Here's the deal. I know a fellow. who is a near the top of the Benchrest Hall of Fame, and he tested different methods of dealing with neck cleaning, a long time ago, using a better tool than many shooters have available, an accurate short range benchrest rifle. Based on those tests, he does not clean the inside of his case necks at all. Now I am not saying that this is what all of you long range guys should do. Perhaps the difference in ES requirements between long and short range, the characteristics of the neck (thickness and tension), amount of bullet in the neck, and typical powder may define a different reality. What I am pointing out, is that first of all he adopted a practice on the basis of careful testing by shooting, and that he was not deterred from doing what those tests proved to him even though he may be the only short range shooter that I know that does not clean the insides of his necks. My suggestion is that you may want to use something like the Imperial Case Neck Lube for the first seating on new cases, to simulate what powder fouling will give you on the following ones. Another thing, I don' t know whether the bullet slides out of the neck, or expands before it moves, but I can tell you that neck tension affects tune to a noticeable degree, and it only seems logical to me that consistency of neck friction on the bullet would affect consistency of tune and velocity. Do some testing and tell us what you come up with. Of course I have to put in my plug for doing this by loading at the range, so that you can easily make changes as new information develops. (and as I give this advice, I fully understand that many of you will not follow it)
Added a few minutes later: Of course few will shoot a match with unfired brass, so the advice to use Imperial will for you be unnecessary, and we in the world of PPC generally have to fire form cases which provides the desired powder fouling inside our case necks. For those who may be interested, I have generally used worn out bronze bore brushes on my case necks, and run them in and out of necks, quickly, about three times. I like the bronze because it seems to do a good job when used this way, although I really should give my friend's no clean method a try, since he shoots better than I do. (and for that matter, a lot of other shooters) Perhaps next time I get to the range I will do my own test, if I remember. Next priority, my second cup of coffee for the morning.
