Many years ago, when Tricky Dick was President, I bought a Forester trimmer and a full set of inside neck reamers. Back then I was reloading hunting ammo only, and found them worthless. Now, with more attention to competition loads and especially donuts, I am thinking of re-trying inside neck reaming again; and outside turning (which I do on all brass). This will probably mean using smaller neck bushings. Has anybody found inside reaming of any value? What are the consequences of doing so?
I sometimes neck ream fire formed brass before sizing if I have noticed a donut at the neck-shoulder junction. I check by dropping a bullet in the neck and noting if it sticks or falls on into the case. The other way of removing a donut is by sizing, then expanding the neck to move the donut outward, then outside neck turn, but I have found that often I need to repeat the process after the next firing. The Forster reamer is good for what it is intended but for the real thing you should look at an RCBS Neck Ream Die. It will get necks to a more uniform thickness than you can achieve with the Forster. Then you can do your outside neck turning with more precision.
Yup I find them very handy to shoot small groups with, use one before sizing and then a special ground one for finished neck size before loading.....
I accquired about 500 Hornady 308 Match brass at the range from the local police snipers. The neck thickness was really inconsistant, So I neck sized them so I would end up with a .003 neck tension, then had Forster make me a .305 Dia. neck reamer and reamed the necks. I think it made a big difference because now my factory Rem. 700 SPS Tactical with a 20 inch tube will shoot 1 inch groups with the 130 gr.Barnes TTSX at 300 yds. and even better with the 168 gr. Berger VLD's I also use it for outside neck turning on some calibers when I just want to tru them up. That Forster trimmer is just like a mini lathe, I have 2 and use the heck out of them. Tarey
but for the real thing you should look at an RCBS Neck Ream Die. The cost of the RCBS reamer die and reamer, sold separate, about $130.00 together. Lee, in the old days sold die sets called Target Model, the Target Model came with a reamer and die for reaming necks, even today, when found and available, the reamer and die make the set a bargain. F. Guffey
I like to play with some hot rods and it is a must for me. With my 22-6mm I outside neck turn new brass and have to inside neck turn to keep the donut out of the neck. After a while I do have to use a smaller bushing. I drop .002 but so far that has always been enough.
