Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles Neck-sizing brass for an AR

Anyone tried neck-sizing brass for an AR? Mine is a Rock River heavy barrel I use for coyotes and such, and I dont use range brass. Just wondering if anyone has actually neck sized for an AR and had good luck with it. I hate FL sizing. Yeah, I know the manuals say FL sizing is best.

A buddy does it. But his ARs are like BR guns setup just so and he is picky about neck sizing wiht Wilson arbor dies etc..

I've tried it, not reliable enough for me,

BUT I do size minimally with Redding neck bushing FL die... just bump the shoulder back 1-2 th over fired readings, and run a neck bushing typically .243 diameter.

Thanks Rost

Minimum to just a little shoulder bump

No disrespect intended, but for the neophyte reloader reading this thread it should be noted.....

If you neck size for an AR-15, you'll likely have a lot of feeding and extraction problems.

Ever try dropping a once fired neck sized only 223 case into a .223 case gauge?

As 223 brass has relatively straight walls, upon firing the brass expands and sets quite tight in the chamber - neck sizing only for use in the AR15 is tough on the extractor which why FL sizing is recommended as noted by the OP.

IIRC POF-USA actually uses a 4 grooved chamber,(E-squared) much like/similar to the H&K G3 and FN-FAL, to decrease the likelihood of extraction issues with their new AR15s.

Bolt actions are a different story.

I am neck sizing for my ar57 but that is a different animal being blow back. this is the first go round with this ammo so I will have to check if the shoulder moves forward more.
so far they are loading and firing great with a noticeable reduction in group size so if the shoulder doesn't keep moving forward with succeeding firing's that's going to be my method for that round. I have always fl sized for auto loaders and levers but at times of being lazy have just neck sized with mixed results. levers seem to be fussier than autos.

I set my die to bump the shoulder back .003" with one rifle. All my other AR's have close enough headspace (within .0015") to use the same brass and dies. I full length size everything, even for bolt guns if its just .001" I still like to full length size.

A good AR with a worked up load will consistently put five shots into 1/2" at 100yds with fl sized brass. I can't see any potential minor gains in accuracy worth the very real potential of jams.

The only gun that I'd bother to neck size only brass is a true br bolt gun.

It's an AR, work up a load and crank them out on a Dillon.

Several years ago, I had a very heavy .222 bench gun that I used for testing. I purposely had the chamber cut so that it would shoot standard factory ammo (Hugh Henriksen reamer).

One of the many "oral handloading History" theories I wanted to test was full-length sized ammo versus neck sized ammo,

I shot about 600 rounds in the Leupold underground rifle range, trying to find an answer.

The neck sized ammo won, but just by a little and I'm not sure if the difference was statistically significant. I never wrote an article about the test, but the NS shot average five-shot groups abut .05" tighter than FLS.

I kinda suspect that if I reshot the test, the roles might be reversed or that it would be a tie.

Anyway, it was close enough to convince me that there was no particular advantage to neck sizing, other than you don't have to mess with case lube and such.

Oh, another test fired in the rifle was bullets out of the box and those pulled by a collet bullet puller. Believe it or not, the pulled bullets shot better and probably well within statistical significance ... if memory serves, it was .380" vs .480" ... something like that.

My buddy and room mate, Johnny Buffalo, were passing gas and drinking a few beers one afternoon when the rain was keeping the prairie dogs drowned. One of the subjects that came up was pulled boolits versus virgin boolits ... his results were the same as mine.

I believe we also discussed the FL vs NSO thingie, but I've forgotten what his results were. Probably the same as mine, I'm thinking.

Blessings,

Steve

oops, so sorry - I sold my AR57 upper, 5 mags and 2K+ of ammo last year, for while it shot great at 50 yards - it sucked at 100 and did well to put 5 rounds in 5"; and properly scoping that thing was dang near impossible (I ran a red-dot).

Best of luck to you, must be tough reloading those little 5.7s, ya must have the patience of Job.

DwnRange, lol! sounds like I bought from you! didn't but that's close to what I just got.
those little buggers are trying to reload but for now I don't mind. so far with a funky red dot I am getting minute of squirrel at 50 yards so that's good enough.

I just completed FL resizing about 400 rounds of mixed commercial and military cases in less than an hour. All of the brass had been tumbled in SS media and the cases left in the sun to dry. I sprayed then with the Dillon spray lube and ran then through a Dillon carbide 223 die. Yes, I still have to wipe off a bit of lube but this is about as painless a process as one could ask for.

Yeah, the spray lube ROCKS.

Steve

I do it a bit different......finished ammo in about the same time......liberal spary lube

I full size in station #2 in the Loadmaster........#1 in my L&L AP

Tedthorn, does the powder measure close enough from your measure? reading about this cartridge some fellers make it sound like if you don't measure to within 1 nano gram you are going to be wearing the gun for decorations!.
I only have HS7 currently and am loading 6.1g with 40g hornady bullets. basically starting load. wondering if this is as touchy a round as some make it out to be?.
OH crap! I am talking 5.7 and you are speaking .223.
don't get old!

If you work your loads up with the audette method, then a bit of variance in charge won't matter.

No measure is going to be perfect anyway.

Almost every powder throw is only as accurate as the operator

A baffle improves every powder throw but the type of powder dictates charge wt accuracy

I have two Lyman 55's and one Hornady L&L along with the Lee

All 4 throw ball powder very very accurate......especially the Lee

BTW......None of the production ammo factories weigh powder......its measured by volume

Fast.......very very fast

Hmm, as much ammo as I have loaded, I have a Harrels BR measure. Not even that one or the Lyman 55 will throw even ball powder perfectly. Baffled. Powder kept in the middle third of the resevoir etc...

As you note, no factory weighs powder charges. Of course the flip side is no one I know that wants accuracy shoots factory rounds.

I still would/will weigh powder when it gets to long range stuff....

I too take great care in my long range and bolt gun ammo

I will however not fuss around with bangin ammo

55 grn ammo for swinging steel.....that's the sole reason I have progressive presses

makes sense. If I was banging a lot of steel I'd have a big dillon for sure.

I have 2 progressive presses dedocated to the .223

What you running on 223 presses? I have a 550, but if I was serious anymore I'd not be that slow.

Hornady Ammo Plant and the Lee Loadmaster

Both are auto indexing

The two have cranked out thousands without much or any fuss

The Lee is incredible for the money but isn't bomb proof

The Ammo plant is a great press. I picked it over the 650 with advise from a buddy who has both the AP and 650

But no matter what name brand a guy has all progressives are dependent on correct set up and a loader who can multitask

Cool.

I gave up on lee stuff years ago after finding out they have great customer service but got tired of wearing out parts or breaking cheap pot metal parts.

They are a value for many though that didn't run as many rounds as we did.

While I don't have Hornady either I've read/heard good things about them.

Good info!

Bought a used RL550B in the early '90's, and have been running fine ever since. I make all my ammo, match or otherwise, on it.

I tumble with Walnut, and use RCBS Water Soluble Lube. The cases wipe clean with a cloth and rubbing alcohol, which also picks up any lingering carbon stains.

My handloading regimen is a simple and basic as possible, with care given to performing the steps consistently. Some accuracy is sacrificed, but a good bit less than I was expecting.

I F/L resize and simply move on. My chambers are all SAAMI Spec, so to me, the question is a non-issue.

Greg

Yes. It ran 100% and I'd wager yours will also.




Travis

I'll do it for 2 firings, then anneal and FLS.

No extraction issues here.