Neck turning is a once off job?

[dustin]

Correct me if I'm wrong... Neck turning your brass is as once off job, right?

You do it to new brass to get it right, then it's good going forward.

You don't need to maintain the turning along with trimming it do you?

[Apollo]

The answer can be Yes and No.

It depends on a few factors like what calibre design is the cartridge, shoulder angle, how tight is the clearance in the chamber, what brand of cases, how many firings etc.

Brass does flow not only from the shoulder forward to the neck junction but around the neck as well. Ever so tiny the amount but if you have a very tight clearance fit in the chamber then it should be checked from time to time and perhaps corrected by turning especially if the dreaded donut happens.

General use or precision competition target where you want to keep everything absolutely spot on during the life of the cartridge case. Are they annealed and how often are they annealed. Some anneal every reload so the brass stays the same hardness or is that softness which may or may not result in more brass flow over time.

Good question and not a simple answer.

One example may be.. I have a 30BR and 100 Lapua Cases. Nobody has yet stated they have ever worn out a barrel nor a case. One example I know of is a person that has fired 7-8,000 rounds through one barrel with the same lot of cases. I would imagine the case dimensions should be checked perhaps every dozen or two reloads and corrected ie FLS, expand and re-turn to maintain correct clearance. From memory my loaded round clearance is tight like 0.0025" or less and I would be checking this from time to time plus the neck thickness at different points around the neck after perhaps a dozen firings or so. I haven't reached a half dozen yet in either of the two 30BR's I use.

[Bourt]

You don't need to maintain the turning along with trimming it do you?

You're pretty much on the money, neck turning is about getting the case in spec and consistent from the get go.

Unless your maybe chasing fanatical accuracy like Apollo describes.

[sungazer]

The other point is that it is only worth neck turning if you have a custom made chamber with a tight neck dimension. Other wise your necks will be worked more as they will have more wriggle room in the chamber which is not great as gasses can get back further

[Bourt]

Hmmm, do you think?

I'm not sure I'd say there is no point. Fair enough they'll get worked a bit more, but you'll have consistent necks compared to factory variance.

Whether or not that's worth anything to the individual is another question, just talking theory here.

[Apollo]

There's plenty of people that Neck Turn that don't have a Custom Chamber.

Most often it's called a "Skim Turn" where you only turn enough say to cover about 70-80% of the neck and the idea is to just even out most of the variation of neck thickness which helps with more even bullet tension. This is not by any means a lot of reduction over the total neck, say 0.0005" which will not work the neck any more than a standard neck thickness.

Some tight, very tight custom chambers (neck) can take 3-4 thousands off just one side measurement depending on the original case thickness. Now we start talking about Bushing Dies that do not stress/work the neck hardly at all compared to a standard type Die.

[sungazer]

I hear what your saying but I doubt the benefits. I mean when you are getting down to those tolerances it would seem to be logical to have consistent higher tolerance components in the whole chain.

[Apollo]

Every little bit helps the whole chain to be just that tad more accurate, especially consistency shot to shot. Quality of the firearm and in my view I wouldn't bother with any of this if I owned say a Remington, well I do have one but it has had a lot of custom work done to the action and not a factory barrel.

The factory type rifles I refer to are for accurate longer range varminting and it all pays off. No short range hunting gear here or with the mates outfits. We varmint shoot and or play competition target. Each to their own as long as you enjoy what you are doing.

[marksman]

Correct me if I'm wrong... Neck turning your brass is as once off job, right?

You do it to new brass to get it right, then it's good going forward.

You don't need to maintain the turning along with trimming it do you?

yes neck turning is a once off job but you do it twice
you are recommended to do it twice to get the right even thickness
I neck turn twice then after fireforming do it again and that is it

I also ream the necks while neck turning to guarantee no do-nut
there is a big difference between neck turning and neck reaming, and one goes with the other
I use the K&M turner with carbide cutter mandrel on my neck turner that reams the inside of the neck at the same time as neck turning
if at a later date you start to get a do-nut you just put the carbide cutter mandrel in to ream the neck
I also use the neck turner on a pedestal drill at slow speed and have a perfect finish fast

the benefits of neck turning are to have uniform necks for concentricity and even neck tension
even with a factory chamber you will get benefit from neck turning, no matter what factory chamber
the only time neck turning is pointless is if you are using lee collet dies because the mandrel centres the inside of the neck
obviously bushing dies are the go for neck turned brass as it makes the outside diameter perfectly round and
the inside is not offset like it would be with unturned necks


so there you go if you don't want to neck turn use lee collet dies
IMHO it's worth it but I do a lot of things for precision that others may think a waste of time

[Apollo]

Without writing a whole page..... you got what I was about.

How well you want your result is how much effort you put into it.

Now, that said..... I have all the gear I use for National Competition Shooting and use that for friends. It's not the case for the general shooter but I use my gear in general because I have it. A lot of money, a bloody lot.

It works, very well and my mates like the results... like Wow..

You can get those results pictured above easily if you try... or have someone do the work for you. Putting 3-5 shots in one hole at 100 metres is not hard.

BTW... Just remember it's not easy either... nor is it the Firearm. It's skill and a lot of practise that makes not only a Target Shooter but a Shooter in the field.

[sungazer]

If your asking me yes I got what your about. I am not at that level of competition. shooting or reloading just yet, hopefully one day. But did you get what I meant? If you had to put all of the reloading tasks that you do in priority of making the most accurate ammo you could and the equipment needed to do it. It would be interesting to see where neck turning would fit.
I have just gone through a process of seating depth accurizing from using a Lee dead length seater as they call it. Although it does have a mandrel inside. To using a Redding competition seater only to find that it too using Berger hybrids they hit the end of the mandrel with their tip rather than on the Ogive. This makes the hole dies purpose redundant as it to is now has seating depth tolerances the same as the difference in each bullet in the order of 10 thou or more. so I have modified the seating mandrel so it doesn't hit the tip of the bullet. I have some VLD seating stems on the way as well as some standard seating mandrels so I can keep one as standard and modify the other to different bullet profiles.
Before that again though I put a accurate or at least a consistent qty of powder that can be measured to at least 1/10 of grain which equates to possibly 7fps at a 1000yrds which is more than will keep you in the X ring.
So like I was trying to say it is a matter of priorities and learning as you learn the biggest contributing factor you learn what the next one is and work your way downwards.
All good I would be very interested in it if you did write a page or more. I wouldn't take it in any way other than positive and sharing and learning. Thats they way we all want to post but it sometimes doesn't come across that way when we write it down.

[Wm.Traynor]

That's a very interesting post,thank you marksman