How much neck tension ?

[DLT]

No lube needed if you leave some carbon in the necks.
Only cleaning I do on my brass is a wipe and nylon brush in neck before sizing and after trim/chamfer.

Do have to lube if mandrel is changing caliber of case.

Thanks for all the replies. When your sizing your cases and using a mandrel do you wait and open the necks up when ready to load or right after the sizing process ?

 

[SKWERLZ]

Thanks for all the replies. When your sizing your cases and using a mandrel do you wait and open the necks up when ready to load or right after the sizing process ?

Well before it was at sizing but after a video with a BR HOF’r that explained a problem with neck turning I have had I try to mandrel just before powder/seating or at least avoid a big delay between mandrel and powder/seating.

So far that’s seemingly helping my consistency with ES.

Still experimenting on that.


I definitely mandrel just before turning the neck.
That definitely makes a noticeable improvement in turning consistency.

 

[quest450]

could you please post the video you're referring to or linky...thanks

 

[SKWERLZ]

could you please post the video you're referring to or linky...thanks

The problem he explained is you mandrel all your brass then start turning and the towards the end of the lot of brass they start getting tight on turning mandrel because they have contracted a bit with time so mandrel then immediately turn each case.
Sooooo, I’m trying out applying that to my bullet seating.
Mandrel, powder and seat immediately each case.

Maybe it’s golden, maybe it’s Bidenomics?

 

[Timon]

Very interesting video. Had to watch it a couple of times to really take it all in.

 

[Dave M.]

Same here. When I'm feeling really frisky, I may go two strokes. lol

You forgot one thing. No tumbling! I like the inside of my necks dirty.

I didn’t write tumbling so how could forget it?? I wrote what I do. Lol

 

[Dave M.]

Very interesting video. Had to watch it a couple of times to really take it all in.

That’s funny, I had to watch 3/4 of it to realize that was 13 minutes of my life I’d never get back. We all know the units of measurement for “tension” are not inches. Explaining “neck tension” to someone that asks at a competition in terms thousandths of an inch of interference is likely exactly the piece of info the question asker has in mind. Can you imagine the guys face when I told him the term “neck tension” was wrong and that I was running approximately 3500 pascals of hoop stress. He’d probably walk away laughing his ass off.
Dave

 

[Bill Norris]

That’s funny, I had to watch 3/4 of it to realize that was 13 minutes of my life I’d never get back. We all know the units of measurement for “tension” are not inches. Explaining “neck tension” to someone that asks at a competition in terms thousandths of an inch of interference is likely exactly the piece of info the question asker has in mind. Can you imagine the guys face when I told him the term “neck tension” was wrong and that I was running approximately 3500 pascals of hoop stress. He’d probably walk away laughing his ass off.
Dave

Yea, his content in some ways makes sense but his methods of identifying and explaining things left alot to be desired.

 

[dcali]

Start at .002, and adjust from there. You just have to test it.

 

[moondog]

I was always in the .001-.002 tension camp along with consistency. Several years ago while doing some load development on a new build (300PRC) I had 5 that seated way to hard it seemed. Doing testing at 1200, I finished with the tighter necked loads. They shot inside all the others. I reconfirmed my results with .005 instead of my normal.002. It was a real eye opener for me. I also recently tested some different lubes, graphite, Neo, wax on the inside of the necks. While the seating force was much smoother, the target didn't like it. Ya gotta test.

 

[Bill Norris]

I agree, testing is the only way to know what a given rifle/load combination will shoot best with a particular "neck tension." I see no future in changing up the terminology just because some smart elic decides it should be. It has always been neck tension for me and will continue to be. Screw the hot head know it alls.

EDIT : And he can take his high dollar priming tool and stick it too. I don't need it and never will.

 

[Dave M.]

Correct me if I’m wrong but In the few minutes I watched I heard him say seating force/ friction can be seen on paper whereas dimensional differences are not as important.

Could be…all I know is I lost 13 minutes of my life listening to his senseless rambling.

 

[Dave M.]

I was always in the .001-.002 tension camp along with consistency. Several years ago while doing some load development on a new build (300PRC) I had 5 that seated way to hard it seemed. Doing testing at 1200, I finished with the tighter necked loads. They shot inside all the others. I reconfirmed my results with .005 instead of my normal.002. It was a real eye opener for me. I also recently tested some different lubes, graphite, Neo, wax on the inside of the necks. While the seating force was much smoother, the target didn't like it. Ya gotta test.

I’ve been preaching higher “neck tension” for some time now. Try it and I think you may surprise yourself (that’s what I keep telling my buddies).

 

[Dgd6mm]

I will be upping my 6br neck tension the next time I load for it. I've had this curiosity for a while now.

 

[searcher]

No doubt he probably knows more than me but I don’t think he knows as much as he thinks he does. Its neck tension. I have not had any rounds come apart from traveling or unloading a round jammed in the lands with .002 or even .001 neck tension. I could see it happen in an AR or a total freak accident. I’m miles more careful than that

Yeah - On the A/R's it usually takes a minimum of .003" tension for the bullet to not move at all in the neck when loading, though it depends on the length of the bullet and how much of the neck the bullet takes up. If larger than a .223 (like a 6.5 Grendel), can get by with a tad less. The .20's are the finicky ones. The longer the bullet, the more friction there is to hold the bullet in place. I measure my OAL off the ogive with the Hornady tool, then I wait a few days as the necks often "relax" as much as .001" after sizing. Then I load a few off the magazine, eject them and re-measure. I used to load and re-measure right after making the rounds up, but I ran into issues a few times with the neck relaxing (springing back) just enough to allow the bullet to creep in the neck a few thousandths when loading and finding this out after cranking out 500 rounds is not fun. I found that to occur even on freshly annealed brass. Even in my .223, I use different bushing sizes based on the particular bullet. On my bolt guns, .001" to .002".

 

[dcali]

That was hard to watch. To be fair I only made it half way through before it became clear it wasn't worth the time. But the first half is pedantic, makes some huge assumptions about why neck tension matters, and just gets a few things factually incorrect. Half baked click bait.

Edit: I couldn't look away. The second half is worse than the first.