Is there a downside to necksizing only?

[ol Bust Head]

For hunting loads is there a downside to necksizing only? Currently, I only necksize my brass that is fired only from my gun. It seems to me I don't have to run the risk of a stuck case while full length resizing. I understand also that neck sizing also improves accuracy and minimizes the need for case trimming. I'd appreciate thoughts or concerns.

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[No_Regerts]

I guess if you were an open country/long range hunter, no. Not just because of accuracy, but because its less critical if I have a feeding issue. Any type of hunting up close or vs anything that will eat or stomp me, I full-length resize my ammo. It will feed more reliably.

 

[rasputin]

I think the only downside is that they may not chamber readily in a rifle other than the one they were fired in. I used to neck size only a lot of .223 brass and I believe you're right, it improves accuracy and reduces the need to trim. It also extends the life of the brass.

 

[Goosebrown]

More than that. Neck sizing slowly flows the brass toward the shoulder and meeting with the neck. If you resize the same brass repeatedly your brass may get progressively harder to chamber. If it does get yourself a shoulder die that pushes the shoulder back. Redding has them. I use one every 5th loading or so.

IMO for hunting you're better off with regular full size dies.

 

[jordanka16]

If you full length size correctly neck sizing is not more accurate, it also won't extend brass life. It can cause rounds to be difficult to chamber, or not chamber at all, and you have to have separate lots of brass for each rifle.

 

[HB of CJ]

Ancient history. Back in High School 50+ years ago I only neck sized my hand loads for my Winchester Garand. Worked great. But ... only I shot my hand loads and only through that rifle. No other. Did have to trim to length. The hand loads fit easily into the chamber and the bolt closed nicely. LC brass. 150 grain FMJ "seconds" from Sierra Bullets way back when they were in Santa Fe Springs LA, CA.

Depends upon the application, need, expected results, time, effort, lack of money, etc..

 

[Otter]

I sold all my neck sizing dies 5 years ago. FL sizing has been just as accurate or more so, and I don't trim any more than I used to.

Quit neck sizing because I got a case stuck in a rifle and had to pay the man about $150 to get it out and re-chamber because we damaged the throat of the barrel in the process. Brass was allocated to that rifle only and over time it grew, work hardened and got to the point where it didn't spring back to original size, so it got stuck.

For hunting, I would never use a neck sized case, for that reason. Last thing you want is a stuck case.

 

[thorborg]

Although I never made a second shot while hunting, especially while overly excited, I have made plenty fast follow ups while practicing for hunting.
Based on that:
Thirty five years + hunting and target with neck sizing only all my .270 loads with never a feed or eject issue.
Same rifle used; M77 Ruger.
Many different loads, powders and bullet weights (100gr to 170gr).
High polished brass.

(I don't know, other brass shapes may react differently as may semi auto's. Just a thought)

If for different rifles, I would FL size to be assured smooth action.

 

[KKG]

Whatever system you decide to use, you should run each and every round of your hunting ammo through the rifle.

 

[DLS]

Is the only reason you are neck sizing the fear of getting a case stuck in the sizer die as you state? If so that's not really a big issue, just properly lube your cases. Have a stuck case remover on hand just in case. I've been reloading since the mid 70's and only had a stuck case one time, and this was when I was experimenting with how little lube was necessary to size the case. My stuck case remover has been used a few more times helping friends over the years … maybe three other times, so it's been nice to have on hand even if it's been decades since I needed it myself.

Neck sizing only does have some drawbacks in that the cartridge headspace is so little that chambering can be a problem (see Goosebrown's post above). When the shoulder of the case is in contact with the chamber it does reduce stretching and subsequent trimming, but at a cost.

A dirty chamber can make chambering difficult. While you might think it is clean, things have a way of getting dirty without our knowledge while in the field. A bit of dirt or a frozen drop of water that "got in there somehow" are culprits I've seen before.

