How much bullet inside the case neck?

[Craigyboy]

Just a quick question, I am having the typical problems of getting a bullet close to the lands in a .204 ruger, the best i can get is with a 32g v-max 0.024 off the lands but this only leaves 0.070 of bullet inside the cas neck, is this enough? I have been trimming brass to 1.840 but after making a chamber guage up and finding that my chamber is 1.867 long I am going to have to stop trimming for a few firings so hopefully this will improve how much bullet is inside the case neck but for the meantime is 0.070 enough? I tried 40g bullets but as they are all boat tail it doesnt really help much.

 

[garyw]

CRAIGYBOY
is that a typo?0.070 in the case when 32 vmax are approx .632-.637.i was once told by a gunsmith that rule of thumb is approx the calibre of the bullet in this case .204 should be in the case supported by the neck,this of course will not be true in all calibres.if this is not so perhaps someone with more knowledge can explain .

 

[Forum Boss]

I've shot rounds with as little as .110 in the case and it worked. That said, I prefer to go no shorter than about .160".

However, Stan Ware has proven that you can have a very short amount of shank in the neck and still have accuracy--provided you can get enough neck tension and the chamber doesn't allow the bullet to tip badly.

Ware Wolfpup:

"Our Wolf Pup cases,.080″-.085″ neck lengths) show similar loaded round runout figures to our other .30 caliber cases with .320″ and .250″ neck lengths. We set the throat to position the base of the bullet well below the neck-shoulder junction. Obviously, the throat is quite a bit longer on this setup than the freebore length that we’ve been running with our more traditional neck lengths...that is, freebore lengths in the .000″ to .035″ range for bullets based on the 1.00″ long jackets and weights in the 118-125 range. We worried about bullet misalignment in that short neck, but jamming the bullets into the lands seems to take care of that–provided the chamber has as little runout as possible, is well-centered to the bore and the cases are sized aggressively enough to allow a bit of ‘wiggle room’ in the chamber."



Normally with very short amounts of shank in the neck the idea is to seat the bullets hard in the lands. You don't have that option with your chamber from what you say.

 

[Cheechako]

Bullet seating is still one of those factors where we have yet to arrive at the perfect answer, assuming there is one.

Many moons ago the Scheutzen guys seated their bullets into the throat of the rifle with a special seater and the case, with powder held by a card wad, was loaded behind it. No part of the bullet touched the case. They seemed to do OK for themselves.

A few moons ago some Benchrest guys used a stepped neck case which had no neck tension but merely aligned the bullet with the throat. They also won a few matches.

And only a couple of moons ago there were the fitted necks, tight necks, Texas necks, and now the Wolf Pup necks which seem to be winning their share of fake-wood trophies.

Makes you wonder - maybe learning to read the flags and devising a method to jerk the trigger at the right time is more important that anything else.

JMHO

Ray

 

[GSP7]

Good info. I never liked how 140 sierras boattails in my 6.5x55 hardly had any neck contact. Never a problem though and good accuracy.

I will have to measure neck contact next time.

 

[rasp65]

I to have had shallow seated bullets in my 96 Swede. It has not been a problem when I single feed my rifle. If it is going to go into thr magazine you would definately want to have at least the .204 of the bullet length seated in the case. I bought a case length gauge from Sinclair's and I trim my case so that they are .005 from the end of the chamber and I trim every time I reload. It is important to have a log for the cases to keep accurate record of the # of trimmings.

 

[pintopete]

I recently asked this same question of a few of the bullet manufacturers and as others have said the goal is the bore diameter in the neck. For a .222 the distance would be .224", for a 6BR the distance would be .243". There are some who theorize that some neck tension is of benefit to the initial part of the primer firing and the powder burning process. Without this you may have poor results. There are also those who belive that the improper or unnecessary use of magnum primers can actually get the bullet moving prior to the powder burn. Again poor results may be the result. In a few of my factory rifles I have had really long throats that preclude the setting of the bullet .015 or .020 off the rifling. I find this to be a tough situation to trouble shoot. It may have changed but at one time a long neck was preferred over a short one because it did a better job of holding the bullet straight than a short neck. Using this philosphy, a long neck does no good if the bullet is not in it. Good luck, Peter.

 

[gambleone]

I have run into the same problem with my 22-250.
started out with 55gr vmax but couldn't get a good grp so switched to 40gr nosler bt due to a slow twist of 1-16. I am only about 0.1 - 0.12 in the neck. That's what is touching; I'm not counting the boat tail. I've got much better results with this. Using 35 grs of 4064 imr I average 0.40" 5 shots at 100yds. I'm using a forester neck sizer. Haven't had to trim my cases due to I'm not maxed out & I only neck size. If you are at 0.07 in the neck that's not much. You don't have much support with less than 0.1. sometimes in factory rifles you have excess freebore & not much you can do.
Greg

 

[pintopete]

Greg, Just out of curiosity, what brand rifle is your 22-250? Thanks, Peter.

 

[gambleone]

Peter, the 22-250 is is a Mauser 98 with a Douglas heavy taper 26"; with a double set trigger. 6x24x42 Sightron. I bought it used off a friend & I never knew it was a 1-16 twist. Assumed it was 1-14 or 1-12. So I had to go with a lighter bullet, & it's it's a huge improvement.
Hope to hear from you soon, Greg