Tightening up neck size

[baydog]

Hello. I recently asked the question about what everbody thought about crimping the neck to the bullet even though i am shooting a bolt action and not a semi auto or a lever action. I had a few people tell me they thought i needed to tighten up my neck for bullet seating when i ran the brass through the resizing die. When i set a resizing die i keep lowering the die down and watch the ring it leaves around the neck until i get to the bottom of the neck then thats where i lock the die at. How would i set the die or what would i do to tighten the neck up for a tighter bullet seat?...Thanks

baydog

 

[Hunter2678]

Hello. I recently asked the question about what everbody thought about crimping the neck to the bullet even though i am shooting a bolt action and not a semi auto or a lever action. I had a few people tell me they thought i needed to tighten up my neck for bullet seating when i ran the brass through the resizing die. When i set a resizing die i keep lowering the die down and watch the ring it leaves around the neck until i get to the bottom of the neck then thats where i lock the die at. How would i set the die or what would i do to tighten the neck up for a tighter bullet seat?...Thanks

baydog

Buy a FL bushing die..and the appropriate bushing sizes per your application..its (FL bushing die) main purpose is to control "neck tension" which is what you are asking about if I read it correctly...however you will run into accuracy issues if your neck tension is too tight or too little...it will depend on what your neck measures with a loaded round..whatever that reads the standard agreed upon school of thought is use a bushing die that measures 2 thou less. For instance my 6br loaded neck OD measures .268..therefore I use a .266 neck bushing in my FL bushing die.

The easy way to tell how much neck tension your current die is making is measure a loaded rounds neck OD and then measure the resized die's neck OD...if its less than 2 thou its most likely too little tension. If 2-2.5 then Id leave it alone If its 3 thou or more you've probably got too much neck tension.

 

[baydog]

Buy a FL bushing die..and the appropriate bushing sizes per your application..its (FL bushing die) main purpose is to control "neck tension" which is what you are asking about if I read it correctly...however you will run into accuracy issues if your neck tension is too tight or too little...it will depend on what your neck measures with a loaded round..whatever that reads the standard agreed upon school of thought is use a bushing die that measures 2 thou less. For instance my 6br loaded neck OD measures .268..therefore I use a .266 neck bushing in my FL bushing die.

The easy way to tell how much neck tension your current die is making is measure a loaded rounds neck OD and then measure the resized die's neck OD...if its less than 2 thou its most likely too little tension. If 2-2.5 then Id leave it alone If its 3 thou or more you've probably got too much neck tension.

Thanks Hunter for explaining it so good. I Understand what you're saying and how to measure to see if I fall in that 2 thou or less range.
Thanks again

baydog

 

[Hunter2678]

Np..let us know the results...

 

[okie man]

how hard is it to maintain consistent neck tension? isn't there several variables ? brass hardness, neck wall thickness, bullet diameter from bullet to bullet. what are the procedures to maintaining a consistent neck tension?

 

[baydog]

how hard is it to maintain consistent neck tension? isn't there several variables ? brass hardness, neck wall thickness, bullet diameter from bullet to bullet. what are the procedures to maintaining a consistent neck tension?

okie thats one of the reasons why i asked about crimping... to get a more consistent neck tension which I was hoping for a more consistent pressure build and bullet release

 

[Black Tail Hunter]

If you choose to crimp Lee makes a handy factory crimp die that isnt all that expensive and does a pretty nice job.

If you measure the neck and find you are only slightly over where you want to be you can sometimes get a little better neck tension by polishing the expander ball. Use flitz and a felt pad on a dremel and polish the hell out of it, the reduced friction when you pull the neck down over the ball after sizing will render slightly more neck tension.

 

[milo-2]

If you choose to crimp Lee makes a handy factory crimp die that isnt all that expensive and does a pretty nice job.

If you measure the neck and find you are only slightly over where you want to be you can sometimes get a little better neck tension by polishing the expander ball. Use flitz and a felt pad on a dremel and polish the hell out of it, the reduced friction when you pull the neck down over the ball after sizing will render slightly more neck tension.

I think I'd go the fl bushing route, be more precise in general There's a lot to consistent neck tension, annealing your brass is a good thing.

Polishing the expander ball may work, but if you happen to remove material from it, you could end up with some dilapidated piece of crap that will create runout you may not be able to rebound from.

Sometimes the only option is to spend money, and I'd steer clear of crimping. I've seen a crimp bring a semiauto load in, but there's a lot more constraints with a semi.

Also, I've never heard of setting a die by a line on the case neck, you want to set your die to bump your shoulder just enough to feed in the gun, regardless of any said line. Unless you're actually neck sizing only.

 

[baydog]

Ok I understand neck sizing but I've been seating the bullet as close to the lans as i can get it but have figured out that lighter grain bullets aren't as long as heavier grain bullets when loading for any one particular caliber. So if i take the time and extend the bullet as close to the rifle lans as i can get it with a lighter grain bullet and do the same thing for the same caliber gun but heavier grain bullet then for the lighter grain bullet it isn't going to be seated as deep in the neck as a heavier grain bullet because of length . So isn't a heavier grain bullet going to create more pressure build and release than a lighter grain bullet that isn't set in the neck as far because of trying to set as close to the lans as i can get it....Still trying to figure out which is more important, less bullet jump or bullet depth in the neck for a more consistent pressure build and release..hasn't the bullet got to be set deep enough to create a good consistent pressure build for a good consistent bullet release? Or is setting as close to the lans but not using the complete neck for good pressure build and release more important...Thanks

baydog

 

[blacknzr1]

have a look at the picture in this thread. the whole website is good if you want to do more reading. but it is what I do, which is called seating for concentricity. you don't have to be close to the lands.

Determining COAL