Partial necksizing

Kari Prager

Dear Friends,
What do people think about partial necksizing? Necksizing just down far enough to hold the bullet firmly in the case, but not down to the shoulder, the theory being that it would help center the case (fired once already) in loosely reamed chambers?
It's another reason to segregate brass by rifle and not work the brass so much that hopefully I can get away without using the arcane process of annealing.
I just got my old Savage 19H .22 Hornet relined and will see how it shoots this Sunday.
It's a pretty little rifle, with a period Malcolm scope, and i have high hopes for it.
Merry Christmas et al.
Kari

mrbruce

Most all the Wislon type of sizers only size about a 3/4 of the way down the neck and work very well until they need to be full length sized because they get really hard to chamber.
I wouldn't partial neck size with a full length sizing die unless they were designed to do that.

Kari Prager

Dear Mr. Bruce,
I am using a Redding neck-size die, so I hope that will prevent the problems of using a
full-length die. I have been doing this for quite some time on my .303 and 7.5 Swiss
as well as the Hornet, and it seems to work, as well as one can tell from these (relatively)
inaccurate rifles. It is interesting what you told me about the Wilson die, in some ways
it validates the theory.
Thanks for your answer,
Kari

JustC

Lots of guys use PFL sizing. I acually use it in a few factory rifles to keep from overworking the brass and provide a more positive chambering. The key is setting the die to just pull the shoulder FWD by about .001"-.002". The compressed fit will help to center the round with a slight crush against the shoulder, holding it more in line with the centerline of the bore. By bumping shoulders back during FL sizing,..it allows the round to sit on the bottom of the chamber since there is nothing to hold it in place in the chamber.

scrubberguy

Kari:
Neck sizing can make very accurate shells. Most "expert" shooters have been doing some form of neck sizing for years.

Here's a tip: buy a set of Lee deluxe dies for your Hornet! I did and they work great! This die set has two sizing dies one full length and one they call a "collet" die that neck sizes only! This die set is $41.98 and has a shell holder to boot.

I'm finding that I'm not haveing a case "stretching" problem with the collet dies. I'm on my 4 th reload of a batch of hornet cases and still no problem chambering. And no case's have required trimming since the original batch was prepped which I will say means no stretching?

Still working with these dies in several other calibers, but so far I think these dies are a treasure waiting to be discovered![8D]

Kari Prager

God Morning Gentlemen!
JustC got me to wondering, how you bump a shoulder forward (!) a couple thou. with a full-length die run part-way down? Is it the stretch on the case as you withdraw it from the die? Otherwise I understad the point the principle and it seems to make veru good fr; I am going to try it as long as I don't make my case body diameter any smaller. I'll try t on my K31'sand Enfields that I shoot a lot.
Scrubberguy, I like the idea of a collet die! Lee can be very innovative. Also I think RCBS might make an "x" die that does the same thing?. The key will be leaving the body alone,
judt sizing the neck, and ideally, not having to trim, which would mean I'm not really moving the brass around. With those flimsy little Hornet cases that's good!
I reloaded 200 rounds of Hornet ammunition last night, 100 for the new Savage Model 40
and 100 rounds for the re-lined Savage 19H (new cases) We shall see after I go to the range this morning... Thanks again for two very interesting and helpful comments.
Kari

mrbruce

Kari--
When your PFL sizing a case the brass needs to expand someplace when it's being sized in the die, and if your spot on what your doing you will lengthen the case by a few thousandths.
Think about squeezing a tube of toothpaste with the top still on it, it has to go some place.
The only problem with necksizing only is that sooner or later you'll need to bump the shoulder back, and that can be solved with a body die if you have one.

JustC

Kari,..when you are PFL sizing, the die body hasn't been run down enough to contact the shoulder (which is what bumps shoulders back). However, the die body is still far enough down to contact the expansion ring at the base of the case body, which when compressed, forces the brass inwards and thus the shoulder will grow fwd. There is a very small amount of adjustment range that will cause this,..so setting the dies to do this can take some time.

dcs shooters

Scrubber hit it right on the Lee die set. I use them on my 223's and they work just as well as my RCBS Comp dies for 308.
The collet just squezes the neck against the center post that is the same diameter all the way down. There is no way the brass streches that way.

Kari Prager

Hi Guys! Thanks for clearing up that business of the case shoulder moving. I never really thought about bumping the shoulder back, either. I guess it's too late to ask my wife for
some more dies for Christmas! Anyway she got me a set of diopter target sights that go on my Schmidt Rubins and an aperture target sight for the front of my best Enfield. At least that's what I hope those itty bitty boxes have in them! Hope you all have a great Christmas and that your families are all healthy and happy.
I found a new quote that is pretty good:
"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm."
Sir Winston Churchill.
That pretty well sums up my attempts to get good 1/2" accuracy out of a .22 Hornet.

scrubberguy

Kari:
THE WIFE'S A KEEPER!

Merry Christmas[8D]