neck turning or neck truing

[Tac]

anyone out there turning or truing the necks of cartridges?

looking for experiences

[lancetkenyon]

I have thought about it numerous times. But never taken the plunge yet. The few cartridges that I have that would require it (6.5 SLR and maybe .25-06AI) if I went with a different brand of brass (like Lapua/Nosler/Norma/Hornady) due to shoulder/neck thickness differences, I just use Remington brass which has the same neck/shoulder thickness.

 

You would think as much as I tinker, I would do this already. But then you almost need a bushing die set where you can adjust the neck tension .002" to take full advantage of truing or turning the necks. The good brass I use (Lapua/Nosler/Norma) has always had very consistent neck thickness, which I actually do check, usually .0150" thickness. Even the Remington/Winchester cheap stuff is almost always the same, with MAYBE .0003" difference that I can measure if at all. Maybe if you use some of the off brand stuff like Starline or such it might be beneficial.

 

If I was shooting F class or Benchrest comps, I might go ahead and add this step. It surely can't HURT accuracy if you do it correctly. And you will more than likely only be taking off .0001-.0002" from a few high spots. And you only need to do it once at the beginning until you replace your brass.

[WampusCat]

I do turn necks where required on a wildcat or two during the case forming process. For my normal loading regimen I will turn necks that have obvious differences in neck thickness.

 

This happens during the initial case sorting routine. I ball mic the neck wall thickness as I weight sort. When I find the thickness of the vast majority I will adjust the cutter to barely kiss these necks. The thicker necks get ran through to even them up with the majority and the thinner ones are relegated to sighter duty. In most cases it is barely removing anything and just cleans up the inconsistencies.

 

This process is not difficult and needs to be done only once. It is just another part of initial case prep for me. When combined with annealing and bushing dies, I have absolute control of neck tension. Just another variable (excuse) to eliminate and not wonder about later.

 

Should add I only do this for long range stuff. .223 and similar I cant load fast enough.

[firstcoueswas80]

I had the necks turned on my 7 lrm brass, mostly because the Hornady stuff was garbage and was too thick, causing me to crush bullets whole seating.

[Mike S]

I have turned necks for a custom chamber where I wanted additional clearance to give a clean bullet release, but otherwise wouldn't worry about it in a hunting rifle with an appropriately sized chamber neck for the brass I was using.

[roninflag]

sierra bullets says to do it only if you have a tight neck chamber. they have a lot of experience. I have turned for 6ppc. for my 6mmbr I had it chambered with a a noturn neck. it shoots lights out. what rifle, barrel , cartridge?

[Tac]

6.5 creedmoor, 338 lapua mag, are the calibers just wanting to get all the accuracy I can. Both are shooting 1/2 moa at 200-600 just thinking beyond that? Or is there a benefit to this? My case expansion is .0015 on the creedmoor so that seems good and .002 on .338 just trying to gain all I can i guess.

[roninflag]

those sound like hunting calibers. in hunting rifles. I would not do it. I use lapua brass in all the calibers I can. need higher skill than I have to improve it. I had to turn the 6ppc it had a tight neck chamber and was made for target shooting.

[roninflag]

cartridges but not the rifle/barrels. if has a nesika or bat action or equivalent action, and a Krieger barrel with a tractor axel contour, and a macmillian stock with a 2 ounce trigger , and a tight neck chamber by a skilled gunsmith you would want to neck turn.

[Red Rabbit]

You might measure the bullet run-out on loaded cartridges, sort, and choose those with 0.002" or less

[roninflag]

.....look here for the answer.....http://www.sierrabullets.com/resources/x-ring-newsletter/

[Titanium700]

I had no choice.

I turned some .308 brass into .243 brass and the necks got really thick.

Some neck turning cured that.

[L Cazador]

Brass has become pretty inconsistent in neck thickness as of late. Not that it's ever been consistent, but it's gotten worse. Even Lapua has become pretty inconsistent where there is a difference of 2-3 thousands in neck thickness. What this means is the bullet tension is going to vary by 2-3 thousands! At long range this can make a huge difference in point of impact. Recently I had to neck turn my Hornady 22/250 brass, because it varied as much as 5 thousands between cases and bullet tension was all over. There was a huge difference in point of impact and group size because of this. Turning the case necks, not only improved the runnout but also rendered much more consistent bullet tension. Consistent .400" groups with 53g V-Max are now run of the mill with this Savage 10 rifle, excellent shooting for a factory rifle! While it did shoot half inch before, groups were not consistent with some running 3/4 inch with point of impact changes. I use a standard full length die for these reloads and bump the shoulder .002". You don't need a bushing die for neck turning, you just need to watch that you don't turn too much off the neck as the standard die will only size to a certain neck diameter. Usually neck turning up to.004" off(depending on neck thickness) will not have any effect on a standard sizing die. In my humble opinion, there's no cartridge that will not benefit from neck turning. I use a Nielson Punkin turner and it makes simple work out of neck turning!

[Mike S]

Good info. I'll definitely have to check the neck uniformity on any new brass I buy. I'm pretty well set on older brass at the moment and it is much more uniform than that, less than .001 from what I have measured. I often measure runout on loaded cartridges , just to confirm die set up if nothing else. Most are less than .003 in my 6.5-06 or .257 Roberts for example. I'll typically measure my hunting loads and pick the best for confirming my long range zero's and hunting (<.001). That said, I have shot some pretty good groups with crooked ammo, I suspect a lot depends on the particular chamber's throat geometry.