My wife's 6 creed doesn't require neck turning, .274" chamber neck, .2715" loaded round.
Is neck turning worth the effort?
- Thread starter JasonT
- Start date
When you have all the aspects of shooting dialed in and you are looking for that last 0.10 or less reduction in your groups. That is when you start neck neck turning and experimenting with methods to create proper and consistent neck tension.
You have to find what works for you. There is no magic recipe to precision shooting. You have to learn incrementally. No way you can absorb everything at once. A good shooter develops over time. Start with the basics, get that down and the move to the next step. You are going to try a lot of stuff that doesn't work for you. If you try those advanced tecniques early and don't get the results you expect you may put it on the don't list before you were ready for it.
Neck turning can make a big difference if you're using crappy brass. Stuff like Winchester, Hornady, or Remington can have up to .002" variation in neck thickness from one side to the other. Truing up the necks will make a noticeable difference in accuracy. In my opinion its better to buy good brass than to neck turn crappy brass, however. If you have a quality barrel, match grade chamber, good brass, and fairly solid reloading techniques you're not going to see a huge difference turning necks. Not to say it won't help, but there are many things that can add a tiny bit of consistency, and each adds more time and effort to the reloading process. If you enjoy reloading and buying cool new tools then give it a try.
So who has turned their case necks since 2016 when this post was started.
If you are that bored from staying at home then go turn your necks.
I have some Remington .223 cases that have over .009 neck thickness variations if you want to turn them for me.
What is faster than turning necks..............sorting cases with a Redding case neck gauge. One twist of the wrist tells you all you need to know about the quality of the case.
If you are that bored from staying at home then go turn your necks.
I have some Remington .223 cases that have over .009 neck thickness variations if you want to turn them for me.
What is faster than turning necks..............sorting cases with a Redding case neck gauge. One twist of the wrist tells you all you need to know about the quality of the case.
Another reason to turn necks is if you want to evaluate the concentricity of your loads. You want to have a smooth surface for your dial gauge to ride on rather than the rough surface typical of a factory case.
I use to be 100% convinced, mostly because every serious shooter turns necks, that it was a MUST, especially so if the case was necked up or down.
Buuuttttt...I've spent a lot of time revisiting this over the last 2-1/2 years, in some very good equipment, side by side and before and after, over about 8 barrels now.
I'm going to simply say that ymmv and it may have a lot to do with the quality of the brass and my process, that is working well...very well, for me. Bottom line...I'm going no turn, more and more..and this is in short range BR, shooting regularly in a very tough crowd with both.
First off, I shoot a lot and testing stuff like this is right up my alley. Knowing what the masses do, is often the way to go vs testing it for yourself is the only way to really know...Right?
Welll.....after a bit of testing, I campaigned two rifles last year and part of the previous year as well.. one of each, turn and no turn and different barrels for each. Bottom line is I found no difference using Lapua brass, on paper. In fact, I won a Nationals last year, with my 2nd best shooting rifle...that I did do a light turn for. Just the way the cards fell on that day, because the best gun was a no turn. Not much difference at all, but just a smidge, with the edge going to the no turn. Lots of factors in why any one gun shoots a little better than the next, but I'm convinced that it's NOT due to turning necks. Yes, I know that this goes against conventional thinking and I'm not stating that one is better than the other. More that, from an accuracy standpoint, I saw and still see, no difference.
I'm campaigning four more no turn barrels this year. I'm convinced, to my own satisfaction, that I'm not outgunned due to it. I've been doing pretty well with them and a good friend and customer just won with a gun/barrel that I built for him in I believe his second match with it, just last weekend. This is in Unlimited class UBR. We both won our classes at 100, he in UL and me in Custom, both 2 points off of the record. I Made a bad gun handling mistake on the last target or I might've missed it by just one point. He shot well at both yardages and I struggled a bit at 200 on this day. Still, I lost the grand by a single point and would've won in a three way tie by creedmoor, had I not made a couple of mental mistakes..namely that gun handling issue at 100 that I duplicated at 200..Uugh!
Both rifles are no turn neck 6 Grendels. The guns were both hammering on this day. Murray did his job but I just plain got out shot on this day.
