Thread: A then c and b??

think i just had a blonde moment....

so i lube brass deprime and size brass then trim to length. wondering if i should be trimming before pressing brass?

is there some form of lube that you can just dunk the brass into rather than spreading it on the outside with fingers then the inside of neck with a cotton bud? this has now become the most tedious part of reloading now i have a powder trickler!

not tumbling brass and know there are a few DIY in the kitchen sink recipies but does cleaning brass make a difference to accuracy? not too worried about it looking pretty or life of the brass, if i get 4 reloads out of each i'll be happy (4 per brass will give me about 5-7 years of shooting!)

Size then trim as sizing can cause the brass to stretch.

I bought some imperial sizing wax for the outside of the case, it can with some graphite powder that I just push the neck into. Works well.
Imperial Sizing Die Wax 2oz and Dry neck lube | Trade Me

was thinking that, guess the sizing is indexed off the shell holder not the neck length. thank god just put 100 or so through this morning before thinking about it!

Hey 223 nut, not 100% what your doing but I never do a full re-size as once fired your brass is fire formed to your rifles chamber. I only neck size using the Lee neck collet die. This de-primes and re does just the neck tension in one go.
No lube needed !!. I then do any case length trimming, system is excellent, fast, clean and has always been safe and provided excellent groups.

i'm using the lee 50th anniversary kit. using the die that came with that. seems to be working but definately needs lubing or need way too much oomph on the handle to raise the ram all the way up

Get a set of Lee delux dies, normally a 3 die set , sometimes a four die set. You must make sure they have the neck collet die. Around $60 second hand on TM and I think you can buy just the neck collet die new for around $45.
Very easy to set up, I give the neck a quick scrub with neck brush and thats all. No lube at all, very clean and fast and because you are only re- tensioning the neck it takes neck to no effort on the handle plus it de - primes at the same time.
Get one and you will love it, I haven't used a full length die for years.

Most cases require full length resizing or at least a shoulder bump after a certain amount of neck sizing. This especially so if you load very warm to hot loads.

There is some controversy as whether neck sizing offers an accuracy advantage over full length sizing. After over forty years of reloading, I personally believe it depends on the particular rifle being loaded for - some rifles it does and some rifles it doesn't.

Makes sense to trim after resizing - neck, shoulder only or full length.

If you have a bolt action then no question get a lee collett neck sizing die ($50 from reloaders). No lube, no mess and you don't need to trim because it's not stretching the brass. Your brass will last longer which will pay for the die.

If you are lubing the inside of the case with oil based lube then you need to clean it out before putting the powder in. I dip the neck in graphite as stug said so I can just clean the outside.

Flick me a text and bring the whole lot around in the weekend and I can run it through my stainless steel pin tumbler and it will be all bling bling.

You still need to check your brass length no matter what dies are used as the brass flows during firing. Some cartridges are worse than others. Some have virtually no flow eg Ackleys. After you have been loading for your particular cartridge for a while you develop a feel for how often you need to check case length. It is not something I get anal about anymore, more important to make sure they are all the same length.

@223nut

Get yourself some of this lube.
Serious Shooters Super Case Lube Small - case, easily, cases, new, products, no, brass, ... - Serious Shooters

Place your brass in a zip lock plastic bag

Followed by a squirt of lube

Lock the bag

Shake about a bit to coat the brass

Tip the brass out onto a towel and let dry for a few minutes

Use a bristle cleaning brush dipped in a little bit of the lube to lube the inside of the neck

Screw the brush into you bench so you just push the case over the brush just prior to sizing.

Then size.

Then trim

Cheers
Pete

That graphite with lead shot in it seems to work well for neck sizing.

I always full length size anyway, i've seen plenty of people faffing around with stuck brass missing out on shooting because of neck sizing to save 6 seconds per case.

For a hunting gun thats my argument, and for targets I think it could be argued its more consistent anyway.

Each to their own.

Also, I run a tiny bit of lube on a nylon brush, heaps faster than cotton bud I think?

Chris

Originally Posted by crnkin

That graphite with lead shot in it seems to work well for neck sizing.

I always full length size anyway, i've seen plenty of people faffing around with stuck brass missing out on shooting because of neck sizing to save 6 seconds per case.....

Chris

Couldn't agree more for hunting.

With target shooting neck sizing will prolong the life of the brass. It will eventually get harder to close the bolt on neck sized cases in most rifles. I personally use Redding neck and F/L bushing dies and prefer them to the Lee collet die, although they come at a huge increase in cost. For the money the Lee collet die is excellent value.

I think the best system is the lee collett neck die and the redding body die. That way you can size the neck and the body independantly and only size the body when it's needed.

A full length die with an expander ball can cause inaccuracy because it expands the neck on the way out and it only takes a wobbly stem or inconsistant friction on each side of the neck and then neck is no longer concentric. The redding or lee neck die avoids all this.

For bonus points but the redding competition shell holder set so that when you body size your brass you are only sizing them as much as needed. This also leads to better accuracy as it's a tight fit in the chamber so less likely to be misaligned with the bore.

For hunting ammo I got though and neck size all my brass. Then I chamber it all and body size any that are tight to chamber. Typically this is only about once in every 10 reloads. If more than a few need body sizing I body size the lot.

For range ammo I don't worry unless they were really hard to chamber when I shoot them.

Originally Posted by MassiveAttack

....

A full length die with an expander ball can cause inaccuracy because it expands the neck on the way out and it only takes a wobbly stem or inconsistant friction on each side of the neck and then neck is no longer concentric. The redding or lee neck die avoids all this.

For bonus points but the redding competition shell holder set so that when you body size your brass you are only sizing them as much as needed. This also leads to better accuracy as it's a tight fit in the chamber so less likely to be misaligned with the bore.

For hunting ammo I got though and neck size all my brass. Then I chamber it all and body size any that are tight to chamber. Typically this is only about once in every 10 reloads. If more than a few need body sizing I body size the lot.

For range ammo I don't worry unless they were really hard to chamber when I shoot them.

I agree although my preference is for the Redding bushing neck die. The Redding neck and F/L bushing dies don't use an expander ball for the neck. There is one included (don't know why as it defeats the purpose of using interchangeable bushings) but it's easily unscrewed off the decapping rod.

In recent times there has been some debate among precision shooters as to the accuracy benefit of neck vs F/L sizing. I suppose it depends on the particular chamber of the particular rifle. As an example, some of the world's best benchrest shooters F/L resize. I get the same run out using both. Any theoretical advantage as to chamber/bore alignment is just that, I've found. May well be different and no doubt is in some other shooter's rifles.

Certainly, for deer hunting at the range where probably 90% or more deer are taken, there is no advantage to neck sizing and only advantages to F/L or body sizing. I learnt a long time ago to keep it simple. You don't want any ammo chambering issues when there's a nice stag staring at you.

I full length size everything, only trim to length the first time I load a case and then wouldn't bother untill they start getting excessive, havnt had to trim to length twice as I havnt used any brass for more than two firings yet. Clean brass will run a lot smoother through a full length die and require only the tiniest bit of lube, I use Unique as a tiny little bit goes a long way and I have never dented a shoulder with it unlike the Lee lube, too little and end up with stuck cases, tiny bit more and end up with dented shoulders. I prime on the press so empty brass is cleaned, sized plus de-primed plus re-primed, neck chamfered, then loaded