6bra Necks Looser than other

[Bill Norris]

Don't understand how neck work hardening would affect OAL. If you assume the bullet seating stem tip slippage isn't involved. Your die is set to a certain fixed position, the case is pushed a fixed amount into the seater based on how you adjusted the die. When you pull the press handle all the way down there should be no variation on how far the bullet is pushed in. The leverage of the press will overcome any variation in neck tension. Are you measuring base to ogive or base to tip? The tip closure looks different on almost all bullets.

If one is compressing the load then there will be variances in seating depth. The powder will not settle the same in all the cases.

 

[Mike Montgomery]

I discovered this while using an Arbor press and Wilson neck bushing dies and seater. There was a variance in seating depths between bullets seated in work hardened brass and brass that hadn't work hardened yet. Seating depth consistency improved after seating the bullet and then rotating the case 180 degrees and re-seating and increasing dwell time. All the brass was neck turned and had the prep. Has anyone else encountered this?
Mike

 

[JFrank]

I discovered this while using an Arbor press and Wilson neck bushing dies and seater. There was a variance in seating depths between bullets seated in work hardened brass and brass that hadn't work hardened yet. Seating depth consistency improved after seating the bullet and then rotating the case 180 degrees and re-seating and increasing dwell time. All the brass was neck turned and had the prep. Has anyone else encountered this?
Mike

maybe a .001 once in a blue moon and I use the same set up as you.

 

[Coyotefurharvester]

I see, feel, experience this same inconsistency when I load brass that has been cleaned inside the necks. Only brass I clean completely is once fired range brass I collect, just wiping the outside prior to sizing results in smoother seating. Only way around it is some sort of thin dry lube. I do annealing brass after a couple firings, still using cordless drill/torch.

 

[Mike Montgomery]

My conclusions about what was causing the seating depth inconsistencies could be wrong but, it also caused me to pursue other avenues such as neck tension and annealing and paying more attention to producing more consistent reloads. It's an endless rabbit hole!!

 

[Mike Montgomery]

I almost forgot; the other thing that I started doing was to lube the inside of the necks with Graphite.
Mike

 

[MDT6BRA]

I found some Norma brass I had that had less firings on it and tried the same load and seems to be more consistent oal. That leads me to think that the brass is the issue like some of you have mentioned. I have a buddy that has anneal machine and going to try that and see how it goes. I found some alpha brass also and it should be here tomorrow. Thank everyone for the response, great forum.

 

[JackWagon]

I used to get the same issues in my BR. Now I use a FL sizer and then a neck expanding mandrel along with annealing every firing. Issues went away. Until a month or so ago it was just theory then I used a friends arbor press with a gauge on it when seating and could see the reading for each bullet was the same.

Now I do it for every caliber I load for.