Howdy. Was wanting input on neck turning. Does a uniform wall thickness make a noticable difference in the performance of the load.

Hello Joe,

I tried turning my necks for awhile and didn't notice any difference in my group sizes. My understanding is that it's not that useful for cases used in factory chambers. Benchrest or custom chambers are a different story. They are tights as well as precise. Chambers in factory rifles tend to be oversized and sloppy. You can post this question at www.benchrest.com
and they can give you all the particulars.

Where in Maryland are you? I formerly lived in Hyattsville and Landover Hills some years ago. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

Howdy. thanx for the input cal. I have never turned my necks ( i trim them ) and was curious. I live in cecil Co. The north east corner of the state near the pa and del line. Its not a bad area close to the bays for fishing there is plenty of deer here and i go to western md for turkey

Neck turning MAY be necesary if you are forming brass from another case such as making 243win form 308brass and especially if it is military brass. Other then that it is usually superfluous for factory chambers.

Neck turning is one of those things that may make a tenth of an inch or so of improvement. Not much improvement in a 1.25 inch group but really noticeable in a 0.25 inch one.
Good shooting
Bill C.

I am very "persnickity" when it comes to handloading. I am maybe a bit fanatical, but I do everything that might help my loads be identical, particularly when I'm working up loads. I figure that if the case necks are uniform, it can't hurt accuacy, and it might actually help it. I've never loaded any cases without checking the neck and turning as required, so I don't have anything to compare to. But I love working with my reloading equipment, so I don't mind "going the extra mile" even if it only matters a little in the end product. Just my 2 penny's worth

Blaine

Neck turning can be usefull if you have a tight chamber, use insert style neck sizing dies, form cases from other brass, have very unequal neck wall thickness or just want to spend a lot of time on case preperation. If you are shooting a factory standard chamber it is highly unlikely that you will see any change in your group size. I have seen many others along with myself (yes I admit it, happened a long while back) that heard about neck turning, they got all the equipment and proceeded to turn the necks on a whole batch of new cases. Unfortunately, when it came ime to load all of the new cases it was discovered that maybe I & they should not have turned the necks so that material was removed from all the circumfrence of the neck because now the case would not hold the bullet.

Seriously, unless you have a dire need to you would be better off getting a good & high quality combination full & neck sizing die such as the Redding S die, This die full legnth sizes and has interchangeable inserts so that you can neck size to provide .001 - .002" neck tension on your cases. Save time and shoot more. My .02

Neck turning can be usefull if you have a tight chamber, use insert style neck sizing dies, form cases from other brass, have very unequal neck wall thickness or just want to spend a lot of time on case preperation. If you are shooting a factory standard chamber it is highly unlikely that you will see any change in your group size. I have seen many others along with myself (yes I admit it, happened a long while back) that heard about neck turning, they got all the equipment and proceeded to turn the necks on a whole batch of new cases. Unfortunately, when it came ime to load all of the new cases it was discovered that maybe I & they should not have turned the necks so that material was removed from all the circumfrence of the neck because now the case would not hold the bullet.

Seriously, unless you have a dire need to you would be better off getting a good & high quality combination full & neck sizing die such as the Redding S die, This die full legnth sizes and has interchangeable inserts so that you can neck size to provide .001 - .002" neck tension on your cases. Save time and shoot more. My .02

The reason I neck turn my cases the first time I load is two fold: 1) When I prepare my cases, I want all the outside dimensions to be identical so that when I weigh the cases to "batch" them I know that any difference in weight is in the wall thickness of the case, and therefore in the case capacity. The amount I take off the neck wall might be very slight, but I batch my cases to the closest .3 grs when possible, and I feel better knowing that I have the closest to uniform I can humanly get. 2) I feel that when the pressure builds behind that bullet during firing, the more uniform the "grip" the neck has on the bullet, the straighter the bullet's release will be.

I realize that neck sizing is not for everyone. Some of us don't mind taking the extra time to "dote" over our loads. It may not even improve performance of the round, but I get satisfaction in the process of hand loading and enjoy "tinkering".

With regard to the sizing dies, I use a collect style Lee neck sizing die in the final step of my case prep to "finalize" the neck sizing. These dies size the neck to .001" less than nominal ( example: .242 for a .243 bullet) and actually help to center the neck axially. Incidentally, I believe that if the neck is sized uniformly, the die can better align the neck to the case axis.

The main reason bench rest shooters neck size is that the throats of their guns have a much tighter tolerances than commercial guns and they actually need to turn the necks so that the rounds will chamber. Although neck fit, is not an issue with most of us, I will continue to turn the necks of all my cases when used for the first time......All the best..........Blaine