Nonetheless, a couple of no turn 6 Grendels faired pretty darn well against a field full of ppc's and 30br's and I don't know of anyone else shooting a no turn anything, that day in custom or unlimited classes.
You can draw your own conclusions, as that's what I'm doing, from a good amount of testing dedicated to this subject and competing both ways. As mentioned earlier...YMMV, but I'm gonna stick with this no turn thing..At least until I see a reason not to, for myself.
Oh yeah...both are 12 twists using 80's, too! That'll never work either!
Buuuttttt...I've spent a lot of time revisiting this over the last 2-1/2 years, in some very good equipment, side by side and before and after, over about 8 barrels now.
I'm going to simply say that ymmv and it may have a lot to do with the quality of the brass and my process, that is working well...very well, for me. Bottom line...I'm going no turn, more and more..and this is in short range BR, shooting regularly in a very tough crowd with both.
First off, I shoot a lot and testing stuff like this is right up my alley. Knowing what the masses do, is often the way to go vs testing it for yourself is the only way to really know...Right?
Welll.....after a bit of testing, I campaigned two rifles last year and part of the previous year as well.. one of each, turn and no turn and different barrels for each. Bottom line is I found no difference using Lapua brass, on paper. In fact, I won a Nationals last year, with my 2nd best shooting rifle...that I did do a light turn for. Just the way the cards fell on that day, because the best gun was a no turn. Not much difference at all, but just a smidge, with the edge going to the no turn. Lots of factors in why any one gun shoots a little better than the next, but I'm convinced that it's NOT due to turning necks. Yes, I know that this goes against conventional thinking and I'm not stating that one is better than the other. More that, from an accuracy standpoint, I saw and still see, no difference.
I'm campaigning four more no turn barrels this year. I'm convinced, to my own satisfaction, that I'm not outgunned due to it. I've been doing pretty well with them and a good friend and customer just won with a gun/barrel that I built for him in I believe his second match with it, just last weekend. This is in Unlimited class UBR. We both won our classes at 100, he in UL and me in Custom, both 2 points off of the record. I Made a bad gun handling mistake on the last target or I might've missed it by just one point. He shot well at both yardages and I struggled a bit at 200 on this day. Still, I lost the grand by a single point and would've won in a three way tie by creedmoor, had I not made a couple of mental mistakes..namely that gun handling issue at 100 that I duplicated at 200..Uugh!
Both rifles are no turn neck 6 Grendels. The guns were both hammering on this day. Murray did his job but I just plain got out shot on this day.
Nonetheless, a couple of no turn 6 Grendels faired pretty darn well against a field full of ppc's and 30br's and I don't know of anyone else shooting a no turn anything, that day in custom or unlimited classes.
You can draw your own conclusions, as that's what I'm doing, from a good amount of testing dedicated to this subject and competing both ways. As mentioned earlier...YMMV, but I'm gonna stick with this no turn thing..At least until I see a reason not to, for myself.
Oh yeah...both are 12 twists using 80's, too! That'll never work either!
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@gunsandgunsmithing I can concur to some degree with your postulation. I have no disagreement with not wanting to turn necks. However, in your opening line you say "especially so if the case was necked up or down". Now, necking UP>>>no problem. However, necking DOWN is another story. ALL NECKS will get thicker as you neck down>>>>the farther down, the thicker.. I used to go down from the .308 Palma brass to .260. I had to turn the necks down to 12K when at 30 cal>>>>then again at 26 cal.. Without neck turning, the neck thickness would have been so great that it would have been impossible to run it into a .260A.I. die. So necking down, will almost certainly necessitate neck turning..
Turning for proper clearance is a different story. I'm necking down. 6.5 down to 6mm.
Using Lapua 6.5 Grendel brass and using a .274 chamber. Loaded round is barely under .272. My "tight neck" reamer is a light turn. Reamer for it is .271 neck.
Some shooters including me believe that consistent next tension is an important part of CF accuracy. If you believe that, then neck thickness is very important....at least at 500 yrs.
Ben
Ben
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I won't disagree with that or anyone that believes in turning, for whatever reason they do it. I've been doing it that way for 20 years.
And maybe it will show up more in the long range game but I'm only saying that I really couldn't be happier with my results in short range and it's really nice, not having to turn necks! Lol!
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