Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles How can I get good necks?

How can I get quality results with a practical method to prepare brass case necks and mouths? Should I use bushing dies? Mandrels? Neck turning? Reamers?

I have a few hundred Starline brass for a cartridge that uses .264" bullets. When they come out of the bag brand new, the mouth is slightly rolled in:


Brand New Brass from the Bag

...and the diameter is fairly tight so that neck tension ends up about 0.004". I lightly chamfer it, load it and fire it.

Once fired in my rifle's chamber, the necks are 0.011" oversize. I have a bushing that nominally should bring them down 0.010", but because they're being squeezed quite a ways, they come out 0.012" smaller or 0.001" under (in other words, bullets will seat with 0.001" tension). Redding indicates to expect this:

"It has come to our attention through customer calls and our own use of the bushing style sizing dies that in certain instances, a given neck sizing bushing will produce a case neck diameter that can be several thousandths of an inch smaller than the actual diameter of the bushing. This idiosyncrasy occurs when the neck diameter of the fired case is a great deal larger than the diameter of the neck sizing bushing, such as occurs when factory chambers are on the large side of the tolerance range and the brass is on the thin side. Typically, we have not noticed any problems until the case neck is reduced more than 0.008-0.010". Solutions include, increasing bushing diameter to compensate and/or the use of a size button. Reducing the neck diameter in two smaller steps by using an intermediate diameter bushing will also help."

Because I am using a bushing that is 0.010" smaller than the expanded neck, it is actually reducing the neck by 0.012". I selected this bushing because 0.001" neck tension is what I wanted. Unfortunately, I have found that 0.001" neck tension is insufficient. So I bought another bushing that is 0.002" smaller. I found that it will give me two or three thousandths neck tension if I use it on a fully expanded neck.

After a couple firings the mouth is pretty well rolled in.

Reloaded a Few Times

I do wet tumble the brass, but for no more than 30 minutes. I have a RCBS carbide chamfer tool, but to cut the whole rolled edge out I would have to chamfer it all the way to the outside edge of the mouth and then some. I would pretty much have to trim the whole mouth off the neck to get rid of the rolled edge. The necks are well under the maximum length though, about the minimum actually and I don't want to trim.

I decided to ream the inside of the neck. I have an 11/64th drill bit that measures exactly .264". So I resized the necks with my larger bushing and reamed the necks with the bit. I did it by hand with just my fingers. I wasn't removing a lot of brass, mostly the rolled edge.

I found after reaming the inside of the necks that the rolled edge was removed, but then there's a gap of untouched brass just below the mouth chamfer where the neck appears bulged, and then the reamer polished the inside of the neck below the bulge. Is this bulge from seating the bullets?



Reamed and Chamfered

Unfortunately, after reaming the inside of the necks and then resizing them with my smaller bushing, I don't have enough neck tension. If I was resizing from a full expanded neck, I probably would have enough tension, but since I reduced the neck in two-steps, they are the nominal diameter of the bushing instead of a couple thou under.

I'm thinking of ordering another bushing, but I'm pretty dismayed about these necks and I'm wondering if I'm going about this the right way.

My goal is is high quality brass and cartridges capable of true, consistent 1 MOA accuracy for practice and hunting medium game in the 200 to 300 yard range. I'm not trying to get bench-rest accuracy or shoot very long range. What do I need to do?

Should I be starting with different brass? Nosler, Lapua?

Should I undersize the neck OD and then use a mandrel?

Do I need to turn the necks?

Should I ream the necks with something like a Forster neck reamer? Should I ream before resizing with a standard reamer or after resizing with a wildcat reamer?