Forster honing limitations?

[thefitter]

I sent my FL .308 die in to have the neck honed. But they said they can only do it .008 max.

It's .325 from the factory so they can only give me .333

My loaded rounds are .337 so that's .004 neck tension, too much!

Wish they had said that on the phone when I called about this last week.

 

[pmarauder]

I had forester hone me a 7mm SAUM die for me, which is a good place to start if you want to just skim .001 off of your necks. this will give you more concentric neck measurements as well as your .002 desired neck tension. your FL die will size the neck all the way down to the N/S junction. What does your chamber measure at the neck (measure a fired case and add .0015 or so??

 

[thefitter]

Fired case is .345

 

[AlNyhus]

I sent my FL .308 die in to have the neck honed. But they said they can only do it .008 max.

The .008 is the depth of the hardening. Once through that and into non-heat treated material, it's possible that you'll get scratches in the neck.

My loaded rounds are .337 so that's .004 neck tension, too much!

How do you know that's too much? ???

Good shootin'. -Al

 

[tightneck]

I would ask the same question as Al. Why do you think .004" is too much? I know, conventional wisdom says .002 or .003 is best, but reality says that aint so in many cases. Take the 30BR for instance. I've personally been using .004" neck tension for years in BR competition with pretty decent succes.

 

[pmarauder]

If your chamber is on the larger side of SAAMI at .346, then i wouldnt recommend skimming necks..... you could run into possible blow by/sooty necks. But you might look at just getting a type S neck sizing die (2 different sized bushings) and do your sizing in 2 steps. .012 is quite a lot to size in one run. you could have some run out issues. save the Forester die for bumping the neck shoulder back .001 or so.

 

[thefitter]

I would ask the same question as Al. Why do you think .004" is too much? I know, conventional wisdom says .002 or .003 is best, but reality says that aint so in many cases. Take the 30BR for instance. I've personally been using .004" neck tension for years in BR competition with pretty decent succes.

True but as a rookie conventional wisdom is all I have to go on.

 

[jsteiger]

the fitter,

you're using your f/l sizer without the expander ball? I have the same die and sized neck without the expander is .326...were you aware forster does sell oversized expander buttons...might be an option if you want to go that way. Have the neck honed to the number you want and with an oversized expander you will be working the brass very little and still able to get the neck tension you are looking for? Just a thought :

Another option that I was looking at...read the article in above "articles" by Jim Carstensen, Body Dies and Die Conversions. Sounds like he has a good thing going with his conversion of a Redding body die. Does anyone have one of these dies made by Jim?

Good luck,

 

[thefitter]

the fitter,

you're using your f/l sizer without the expander ball? I have the same die and sized neck without the expander is .326...were you aware forster does sell oversized expander buttons...might be an option if you want to go that way. Have the neck honed to the number you want and with an oversized expander you will be working the brass very little and still able to get the neck tension you are looking for? Just a thought :

Another option that I was looking at...read the article in above "articles" by Jim Carstensen, Body Dies and Die Conversions. Sounds like he has a good thing going with his conversion of a Redding body die. Does anyone have one of these dies made by Jim?

Good luck,

Yes I was going to use the FL die without the expander ball. Thing is my expander is actually right at .335 which is what I'm going for. I was just trying to eliminate some run out by not using it. But I can't get the die honed to what I want anyway.

I'm thinking about that other process but I'm going to a new chamber and barrel this summer so I will probably end up with a set of custom dies at that point. No need to spend too much now. ;D

Thanks

 

[500x]

I sent my FL .308 die in to have the neck honed. But they said they can only do it .008 max.

It's .325 from the factory so they can only give me .333

My loaded rounds are .337 so that's .004 neck tension, too much!

Wish they had said that on the phone when I called about this last week.

.333 ????? this is one they sent me 2 weeks ago.

 

[thefitter]

I sent my FL .308 die in to have the neck honed. But they said they can only do it .008 max.

It's .325 from the factory so they can only give me .333

My loaded rounds are .337 so that's .004 neck tension, too much!

Wish they had said that on the phone when I called about this last week.

.333 ????? this is one they sent me 2 weeks ago.

What they told me on the phone is that they can only remove .008

So it depends on what your starting dimension is.

Someone else posted that this is due to the hardening, I don't know.

Forster said if they go more than .008 it can get "out of round". After further discussion it turns out what they had meant was that the neck/shoulder would have run out.