brass for straight pull bolt-action rifles?

Thanks

 

[ted_dent]

What has been other people's experience with neck-sizing brass when reloading for straight pull bolt action rifles? I have an MRA Renegade (223 Wylde) and an MRA Maverick (308 Win) and have mixed success with feeding neck sized reloaded ammo.

Part of my desire to neck size is the effort on my hands - lubing, resizing, trimming, removal of lube is taking a toll and since I collect my brass every trip I'd much prefer just to neck size. I'd say at least 80-90% of the neck sized ammo works fine, but every once and a while a round fails to chamber and trying to get that cartridge out of the chamber is difficult pulling on the single side handle.

Tips? Tricks? Or, is this like with semis, pumps, and levers, it is always best to FLR brass for straight pull bolt-action rifles?

Thanks

I haven't tried it but since you are having 80-90% success I would ask if you are using brass that is all the same headstamp and (ideally) from the same lot number. Case dimensions will vary marginally from manufacturer to manufacturer and even from lot number to lot number. The tighter the chamber the more of an issue this can become. it's not a big concern with hunting ammo but serious target shooters will try to standardize every component they use including bullet weights, powder lot and weight, primer lot and case brand, weight and lot number as they strive for maximum consistency from round to round.

It doesn't take much of a dimensional variation to make a case more difficult to extract.

 

[tbough]

It may depend on your barrel/chamber but you already are having some issues. For my Renegade with a match barrel I have feeding or extraction problems with anything but a small base die. As you say they are not the easiest rifle to cope with these stuck case problems. I have used a nylon rod hammered against the base of the bolt handle. I haven't broken it off yet but I don't like doing it. Better than driving home with a case or cartridge in the chamber though.

 

[Mystic Precision]

FL size is the answer... these rifles do not have much camming force so any 'fat' case will cause issues... as you have already found out.

As you fire the cases more, getting stuck will happen more and more until they all get stuck.

If you have an overly generous chamber, you may need to use a body die to give the cases the right amount of bump... then finish with a neck sizer to ensure good bullet tension.

These action types need more TLC to make sure chambering is complete.

Jerry