Taking the next step in reloading and need some guidance....

[mleeber]

I have been reloading for 25 years for rifle and pistol. In that time all has gone well, no double charges, no squib,s and only one primer pre-ignition,on a lee loadmaster). Most of what I have done with rifle is for hunting and accuracy has been great,3/4 inch or less at 100 yds) but not where I think I can get it. I have always cleaned and prepped the rifle brass with a methodical process, sizing with Lee collet dies,neck only) cleaning the primer pockets and deburring the flash hole from the inside, trimming and chamfering. All this is done on a single stage O press to ensure consistency. In an effort to maximize the accuracy I have just added an outside neck turner to my Forster trimmer collection and I also got a set of inside case mouth reamers for the calibers I shoot. I have read only enough to be dangerous. What I need to know is when to Neck turn vs when to inside ream and when to do neither. Calibers I am working with are 7mm Rem Mag,Mauser Action and a custom barrel), 30-30,14" Contender), and I have a 23" 7-30 Waters barrel on order for the Contender as well as a rifle stock and forend,1st gen contender and the caliber choices are few). I know these are not bench rest guns but they should be capable of excellent accuracy. Any advice would be welcomed!
Thanks!

 

[CPorter]

Neck turn when you first get the brass to make sure they are uniform in thickness. Measure the thickness regularly and trim again when the thickness builds up to a certain point.


Neck ream when you find a doughnut at the neck shoulder junction.

 

[Winchester69]

Let your targets tell you how to proceed.
.

 

[cliffe]

you can true the necks, but the neck diameter in the throut should be matched, with the proper clearence to the brass. all you could be doing is increasing the distance between the brass and the throut. what does loaded brass neck measure compared to fired? most of the time on a factory barrel neck turning won't help as much because you have to much clearence to start with.suggest turn a few cases and see how it works for you. good luck, cliffe

 

[flatlander]

In a barrel with a factory chamber, neck turning should probably be limited to no more than a light clean-up cut, since anything more will just increase the slop in the fit between cartridge case & chamber. Minimal neck turning should result in more consistent neck tension, which can be beneficial to accuracy - but I'd do some test shooting with turned necks to see if it's going to help before diving in and turning a bunch of cases.

 

[mleeber]

Thanks for all the replies. I measured 8 cases that I shot out of my 7Mag last week. These are all Winchester and have all been fired twice now,in this gun only). The gun is a Mauser 98 action,not sure of the prefix but lots of German stamps all over it) and a custom barrel that is stamped Adobe Gun Shop Silver City New Mexico. All 8 cases have an outside diameter on the neck of .319. the ID is .283+,mic only goes to 1000s and I would say there is another 7 ten thousandths so it is in the neighborhood of .2836-.2838. These have not been reamed or turned ever and I have not resized them yet obviously. Again I am a novice with reloading at this level but it would seem that these numbers are pretty good. They are consistent across all cases and since the bullet is .284 it seems that the chamber is pretty tight if the fired cases are still under .284. Am I right or is it more complicated than this?

One other note, when I did neck turn a few cases last week to test the bullets did not seem to seat tightly until they hit the area where the shoulder meets the neck so there must be a donut there. I assume that this is caused by brass flowing to the neck. Should I worry about the donut? I am concerned that reaming will remove too much brass since these cases are under 284 and my understanding is that reamers are a hair larger than their state diameter. Will resizing with the collet die remove or smooth out the donut?

Thanks!!!!

 

[Preacher]

I've never seen a contender barrel that benefited from turning necks, most of the chambers are on the generous side it seems....... And unless your using a bushing die
I would not recommend it at all.....
If a bullet will drop into a fired case with no resistance at all you definitely do not need to neck turn them, or ream them....
I would also turn them before I would ream them if it was needed, because if they are out of round they still will be after reaming them.