An Alaska based buddy of mine tells of stories from his professional hunting guide friends where a clients gun will chamber rounds at the lodge, not chamber after the getting in the back country due to the frigid cold and then again chambering once they return to the lodge. While this is not often, it does happen and the "saving" (whether in accuracy or in brass life) intended by ammo this tightly spec'd pales to the was lost due to the problems of not having your chosen rifle on an expensive guided hunt.

so, very cold gun can be a problem, especially if you loaded in the summer and are now hunting in very cold temperatures. Ammo that somehow gets misshapen from a perfect round shape is potentially a problem if you are setting your cartridge headspace to zero.

Since properly sizing your cases does not make a meaningful accuracy improvement in typical hunting guns (you are not using your bench rest chambered rail gun to hunt are you?) and does not make a meaningful increase in case life why chance it?

On my hunting guns I bump my shoulders back 0.002 - 0.003in and make sure I have a minimum of 0.010 bullet jump just to give me some "breathing room" in the chamber. When I compare rounds loaded to these specs to ones with zero cartridge headspace and neck sizing only, and let bullet jump a "ideal" minimum there is "perhaps if lucky" a measurable difference off the bench, but we are talking 1/10 of and inch or so. My field positions create far more variance than this!

This is why I feel neck-only sizing is not worth it for any type of field gun. The almost imperceptible (if even there at all) improvement in group size is not worth the risk of chambering problems, no matter how minute.

I hope this helps!

 

[pharmseller]

I segregate cases by rifle and number of firings. Neck size only. Lee collet die. Easy, quick, accurate.




P

 

[INTJ]

Looks like the downsides of neck only sizing have been covered. I FL size for everything, even my long range BR rifle. I bump the shoulder .001 to .002. I too used to think the neck only sizing was the most accurate way but when I started LR BR I quickly found that almost everyone bumped the shoulder vs neck only sizing.

I have even gone to small base sizing for my BR rifle each time. There is zero accuracy loss and I never have an issue with that annoying slight stickiness at the top of bolt lift. I don't small base size for hunting rifles because the chambers are more generous. Regardless, as long as shoulders are set fairly consistently there doesn't seem to be any downside to pushing back the shoulder a couple thousands.

 

[Member 5605]

Yes.
You can have second round feeding issues because:

At some point the headspace will grow and will not allow the bolt to close. You can bump the shoulder .003-.005" with the full length die and not have any issues while saving brass stretch.

That's what I do a lot. Sometimes though I necksize one cycle or two but I go back to a full length with shoulder bump only.

 

[DLS]

Whatever system you decide to use, you should run each and every round of your hunting ammo through the rifle.

Full agreement on this!

 

[orygun]

Whatever system you decide to use, you should run each and every round of your hunting ammo through the rifle.

First off, this. If you are discovering that your rifle will not chamber a round in the field, you didn't do your homework.
For those of you stating that FL is the only way to go, I will point out that is an opinion based on experience with certain rifles. like Dogs and kids, each rifle has it's own characteristics to be dealt with.

Anyone here got a clue about reloading British 303? Keep on full length sizing those cases and you will need a stuck case remover... for your rifle's chamber! I don't think even a brand new 303 (if there is such a thing) has the shoulder anywhere near where the new case suggests....

Before we changed my 06 to an 06AI, I used regular ol RCBS full length dies, but would not push the shoulder back, sort of using it like a neck sizer only. Worked well. After, I bought the neck sizing die only and have experienced zero issues. There may come a time where the cases need the shoulder set back, but some of my cases have been thru the chamber 4 times after the first fireforming step and no issues have been found, yet. This is a gun with a "loose" chamber. It's diameter is at the largest end of the tolerance. A full length sizing die would work the brass much more than needed and would surely shorten case life. A SB die would be even worse.

When I did load up 7mm-08 for my wife's rifle I wish I had bought a neck sizer. Full length sizing with non modified Hornady dies left cases that would not chamber in her gun. (there's that part about test fitting each and every round.) A non resized case would fit, but the dies left the shoulder too far forward as it "squoze" the case down. A neck sizer would not have. Not a common complaint, but one I had to deal with.

