When to neck size?

[35WhelenAI]

For hunting loads, use a full length sizer and start by sizing the neck a bit at a time and eventually it's going to touch the shoulder/case body. Continue lowering the sizing die a bit at a time, set the sizing die at the point those rounds chamber reliably in your rifle. I typically chamber rounds by rotating them 90° at a time to be sure they feed no matter how they sit in the magazine. For target shooting, a bit of resistance is not an issue, however for hunting you get one wrong and it's an issue. Park BS argumentative attitudes at the door fellas, if this is where you need to compare size it's ridiculous. Predictable who shows up with that in most cases.

 

[Harvey_NW]

You might still get some case stretch after pulling the expander up. Better would be to pull the expander and use a mandrel.

I've heard of it but never had it happen, but I have had what I mentioned. Let me just say running a case through a sizing die and having it come out longer will make you scratch your head and question things!

 

[35WhelenAI]

Lube the inside of the case neck and stretch minimizes. I use a nylon cleaning brush with a thin cotton patch wrapped around it coated in dry graphite. A small ziploc bag with dry graphite is a great place to dip the brush to keep it coated consistently. Case stretch can be and is part of the game depending on what your goal is for sizing and the purpose of the rounds.

 

[mlevimadden]

Can you share the materials you sourced your assertion from that competitors these days are overwhelmingly full length resizing after every shot?

If you are neck sizing for a few initial shots or so until you feel positive headspace - cases touching the chamber shoulder while closing the bolt, I can assure you that all else being equal, you won't experience feeding issues if you then bump the shoulder back .02-03 instead of full length resizing the brass.

In several years of reading multiple forums, listening to shooting podcasts, watching YouTube reloading tutorials, and shooting matches, I have yet to come across a top shooter that is neck sizing. Even the old benchrest guys like Cortina and Glasscock FL size now.

If you know a top NRL shooter who is sharing information that they are neck sizing I’m happy to learn and hear their reasoning for why.

I’m sure you don’t have any feeding issues bumping headspace by 20-30 thousandths but that’s definitely an excessive amount that would require a thinner shell holder for most my dies to actually achieve and will definitely affect brass life.

What terminology would you use to diferentiate pushing the shoulder all the way back to starting length vs moving it minimally once a case is fully expanded?

Factory ammo and virgin brass is usually made to below SAAMI minimum dimensions, so I guess I would call it sizing below SAAMI minimum.

I don’t know of anyone doing that for precision bolt rifle applications but maybe some guys are doing it for 223 brass they want to shoot in both their bolt gun and an AR or something.

None of my reloading buddies strictly neck size anymore. The last holdout who is usually the last to accept anything new finally had a round not be able to chamber on a hunt a couple years ago and saw the light.

I’m not trying to attack neck sizing, I was just trying to give the OP some information on the pros and cons.

 

[RME]

I've heard of it but never had it happen, but I have had what I mentioned. Let me just say running a case through a sizing die and having it come out longer will make you scratch your head and question things!

I've never had cases lengthen (that I know of anyway) from the expander ball either. Not saying it can't happen, just that I haven't seen it. It's possible people may be attributing case lengthening to the expander ball when it's actually the body being squeezed.

FWIW, with new brass or whenever the case has yet to completely fill the chamber, I like the measure a bunch of cases to find the handful with the longest datum length. Then set the FL die to just push the shoulder forward on those longest cases. Repeat the process if need be on the second firing and usually that's enough for a good case fit to the chamber.

 

[35WhelenAI]

The above post is good food for thought. A guy could remove the expander ball from the equation with a full length die, see if the case lengthens the same amount, or none at all, or somewhere in between.