Turning Necks with a Factory Hunting Rifle - Beneficial or Not?

South Pender

South Pender

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By "factory hunting rifle," I mean a complete hunting rifle from a manufacturer, not a rifle fitted with a custom barrel. I've heard it said that, for such rifles, turning necks of your brass is a waste of time. In fact, just recently, when I posted a technical question (on another forum) about one aspect of neck-turning for my .270 Win. rifle, one forum member, rather than addressing the question, questioned why I would bother turning necks with a .270.

So what do you guys think? The argument against neck-turning with factory rifles--particularly those chambered for hunting cartridges--seems to be that, because the chamber is cut oversize, neck-turning accomplishes nothing of value. My argument for neck-turning in such cases is that, by uniforming the thickness of the brass in the neck via turning, you are improving the consistency of neck tension on the bullets from round to round, and even though the rifle may not be capable of benchrest accuracy, you are nonetheless improving the rifle/cartridge inherent accuracy, even if only by a little.

So do any of you guys do this with hunting cartridges?
 
I think for hunting purposes it is a waste of time and money. But if it trigger you go for it won’t hurt but for hunting it is not needed just like shooting 1/2 MOA is not needed for hunting. Or at least for hunting big game anyway!!
 
It depends on the thickness of the brass in the neck.
Where there are great differences in the range of 0.003", getting rid of some of the thickness can help.
Or discard those rounds of brass!
I have outside neck reamed on my brass from 222 Rem., through to 338WM.
The necks are only trimmed to about 2/3rds showing some cut and this gives a 0.001" variation.
 
If you want to improve the consistency of neck tension, use a mandrel. Size the neck slightly undersized, and then expand with a precision ground mandrel for the desired interference fit.
Mandrels are cheap and you don't permanently alter your brass.
 
Alpheus said:
If you want to improve the consistency of neck tension, use a mandrel. Size the neck slightly undersized, and then expand with a precision ground mandrel for the desired interference fit.
Mandrels are cheap and you don't permanently alter your brass.
Click to expand...
I can see that this would ensure consistent inside diameter, but if there is variation in neck thickness--either within a case or between cases--the neck tension will vary. An expander mandrel is usually used before outside turning (with a turning mandrel), but beyond this, I'm not sure how using a mandrel alone will help much.
 
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To answer your question, no, I do not. Have read good discussion by John Barsness - if your neck is significantly out of kilter - then that flaw runs all the way down through your case - fatter on one side than the other. He no longer turns case necks - sorts for that, but does not turn for that. Better idea, in his opinion, to use consistent, even brass in the first place - neck turning does nothing for the rest of the case..
 
I don't hunt -nor do I own a hunting rifle.
I reload for F Class shooting only.

However, if I bought a hunting rifle tomorrow, then I would definitely turn necks (as well as uniform primer pockets, flash hole deburr, weight sort brass, sort projectiles by bearing length... etc etc).
I would do this because there are always benefits to neck turning in every center fired chamber -even if they happen to be marginal which if often the case with a factory chamber.

I would do this only because I currently have the tools and means to do so.

If I was reloader and was not competing in F Class (or any other form of precision shooting), then I probably would not already have my neck turning lathe... and I certainly would not run out and buy one if I was reloading for only a hunting rifle.
 
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Neck turned brass works best in custom tight neck chambers. If you neck turn in a factory rifle the necks will expand more when fired and need to be reduced more when resized. Meaning you end up working the brass more when sizing the necks.

The Redding bushing die FAQ tells you if the neck thickness varies .002 or more then use the expander to set the final inside neck diameter. Also note the more the neck is reduced in diameter with a bushing die the greater the chance the bushing will induce neck runout.

I use the Redding neck thickness gauge below to sort my cases for neck thickness uniformity. One twist of the wrist will tell you the uniformity and quality of the cases.

