reloading without sizing the neck?

Hi guys, I was wondering if anyone out there has ever reloaded without needing to touch the necks?

By the time I'm done shooting the 100 cartridges and I reload, I found that after decapping, cleaning, and annealing, I find the necks sprung back enough to still have a plenty neck tension to then use the inside neck mandrel, do primer, powder and bullet.

Any other thoughts or experiences?

 

How much neck clearance do you have in the chamber?

 

See Varmint Al , fitted neck cases. https://www.varmintal.com/arelo.htm#Fitted_Necks

Slow powder, light bullet, and starting to midrange loads allow enough brass spring back to lightly hold a bullet.

Not a good idea. Imo.

 

In all the calibers I reload..............I've never had a fired case, that had not been re-sized in the neck, that even came close to holding a bullet securely enough to chamber it.
I have always (at least) had to neck size every case in order to have the case hold the bullet securely.

 

In 6.5x47 I run 36.5gr varget on Berger 140gr hybrids no turn necks.
284w is VV N165 56.5gr on Berger 180gr hybrids .313nk chamber, .309 loaded case.

 

I've been doing it with a fitted 26wssm Imp. Over 50 reloads on the cases now.
I also do not size the case bodies with it, and the loads are right at SAAMI max according to QL.
No problem.

But unless YOU'VE fitted this condition, you better be figuring out what you have.

 

It should not have the same tension for each firing , the brass is slowly moving towards the mouth , making the necks thicker . Be careful it can bite you badly , like mikecr says .

 

Looks like enough of a charge and neck clearance that the brass shouldn't be doing this. I assume you have inside chamfered the neck, but try it again to see if you may have some carbon or excessive length to close the end of the necks during firing. Otherwise I don't have a clue.

 

Years ago a buddy built his “tight neck turkey” 6BR. He turned necks for minimal chamber clearance and didn’t neck size. He thought is was a clever setup but I was not impressed. The gun shot fine but not to its full potential. Worse yet was powder puking into the action when he tried to extract a loaded round and the bullet would remain jammed into the lands.

 

Dangerous situation you have there if youre asking about it. Turn those necks or stop shooting it until its fixed. Youre one carbon ring, big pressure ring, or donut away from a disaster i dont want to see you go thru

 

Am I wrong or isn't it more ideal for the sake of accuracy that the bullet be able to fall through the neck of a fired case?

 

I could be wrong, but never read or saw anything like that in any of the reloading books, nor have I actually seen anyone do that. I believe it is best to size those necks, as the reloading manuals advise to do. Play safe and sound.

 

I would be curious to see your measurements for:
- sized neck OD
- fired neck OD
- neck OD after running inside neck mandrel through
- loaded neck OD
Those numbers will tell you if your system is working as you think it is.

 

I've done it by accident. I use a two step sizing process--body size and then Lee Collet neck size. Well I forgot the neck size step on some once fired 6BR brass and only discovered it after I seated the first bullet. There was enough neck tension to hold the bullet very lightly, so I finish loading up the small batch with bullets seated way out. I took the rounds (carefully) to the range and closed the bolt slowly on each round--soft seating with the lands. At 200 yards they grouped just as well as my carefully developed loads seated .010" off the lands. The necks of the rounds miked .270" and my chamber neck is .273". After the second firing the bullets just dropped in the fired case.

 

I have a friend who has a long Dasher built by Kelblys that says he does not have to resize cases at all that were fired in this rifle. Punch out primer, pour powder, seat bullet and fire. I have not personally witnessed this but he is a knowledgeable rifleman and I believe him. Barlow

 

You'd think with all of the HOF guys Eric Cortina rounded up and asked at the last show and asked about this subject it would have died by now. FL size or pay the price.

 

A tight neck and tight chamber specs combined with controlled mild loads, is the only way that is possible or normal.

 

You are playing a dangerous game and courting really big problem.
For all you know, you might have just enough neck tension to keep the bullet from dropping down but not what you would want for safety purposes.

 

I've done it with a stupid tight neck (.001" clearance). Basically, the only way it can be done is to prevent the neck from yielding by supporting it with the chamber as it's fired. It turns out the brass yields after about (give or take, depending on a few variables) .001" of expansion. Anything more than that and you'll need to size to get it back where it was. Even then, I don't think I'd count on this working.

I have since decided that clearances this tight are not wise for safety/convenience reasons, and did not see appreciable accuracy improvements over more normal clearances in my limited testing.

 

Think Dmoran is right, only time I've ever experienced anything similar is with an original 50-70 trap door carbine that I have. Chamber is .002 larger than new brass and just enough 5744 to take the original cast bullet up to 1060fps and all I do is re-roll crimp the neck. Cases have never expanded past original base dia or overall length measurement, mild load but it produces original factory black powder velocity. All I would expect from a 156 year old rifle.....