should a bullet slide into a fired case?

[Evan]

My 20VT has a 234 neck, and my loaded rounds are 2315 to 232.

I was just measuring my fired brass and noticed that my neck ID is 201 and a bullet does not slide into the neck. Is this reasonable?

I'm getting good accuracy and no unusual pressure or signs. Do you guys think I should turn my necks, or leave it as is?

 

[AckleymanII]

The "Talking Heads" today say you should have enough clearance for a good bullet release. This would indicate that you may need more clearance on your neck.

I would say that great accuracy trumps all. Anneal your brass.

 

[hogpatrol]

My 20VT has a 234 neck, and my loaded rounds are 2315 to 232.

I was just measuring my fired brass and noticed that my neck ID is 201 and a bullet does not slide into the neck. Is this reasonable?

I'm getting good accuracy and no unusual pressure or signs. Do you guys think I should turn my necks, or leave it as is?

If you are measuring with calipers that read in .0005, more than likely you aren't getting good measurements. Aside that, that's enough clearance.

 

[gpoldblue]

My 20VT has a 234 neck, and my loaded rounds are 2315 to 232.

I was just measuring my fired brass and noticed that my neck ID is 201 and a bullet does not slide into the neck. Is this reasonable?

I'm getting good accuracy and no unusual pressure or signs. Do you guys think I should turn my necks, or leave it as is?

Run a nylon brush inside your case necks(gets the loose carbon out)...if a bullet still won't slide in,you need to turn the necks. Shouldn't take much...001"--.002". My experience says "flyers" can happen when too tight. The best and most reliable way to measure for pressure is with a
micrometer on the case head checking for expansion. By the time you get to ejector marks,etc...you are exceeding pressure quite a bit.
Case head expansion is the best measurement.
Good luck...be safe.

 

[ballisticxlr]

Brass has a certain amount of springback. My .243AI chamber came out with a .271 neck. With my brass thickness this ended up giving .002 total diametric clearance which is definitely plenty. My brass came out with neck diameter that was tight enough I couldn't get a new .243" bullet into it without shoving really hard. This is totally fine as long as you've got enough clearance to make a good clean bullet release. There are side effects to setting up a chamber with minimum clearance and then neck sizing only. My brass lasted forever because I wasn't working it very hard and between the 40deg shoulder and neck sizing only, I never once had to bump a shoulder for the life of that barrel.

 

[Evan]

Thanks guys. I'm going to skim the necks to 231 to get just a hair more clearance cause it won't hurt and it may very well help accuracy. I may have some rounds that are pushing up the high side of 232 and making my clearance too snug. It's unturned Lapua brass. If I turn it, I'll be more certain none of it is too large.

 

[B23]

My 20-222 per the reamer print has a .235 neck, I'm using necked down Lapua 222 brass with a Redding 222 bushing die, without looking I don't recall the bushing size. I can't push a bullet in a fired case either, but it still shoots VERY well with no issues.

 

[carlsbad]

A bit tight.

 

[1shot]

Skim turn for about a 75- 80% cleanup and life will get even better. This will improve the concentricity as well as ensuring that you have a clean bullet release.
i hope this helps,

Lloyd

 

[JASmith]

Depends on the pressures you are running at. Pressures of, say 45 ksi, are low enough that there is very little permanent set to the brass. Move to 55 or 60 ksi, and the necks will see more permanent set. That could allow bullets to easily slide into the neck.

 

[Lucky Shooter]

The question

I'd think the main concern would be the neck diameter with a bullet seated as compared to your
chamber neck diameter.

A. Weldy

 

[RLP]

Anneal a couple , resize and fire again. It may just be spring back on the brass.

 

[Mark W]

I’ll share some recent experience on this topic. I was getting sub 1/2” groups and good velocity while fire forming brass for a 22-243ai. Once I started working up loads, I kept hitting pressure way early and wasn’t really getting anymore velocity.

I finally figured out that bullets wouldn’t drop back into a fired case so I skimmed turned some necks and loaded 5 rounds. When I fired those 5 rounds at 100 yards I ended up with a small 2 shot group and a smaller 3 shot group separated by 1” of vertical.

I wasn’t shooting over a chronograph and didn’t pay attention at the time but when I got home I discovered that 3 cases would allow a bullet to drop in and 2 would not. I’ll try turning 5 more cases a little more and see what happens.