Case expansion after neck sizing

[richardca99]

I have a Remington M700 5R in .308 Winchester. I've been hand loading for this rifle for several years now. I use mostly Lapua brass, though I've played around with some Lake City that I have on hand. With Lapua cases, 43.6 grains of Varget, 178 grain A-Max, and CCI BR2, this gun will shoot 0.5" five-shot groups repeatedly, and 0.3-0.4" are typical if I'm having a good day and/or the wind is calm. Here's my question:

I have never had to full-length size a case for this rifle. I use a Lee Collet die, and I keep waiting until the cases get tight in the chamber to set up my FL die for PFL, but it just doesn't ever seem to happen. I typically will throw away a batch of brass before I ever need to full-length size due to primer pockets getting loose or the occasional split neck (I anneal, so the latter is rare). I know I've gone over 7-8 firings on a batch of brass and have never had to full-length size--maybe more. Is this common?

I'm not a high volume shooter, so 50-100 cases last me a couple of years.

 

[bloc]

I've reloaded some of my .270 brass 10 times or more that I've only neck sized. I've thrown out occasional pieces when the primer pockets loosened up, and one piece that showed incipient head separation (detected using a bent paper clip).

I don't push my loads — I usually shoot 1 - 2 grains beneath max.

 

[CatShooter]

Welcome to the neck sizing club...

I don't even own FL dies for most of my rifles, and I drive my loads pretty hard.

 

[Shynloco]

I've experienced much the same brass life, but i've actually FL resized on occasion as well as just neck sized on other occasions. And then I also Body Sized when I replaced the barrel that has a tight chamber. The last time I bought any Lapua .308 brass was something like 4 years ago and that was 100 casings. I am not a high volume shooter either and usually only shoot 30 -35 rds at a time. BTW, I still have like 35 casings left from the original batch I mentioned (untouched).

Alex

P.S. For what it's worth my rifle is a 1982 version of a Ruger M77V.

 

[boltgunluvr]

What about trimming??

 

[richardca99]

The cases do get trimmed when they grow beyond the recommended trim length. I've not kept records, so I can't say for sure that I've had to trim these any more or less than in my other rifles.

 

[LHSmith]

If there is no bolt click on opening you are good to go. Waiting for "calm" conditions is not an option for those shooting competitively. They have to tune the rifle with loads that give them the most advantage to win in the conditions presented to them....many times the best tune comes at the extreme high end of a node and NS is simply not an option due to fighting the bolt to extract cases, not to mention playing hell with the locking lugs
By "PFL" I hope you don't mean partial FL sizing....read German Salazars articles on sizing. PFL is NFG.

 

[CatShooter]

By "PFL" I hope you don't mean partial FL sizing....read German Salazars articles on sizing. PFL is NFG.

^^^

PFL is the worst of all options.

 

[richardca99]

If there is no bolt click on opening you are good to go. Waiting for "calm" conditions is not an option for those shooting competitively. They have to tune the rifle with loads that give them the most advantage to win in the conditions presented to them....many times the best tune comes at the extreme high end of a node and NS is simply not an option due to fighting the bolt to extract cases, not to mention playing hell with the locking lugs
By "PFL" I hope you don't mean partial FL sizing....read German Salazars articles on sizing. PFL is NFG.

I use the term loosely to describe the use of a Redding Body Die to set the shoulder back 0.001-0.002 and then size the neck in conjunction with a Lee Collet Die.

 

[Shynloco]

Richardca99,
For what it's worth, I measure the case length every time when reloading, but have found I only need to trim the casing when FL resizing which I do to try eliminate the possibility of the infamous carbon ring forming. So far, I've never encountered that problem.

Alex