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Tech Line & Tips (FAQs)
Concentricity Problems
a.k.a Neck Runout With Bottleneck Cases
https://www.redding-reloading.com/tech-line-a-tips-faqs/146-concentricity-problems

We have conducted many tests over the years on the various factors contributing to concentricity problems with bottleneck cases. We have repeatedly found a definite correlation between the uniformity of the brass (or lack of it) and the resulting concentricity of the neck to the body of the case.

An interesting experiment also revealed that neck turning of brass that was intentionally sorted as non-uniform, showed little or no concentricity improvement when used in standard S.A.A.M.I. spec chambers. Conversely brass that was sorted and selected for uniformity remained uniform and concentric with or without a neck turning operation.
 
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South Pender said:
I can see that this would ensure consistent inside diameter, but if there is variation in neck thickness--either within a case or between cases--the neck tension will vary. An expander mandrel is usually used before outside turning (with a turning mandrel), but beyond this, I'm not sure how using a mandrel alone will help much.
Click to expand...

Different neck thicknesses only significantly affect neck tension when you are sizing the neck from the outside.

For example, you only use a .336 bushing with unturned necks for a 308win. If you neck is 0.015" thick, that will give you 2thou tension. If some of your cases are 14thou or 16thou thick, then you have you have between zero and 4thou tension.

With an expander, you under size the neck, so for the previous example, you might use a 0.334" bushing. Now the inside diameter would vary from 0.302" for neck thickness 0.016", to 0.306" for 0.014" neck thickness. Now you run in a 0.306 expander. The thin necks don't expand, and the thick necks expand so the inside diameter is also 0.306. In both cases, your 0.308 bullet has 2thou neck tension.

One of the primary reasons for neck turning for neck tension, is to achieve consistent interference fit between brass and bullet. An expander lets you do this without shaving brass.

Theoretically the different neck thickness would affect the tension, but if you can shoot and see the difference between 15 and 16thou, you shouldn't be down here with us mere mortals.
 
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I had a Forster Hand Outside Turning skimmer thing, but only used it a couple times. I think has a lot to do with the rifle. Recently read about those Houston Warehouse experiments - the main guy had a rifle with .0007" neck clearance for his incredibly carefully prepped brass - stupendously precisely made. He did not re-size his necks after firing - had his brass and neck to fit that precisely to each other. So at that sort of level, I am positive that neck turning makes night and day difference - when you are plunking 10 round groups less than .010" at 100 yards. Or 3" ten round groups at 1,000 yards. Not so sure it has much to do with a rifle that you go and buy at Cabela's, which was OP's question... Salesmen and some gun writers would like us to think it will matter for us - we will do so much better if we buy their gizmo - do not think the results are there, though... Certainly were not showing on my targets, at all...

It has been a few years, but since 1999. Quite sure I was trying to "even out" the necks on Remington brand 338 Win Mag brass, and shooting in my Winchester Model 70 at 100 yard targets - quite sure that was with 250 Sierra Boat Tail Soft Point. Nothing that I could see or measure said that was anything more than busy work...
 
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I neck turn brass for my 300PRC Christensen arms that has a tight neck and also neck turn for some fire formed brass to get rid of the dreaded donut.
 
Potashminer said:
To answer your question, no, I do not. Have read good discussion by John Barsness - if your neck is significantly out of kilter - then that flaw runs all the way down through your case - fatter on one side than the other. He no longer turns case necks - sorts for that, but does not turn for that. Better idea, in his opinion, to use consistent, even brass in the first place - neck turning does nothing for the rest of the case..
Click to expand...

I agree with this theory. Based on very little first hand experience. But it sounds reasonable and Barsness is a smart guy!
 
It's not a question of need, it's want. There is a multitude of hunting commodities which is not needed, however the human being will stock-up. I probably never needed to outside neck-turn or inside neck-ream my 270 Win. brass, but I did. Why? To try something different. Did it make a difference? I don't know. However, my 270 shoots sub 1/2", in the .300 many times. Did I need that accuracy for hunting? Absolutely not. Will I try to improve it's accuracy? Yes. Why? Tinkering on the reloading and shooting bench is fun!
 
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