Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Neck up or neck down?

I did something stupid and bought a rifle in 30 Remington recently. I have the dies but the brass is unattainable at anything near reasonable prices IMO. I can get 25 or 32 Remington brass and I have a set of 30 Remington dies. The question is am I better necking up or down? I've done both with other cartridges, but the brass for those was close to free so I could play around some.

Down.

I’ve always found it easier to neck down. I’d get as much 32 REM. brass as I could and get after it!

Elk Country

Agreed, plus less work hardening of the brass; .321" is closer to .308" than .257" is.

Up makes necks thinner. Down makes necks thicker.

I make 243 and 260 brass out of 308s on purpose. I can turn my necks to exactly what I want/need. What I don't need are necks I'm stuck with being thinner than I want.

i'd say down.

i use the Remington m14 in 30 Rem too. when i bought it, Grafs was the only one who had it. luckily i bought 2 50 round pieces. it happened to be the last two that Grafs had. i still look at Grafs for them, but it has been a few years.

Always neck down if possible. That puts the "donut" found at the junction of the neck and shoulder of the original case in the shoulder of the new case, not the neck. You can always ream the donut out when necking up, but it's an extra step.

I was thinking about this last night. I need to make some brass for 6.5x257. I have both 257 and 7x57 brass. I think I will end up going with the 7mm because I can neck turn. I wasn’t sure what the neck would be if I bumped up the 257 brass.

Yes. Down and turn/ream to specs.

Thanks all. Getting my hands on the 32 will require a road trip to a little hole in the wall LGS but it will be worth the trip!

I have necked .30-06 brass up to .35 Whelen and .45-70 brass down to .33 Winchester. With either neck up or down never had to do anything else to the brass.

I would neck down and then use my Forster neck turning tool. It is amazing how out of round some necks are. Then you can turn to the specs , and have concentric necks . You could also neck it a little thick and see if it doesnt get stuck. If it doesnt , that means you will have less slop in the chamber. Some people say some chambers are sloppy.

I've always found it easier to neck up. I've made long taper neck expanding plugs then just highly lube the inside of the case neck, and expand the neck to the new diameter. I've done it with 7 STW cases up to .300 Wby, and 7 mm and .300 RUM cases up to .375 RUM, all with one stroke, and no failures.