Neck sizing?

buffybr

Active Member
Joined
Feb 15, 2009
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31
Location
SW Montana
I am not new to reloading. I have been reloading up to a dozen different cartridges, including two wildcats, for about 40 yrs. I have 6 primary hunting rifles that are all bolt action in calibers from .22-250 to .375 RUM. My handloads for all these rifles will shoot MOA or less to 300 yds. Most of my reloading dies are standard (group A) RCBS with also a Horndady and 2 Pacific sets.

I have mostly Full Length resized my cases, but I did make a 0.025" washer to put under the size die to "neck size" the cases. This method does not bump the shoulder, but it does partially size the body of the cases. I have not noticed, or really tested, any difference in accuracy.

My question is: Is this method of backing off the size die and is backing off 0.025" enough to prolong case life?
 
I believe that it would be. I use a very similar method to size my brass. It beats having to own two sets of dies for a cartridge. However you will find that the FL die will still size the case body, but not the shoulder. when using this method. That does help with feeding , but won't effect head spacing.

I also will fully size my cases to bump the shoulder back after 3-4 Fireings to restore propper head spacing and body streatch and avoid case head separation. I also will re-trim the cases back to minimum trim length at this time even if they haven't streched.

I've had some brass that has exceeded 10 firings using this method without need to aneal. Usually the primer pocket has gone out first.

Dan
 
When people partially fl size brass, they will bump the shoulder back just .001" or .002". Your method isn't doing that so I'm confident that you are helping lengthen case life. I noticed with my wsm that when If I push the case into the sizing die within a couple thousandths of touching the shoulder, that the process of squeezing the body back in will often cause the shoulder to bulge forward slightly. If I get close to the shoulder w/o bumping it the case chambers harder than if I had just neck sized it with a neck sizer. I started bumping all my shoulders just ever so slightly now.
 
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