Thread: Neck turning

Who neck turns? What’s your set up?

Nick Harvey mentioned in his book years ago about the pros and cons of it. Me I ignored it and went down the route for perfection. Did thousands of rounds for various calibres. Now the K&M kit sits unused in the reloading box.. The Holy Grail was in annealing. Never looked back and groups shrunk with unturned necks. Go figure.

I have a K&M one.

K&M is where it's at.

Honestly, unless you are doing hyper accuracy string shooting stuff like F-class, I would not bother with neck turning.

Get an AMP annealer, buy good brass, and practice more (preferably using a 22LR that matches your competition setup)...

Originally Posted by TeRei

Nick Harvey mentioned in his book years ago about the pros and cons of it. Me I ignored it and went down the route for perfection. Did thousands of rounds for various calibres. Now the K&M kit sits unused in the reloading box.. The Holy Grail was in annealing. Never looked back and groups shrunk with unturned necks. Go figure.

Same experience. Have a fortune tied up in a K&M. Only have one chambering that I will neck turn again for and that's when I next replace the brass for it. It's a super tight neck, another situation I don't do anymore in chambering.

Also, I no longer have to chase donuts anymore since I parted company with my 284.

About a year back I did spend more money on my K&M kit and bought 4 angled cutters to cover all the neck angles of my cartridges. Have still to use them...... Highly recommend that whatever is purchased it has the ability to correctly cut in to the shoulder at the right angle.

The K&M is good but there are others out there with possibly better features eg the Pumpkin.

The quote from Harvey is his 1st edition pg 30 and he notes hunters should spend their time ensuring cases are trimmed to correct length. Harvey never did or ever commented on annealing.Your gains will be achieved there. There is a comment currently in this Forum that correct annealing can only be accomplished by a machine.Suggest this is nonsense. Annealing is achieved by the correct amount of heat at the right distance. How it is applied is irrelevant. Brass does not think hence it reacts by altering its structure by the proper amount of heat. Sorta like suggesting a deer can only be killed by a 65gr Sierra if it shot from an expensive carbon Sako. The projectile kills not the gun. One of the most successful hunters I ever met spotlighted Kaingaroa from 1980 to 1987. Caught once and gave it up. His weapon ?...the venerable 303. Why? ...because the deer never gotta way.He should know because it paid for his house which in Taupo is no mean feat because it is an expensive place to live.

I neck turn, to achieve consistent nick tension, accuracy increased moderately. I use the Hornady tool, with the Lee case holder in a 18v Drill. I can neck turn 60 cases an hour with high accuracy.

Neck turning is well worth doing. You'd be surprised the numbers of necks that are not consistently thick around the 360 degree rotation. Only Lapua are consistently in the expected range.

Winchester 243WSSM cases, both empty cases and factory loaded, are beyond credibility for uneven neck thickness, and not cut square. Necks are visibly faulty even in factory ammunition Neck turning and trimming are an absolute necessity for that calibre.

And I have seen (admittedly less than the extreme of 243WSSM) variance in neck thickness in .223/5.56, 17Rem, .243, and .270. It is a good process to undertake to ensure your reloading group have consistent neck tension.

I follow what benchresters do to achieve ultimate accuracy - and one of those tasks is to neck turn my brass. The Lee device for spinning the case for neck turning is so easy and quick to complete the task. And you only have to neck turn a case once.

Cheers for the reply’s guys. I have an AMP annealer so I’ve got that part covered. I was more curious about neck turning due to wildcat case forming and necking down. Thinking 6-6.5x47 lapua and 7-300WSM

Originally Posted by Tuckerbox

Cheers for the reply’s guys. I have an AMP annealer so I’ve got that part covered. I was more curious about neck turning due to wildcat case forming and necking down. Thinking 6-6.5x47 lapua and 7-300WSM

Yes it’s handy for that, when I first got my 260 I didn’t have any brass for it so I resized some 308 brass down, then gave it a light neck turn and more importantly gave it a small cut into the shoulder to stop donuts forming later on.

Recently I neck turned some federal 270 brass I was given as it was quite a bit thicker than the Nosler I’m using and as I use a bushing die I wanted it the same thickness.

My suggestion is to buy cheap brass and neck turn, or buy quality brass (Norma, Lapua, etc) and you wont have to. My experience is that Norma and Lapua are very consistent in neck thickness and concentricity. A lot of other brass isnt

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