Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Neck trimming for hunting loads??

Will neck trimming make a difference for hunting loads for shooting 350 yds and under? Right now, each of my hunting rifles will do 1" or better at 100 yds so I'm wondering if neck thickness is going to make a big difference in accuracy or I'm wasting my money and time.

I think you mean turning, not trimming its Probably not going to make much difference.

If you don't have one already the gateway drug to reloading craziness is a concentricty gauge. Once you have it you will know how straight your ammo is. There are tools that will bend ammo back to straight, but I use mine to figure out what part of the reloading process is causing the issue. Then you can determine if neck turning is likely to help.

if you don't do all items in reloading correctly, why bother with doing one item.

If your hunting rifles shoot this well, forget neck turning and go practice.

And, if you don't have rifles with bench rest tolerances...

A 3.5" group at 350 yds means that all of the shots will land w/in 1.75" of the center of the group, you need better in a Hunting rifle?-Muddy

If you're working with a "no turn" dimensioned chamber there is still some benefit to checking/sorting brass for uniform neck walls. Cases with uniform neck walls lend themselves to assembly into straight cartridges, and I've satisfied myself that straight cartridges do shoot better even in sporting rifles.

Funny, but true.

Once you start doing that drug, you'll have many revelations!

It'll also cost you a lot of money as you buy better equipment to load straighter ammo. At least it did me.

What tool might that be.?

I reload "hunting" ammo and all my shots are close, no need for hyper accuracy.

However, just the thought of a concentricity tool makes me imagine that scene from the "Matrix" with the red and blue pill.

Take the blue pill and reloading goes on as normal, take the concentricity pill and see how deep the rabbit hole goes....

TruAngle. It's been talked about here at the 'Fire quite a bit.

Any process that helps one assemble a consistent round certainly will not hurt anything. A reduction in runout and more consistent neck tension should both be pluses.

I reamed/turned some obviously inconsistent necks on a 22-250 and a 7mm Rem Mag and it near halved group size. Now I do it with everything after the brass has gone through it's first firing.

Thanks for responses. Sounds like I don't really need to do it but it may help. That said, I don't think I'm going to drop over $100 for a neck turner for a very small benefit.

Thanks,
Mike

It sounds like everything is working out just fine the way you are doing it now, Mike! I think if real precision ever becomes a NEED, then neck-turning gear can be a good get. My dad had some dedicated benchrest guns, one of which required neck-turning the brass. I know of some long-range guys who, for precision purposes, true their necks.

Most guys I know that want good necks buy good brass, like Lapua. I hear from guys here at the fire that will pick specific cartridges because Lapua makes brass for them, or brass that can be turned into the desired cartridge.

Benchrest guys anneal cases, turn necks and use bushing sizers to get consistent neck tension. If you are shooting 600-1000 yds it matters. For the average hunter it is over kill. Is your rifle bedded and floated? If not you would probaly benefit more from that.

If you are shooting a factory chambered rifle,neck turning could cause early neck splitting.


Most factory chambers have extra space in the chamber neck area.There must be enough clearance for bullet release with the thickest brass. If you thin down the brass to make it concentric the brass will have to expand more to seal against the neck wall of chamber upon firing. Sizing will work the brass back to a smaller diameter for holding the bullet. This extra expansion-size reduction will work harden the brass and cause it to split. I know because a I did just that with a 284 win in a SAMMI chamber. Second firing and the necks split.

When you get around to rebarreling a rifle you can use a reamer with tighter neck chamber dimensions and neck turn for better results such as consistent neck tension, and concentricity without early brass failure. The brass will actually last longer than if it were unturned and shot in a generous SAMMI spec chamber due to less working of the brass.

I wouldn't bother neck turning. You could look into other things to try and get your rifle to shoot tighter groups if you desire. Is rifle bedded and all aspects sound? Good crown, clean bore etc? You could try tweaking the load with different seating depths or fine tuning the powder charge as well. Have you tried other bullets or powders?

Like the one poster said 1" at 100 isn't that bad for reasonable distances. Your choice.

No necessarily and especially if you first sort by neck thickness (less than .002) and then only trim 2/3 of the neck.

This will eliminate excessively thinning the case necks.

Sorting by neck thickness will reduce the amount that needs to be trimmed and only trimming 2/3 of neck keeps a reference point on the thinnest portion of the necks.

If the necks with zero variance average .013 and you sort to have no more that .002 variance the high and low will be .014 and .012. When you trim just 2/3 of the neck the trimmed portion will be in the neighborhood of .0125 which is just .0005 thinner than the cases with zero variance.

This is less than a neck with .004 variance which has a high side of .015 and a low side of .011. If you trim necks with this much variance you will have thinner necks and especially if you trim 100% to .011 or beyond.

Simply anneal and return your brass to "like new" condition. I haven't had a case neck split since I began annealing

You will ware out barrels with the same 200 cases if you anneal them regularly. Take care of your brass!