Neck turning - never say never

L

ligonierbill

New member
Not shooting in any precision discipline, I never thought I'd be turning case necks. But...my 40-82 Winchester slugs 0.409 (standard bullet is 0.406). So, cast some, no problem. Except they won't chamber. Buffalo Arms 0.408 gas checks won't either (well, sometimes). These are 260 grain bullets, which was standard. BA 280 gr 0.407 will chamber, but they don't shoot well at all.

According to Mike Venturino, oversize bores are not uncommon, and he provides a solution. Yep, turn down the necks. He suggests a tool from RCBS. It's not commonly stocked, but you can order direct from them, which I did. Dedicated makers of true precision ammo will probably have a good laugh over this thing. It looks like an oversized pencil sharpener. But it does appear to work. I shaved 1 mil off two cases and I'm about to load some dummy 0.409 rounds. We shall see. Can't be this easy.
 
My own foray into neck turning was over some 5.56 cases I converted to 300 BLK. Thought I'd have to do a lot of it, so I bought the Hornady Neck Turning Tool. I can't say it was money well spent as I've only saved about 30 cases...300 Blk brass is quite readily available now. At least it's useful for any caiber, and I have it mounted on a plate for easy bench installation as needed.
 
Might work. If I want to shoot bullets larger than .476" in my .475 Tremor, I have to neck turn. Tony Rumore (Tromix) spec'd the chamber super tight at the neck. There just isn't any room for a bigger bullet.

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I rebarreled my .220 Swift to .243 Win, because I was tired of frequent trimming and neck turning.

Fast forward a decade, and I was quite happy with my selection of low maintenance cartridges.
Then I decided to go for a ".223 family" cartridge in .17 caliber. I weighed all of them - standard and wildcats - and eventually settled on .17-223 because it was supposed to be "size, load, shoot".

Yea...
Guess which modern cartridge is my most labor intensive now and requires neck turning, a specially modified shell holder, multiple annealing steps, primer pocket swaging, crimp removal, and much more, because it turns out that the best cases to convert are Winchester military. :rolleyes:
 
How thick is the brass there? Is it like a 45-70? I was just thinking that if the brass got too thin, another possibility is to get a custom mold for a heeled bullet with the wide part at 0.410-0.411" with the crimp groove under the heel, then shorten the cases to make room for the bearing surface. It would look like a giant .22 rimfire bullet. Crimp would have to be rolled in or applied with a special plier with profiled jaws.
 
Unclenick, that might work, and I might end up there. I have loaded heeled bullets in a .41 Long Colt. I have scrounged brass with 40-82 headstamp and brass formed from 45-70 and 45-90. I also have new 45-90 brass to size, as I've read 45-70 comes out a tad short. But I have no means to get a good thickness measurement. That said, it worked for Mike Venturino, and I should only need to shave a mil. No problem chambering 0.407 bullets.
 
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