Almost nothing in reloading is set in stone and these examples are just that, examples.

If one would like to see what neck sizing only is like, just pull your sizer die about a turn out and give it a go, just like I used to do.

That said, with no personal experience with a given rifle, I would start with a good set of FL dies. Depending on chamber dimensions or action style (semi auto) Small Base dies may be the ticket, but I would only try them as a second option.

 

[DLS]

First off, this. If you are discovering that your rifle will not chamber a round in the field, you didn't do your homework.

+1 on this!

For those of you stating that FL is the only way to go, I will point out that is an opinion based on experience with certain rifles. like Dogs and kids, each rifle has it's own characteristics to be dealt with.

Anyone here got a clue about reloading British 303? Keep on full length sizing those cases and you will need a stuck case remover... for your rifle's chamber! I don't think even a brand new 303 (if there is such a thing) has the shoulder anywhere near where the new case suggests....

The .303 is a good cartridge to bring up in this discussion. It was designed to headspace off the rim and to have a great deal of clearance between the case shoulder and the chamber shoulder. If memory serves on the order of a minimum of 0.015 or more! Since it was never imagined that a grunt would be firing reloaded ammo this did not present a danger of a case head separation and ensured even a very short, very dirty, and very cold chamber would always accept the round. The fired case was never expected to be used again so the excessive (by reloading standards) forward movement of the shoulder was not an issue.

Since FL dies are set to size a case to original specifications this ensures you will have excessive shoulder set back on the .303 and within a few firings an incipient case head separation at minimum to a full blown case head separation at worst. (This is true of the .22 Hornet but to a lessor extent due to the very shallow shoulder angle of this round). So the answer is to set the shoulder back only a minimal amount by unscrewing the die from the normal FL setting of firm contact with the shell holder.

To accurately and consistently do this you need some type of cartridge measurement tool, several exist. By using these tools you can back out your dies so they partially size and minimally set back the shoulder to the desired measurement. For me that's in the range of 0.002 to 0.003 for my hunting rifles. [/QUOTE]

When I did load up 7mm-08 for my wife's rifle I wish I had bought a neck sizer. Full length sizing with non modified Hornady dies left cases that would not chamber in her gun. (there's that part about test fitting each and every round.) A non resized case would fit, but the dies left the shoulder too far forward as it "squoze" the case down. A neck sizer would not have. Not a common complaint, but one I had to deal with.

I would send that rifle back to the manufacture to have them tweak the chamber as it is below cartridge headspace minimums, assuming it was not an out of spec. die. That or you could take the die to a machine shop and have them take a few thousands off of the bottom. How did new factory loads chamber by the way?

Almost nothing in reloading is set in stone and these examples are just that, examples.

+1 here as well

If one would like to see what neck sizing only is like, just pull your sizer die about a turn out and give it a go, just like I used to do.

Depending on the setting, you may get a bit of body resizing when doing this with a FL die, but if that happens you are probably better off unless you have a massively large chamber dimension in the case body area.

Good post orygun!

 

[orygun]

I would send that rifle back to the manufacture to have them tweak the chamber as it is below cartridge headspace minimums, assuming it was not an out of spec. die.

I believe it was the die. I'm too impatient to send things like that back. I just fix 'em.
While I like the bullet seater of the Hornady New Dimension and my 375 Ruger dies were perfect, that sizer issue kinda bugged me. I've yet to try another set of dies for that rifle, but it's never given signs of chamber woes.

 

[DLS]

Sounds like it was the die then. How did you fix the die … take in in to a machine shop and shave the bottom a bit?

 

[P7M13]

Before we changed my 06 to an 06AI, I used regular ol RCBS full length dies, but would not push the shoulder back, sort of using it like a neck sizer only.

This is one step I have had difficulty with. Can you share how you measure this? Doing it by "feel" is problematic for me, even with the expander ball removed.

 

[INTJ]