223 remington neck bushing

[palo]

I have to order some redding competition dies for my mate and would like to order the bushing at the same time.
What size of bushing would I need for a 223 remington using lapua brass and hornady 50 grain vmax bullets.
Rifle is a tikka t3. He wont be neckturning .

 

[Shynloco]

Depends on the neck clearance you seek. Load an empty resized casing with a bullet as you would normal seat into the rifle you are reloading for. Then take a caliper and measure the area of the neck of the casing where the bullet is in. Then subtract .002 and that should give you the size of the neck bushing you want. Most Benchrest or competition shooting are after that .001 -.002 clearance that helps get them the best accuracy.

 

[FroggyOne2]

I agree with the previous poster, but I have a guess that with Lapua brass, it is going to be a .251 or .252 bushing.

 

[palo]

Thanks for the replies.
The problem is we dont have a seating die to load a round to get a measurement.
I have to order the dies online as I cant get them locally and wanted to order the bushing at the same time.
I will see if I can borrow a seating die to load a round before ordering.
I use .002 neck tension on all my own ammo and it works well.

 

[dboyles]

I'm guessing you don't have a ball mic to measure the case necks directly...

I've got a couple of batches of Lapua .223 and the necks clock in at 0.013" on both. That gives me a loaded neck diameter of 0.250". These cases were purchased 2-4 years ago.

 

[yukonal]

I have to order some redding competition dies for my mate and would like to order the bushing at the same time.
What size of bushing would I need for a 223 remington using lapua brass and hornady 50 grain vmax bullets.
Rifle is a tikka t3. He wont be neckturning .

With that combo, I have a .250 loaded neck diameter. I'm using a .246 neck bushing. You could go one size bigger, but don't go any smaller. Redding would sat a .248 or a .247, but mine feels perfect. Rifles are a Tikka Super Varmint, and a Tikka T3 Lite.