Problems with neck turning.

H

Heavy Hauler

Inactive
Hello everyone I am new here. I have a bit of a problem with neck sizing for my 7mm08. I started using lee dies and not neck turning, but I figured I would start to increase accuracy and to make myself feel better about my loads. So I bought redding competition dies, the Hornady neck turner and ran into a problem. When I bought .308 brass last year I ran it all through my lee dies to size and decap, now the brass does not fit over the turning mandrel. If I use fire formed brass it will fit, however, there is too much play between the brass and mandrel for my liking and I have been told to always necksize before turning anyway. I tried necksizing with the redding die, but there is no expander ball in the competition series although you can order one from them.

So my big question is, what is my best option? I think this all stems from the 308 being necked down and the cases need to be reamed to thin out the inner brass and allow for the mandrel to fit better, but I want to make sure before I start down another road to find out I have more problems later. Thank you for any help that you can give me.
 
Heavy Hauler,

Welcome to the forum.

This is a standard issue. You can start with fired cases and try different neck bushings until you find one that leaves the mouth at the right ID, but that's a lot of fiddling and may mean buying a number of bushings. I recommend you buy the Sinclair expander mandrel die body and a mandrel the correct diameter (it's what they call an oversize mandrel because it is bigger than their neck turning mandrel by the right amount to over-size it just right for turning). The only problem is the die body is out of stock at the moment, so you'd have to call and see when they will be available.

There's a video on the die's use.

you could also inside ream the resized necks. That won't center them, but it will make them large enough to turn. I'm just not sure exactly how much brass that will leave you with. I like the other solutions better for that reason.
 
Heavy Hauler,

So my big question is what is my best option? I think this all stems from the 308 being necked down and the cases need to be reamed to thin out the inner brass and allow for the mandrel to fit better, but I want to make sure before I start down another road to find out I have more problems later. Thank you for any help that you can give me.
Click to expand...

I suggest you find a reloader that understands what happens to the neck of the case when the neck is necked down. Most reloaders believe the neck gets thicker that puts most reloaders into a category of reloaders that do not measure before and again after. When I neck a case down the case neck gets longer. When I neck a case neck down part of the shoulder becomes neck becomes part of the shoulder. When necking up and or down I use forming dies.

When necking a case neck up the case gets shorter, again reloaders believe it gets thinner. When necking a case neck up part of the neck becomes part of the neck becomes part of the shoulder.

Back to your problem, I have case trimmers that came with bullet guides. The bullet guides would not fit a sized case because the neck inside diameter was too small for the pilot. The pilot would fit a fired case neck. And then the Internet came along and declared the case had to be trimmed after sizing, for me? Not a problem; I trimmed the cases before full length sizing because there is nothing that can provoke me into getting into mortal combat when sticking a case onto a pilot that that is too small for the neck. I understand the pilot could be ground down to a smaller diameter.

I understand there is an infatuation with neck turning; I form cases for chambers that require neck turning because the necks are too thick. The thick necks are caused by forming the shoulder of the case from the case body. I form cases that require the case be trimmed .127”l meaning part of the case body became part of the shoulder and part of the shoulder became part of the neck.

And then there are no absolutes. I have formed 30/06 cases to 308 W chambers for the sole purpose of reducing neck clearance in the chamber. A bench rest type builder had a complaint from one of his customers. He accused the builder of building rifles with loose necks. And I ask: how was accuracy? There was nothing wrong with accuracy but the builder asks for help. I boxed up a few dies and went for a visit. The builder has no less than thousands upon thousands of cases to choose from so I started. I settled on LC Match 30/06 cases. I formed them to 308 W then full length sized for the chamber. When finished the clearance between the neck of the chamber and neck of the case was .003”, the LC Match cases was a no turn solution for the problem.

Point; I have to know the diameter of the neck in the chamber; I have to know the outside diameter of the case neck with a seated bullet.

And then there is precision; I have a 243 Winchester neck reamer die, it is a sizing die with a reamer guide in the top of the die. That is not unlike the old Lee Target Model dies that were neck sizing dies only.

F. Guffey
 
I had the same problem with Hornady Neck Turner. I changed to Foster and all my problems was solved. I think Hornady makes the mandrels a bit oversized.
 
I really like the 21st Century tools for this chore. You get a cutter with a properly angled shoulder, an expander mandrel, and a cutter mandrel, a lathe like gizmo, and it all works exactly as it should. Incremental adjustments to depth of cut are easy with this setup. I bought the tool for my 6.5x47 Lapua with a tight neck, but it is handy with other calibers and factory chambered rifles too.

Though truly, I don't turn necks on cartridges I don't have to. I just buy Lapua brass, which is quite consistent in neck thickness.

OP, get you the expander mandrel and the cutter mandrel for your tool. A relatively inexpensive addition to your tool chest will make it all work hunky dory for you.
 
Heavy Hauler, Is your Redding die a type S? If it is it's a bushing.

Horandy neck turning mandrel dia is .3055"

I don't think Hornady makes expander die like Sinclair does. I would call Hornady and ask what is expander dia 30 cal on neck/ FL sizer and that maybe what you need.
 
wow, thank you for all of the replys.

Unclenick, I decided to get an expander die from 21st century, it looks a lot like the Sinclair die, plus if I must get a new lathe (which I doubt) it will work well with the die from the same manufacturer.

F. Guffey, Thank you for shedding some light on the neck thickness and what happens when necking down and necking up.

old roper, no, I have the competition series of dies. I talked to hornady about the expander dies and they are all intergrated in the full sizing/decapping/neck sizing die, which I do not want to use. It looks like they had a strictly expander die, but they must have stopped making it because I can not find it anywhere.

Thank you all for your help.
 
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