best "bang for buck" neck turner and chuck?

[Oliveralan]

Hello,

I'm looking for recommendations on good value case neck turners and drill chucks to go with them. I'm getting into competitive f-t/r class but since im still in highschool, cash is a little tight. So instead of buying lapua like most guys, im buying winchester brass and doing complete case prep, just havent gotten a neck turner yet, i have a moderatly tight chamber, i could get by not turning necks, but cleaning them up a bit will sure help.

So, any recommendations on where i can get a good value one would be great ( if someone could sell me a used one with 30cal pilot would be awsome) and if anyone knows where to get a drill chuck that will work with .308win cases would be nice too. Looked at the R W Hart one on midway, but 30 bucks for that little thing? seems like your paying for the name more than anything... cant imagine production costs would be terribly high...

Thanks in advance,
Oliver

 

[Winchester 69]

Why not get a ball mic and sort your brass by variation in neck-wall thickness?

 

[Oliveralan]

This may be wrong, but how I see it, isn't it better to make the neks uniform than to sort them by how uniform they are? Turning them would mean less culls =less wasted money. Please correct me if I'm wrong, just trying to save some money and still make my handloads the best they can be.

 

[woods]

Just because you turn them does make a good case out of a bad one

best to get good cases to begin with.

But if you want a turner then I would recommend the Forster Hot 100

Forster Hand Held Outside Neck Turner - MidwayUSA

 

[bigngreen]

The Forester one is what I use, nothing fancy but for the price it works good. There is something to say for starting with cheap brass and learning how to work with it and learn on it. I kinda suck when you muff up 20$ worth of brass getting the hang of stuff.

 

[Mikecr]

I second Winchester 69
If you're only lookin to clean-up variance, it's cost effective to simply identify the lack of it.
Otherwise, your spending money and alot of time to save every piece of crappy brass, without really finding every piece of excellent brass.

Thickness variance runs full length of cases. This comes into play with every springback because thicker sections springback more than thinner. Eventually you end up with bananas for ammo, and sizing won't fix it (it amplifies it).
Buy 1,000 pieces of brass, measure it to pull out ~200 with little to no thickness variance, rake the rest in the trash can. Brass is cheap.
These will stay straight longer than turned turds, so they are worth all additional prepping efforts. In the long term, you do not want to be wasting these efforts(they suk).

 

[Oliveralan]

Bigngreen, hit the nail on the head! I dont have the money to be "experimenting" with lapua brass, even wasting a new Winchester case hurts.

Woods, thanks for the diagram, never really thought about that. Is Winchester brass really that crappy though? And if the neck is out of allignment with the case, wouldn't trimming, neck sizing, then trimming again fix that? I'm using a lee collect neck sizing die, if that changes anything.

 

[Oliveralan]

I second Winchester 69
If you're only lookin to clean-up variance, it's cost effective to simply identify the lack of it.
Otherwise, your spending money and alot of time to save every piece of crappy brass, without really finding every piece of excellent brass.

Thickness variance runs full length of cases. This comes into play with every springback because thicker sections springback more than thinner. Eventually you end up with bananas for ammo, and sizing won't fix it (it amplifies it).
Buy 1,000 pieces of brass, measure it to pull out ~200 with little to no thickness variance, rake the rest in the trash can. Brass is cheap.
These will stay straight longer than turned turds, so they are worth all additional prepping efforts. In the long term, you do not want to be wasting these efforts(they suk).

Mike, I would love to do this, but I'm 16, I don't even have money for 1000pieces of brass right now (just paid off custom build) I will buy a box of lapua and do a full prep on a batch of Winchester brass, weight sort and all, and run some accuracy tests over 10 5shot groups with each at 300yards. But first need to get my rifle back from the smith.

 

[Mikecr]

Oliveralan, I understand your condition.
I'll look around tonight and see if I can put a Sinclair turning kit together for you.

Don't feel disadvantaged over your brass brand. It is what you make it in the end.
I wouldn't worry about Wood's diagram either. It implicates a problem -that really isn't.
Of course NEW brass isn't true. Doesn't matter the brand.. Doesn't matter at all..
For one, we don't turn brass to any centerline. It's a floating operation that's simply a matter of thickness off the mandrel.
Second, brass is NEVER true until fireformed so. You won't compete with new(unformed) brass.

I don't have any, but maybe someone here could chip in some 308 brass for your cause.

 

[Oliveralan]

Oliveralan, I understand your condition.
I'll look around tonight and see if I can put a Sinclair turning kit together for you.

Don't feel disadvantaged over your brass brand. It is what you make it in the end.
I wouldn't worry about Wood's diagram either. It implicates a problem -that really isn't.
Of course NEW brass isn't true. Doesn't matter the brand.. Doesn't matter at all..
For one, we don't turn brass to any centerline. It's a floating operation that's simply a matter of thickness off the mandrel.
Second, brass is NEVER true until fireformed so. You won't compete with new(unformed) brass.

I don't have any, but maybe someone here could chip in some 308 brass for your cause.

Mike, thank you so much. That would be absolutely awsome! I have some .30cal bullets i can trade you if you want, ill really be in your debt.

I agree, i hope i can make due with the brass i have, i have about 75 unfired pieces of winchester brass another 300 once fired that perfectly fit, my old chamber =\ so will FL resize and try again .

thanks again mike,

Oliver

 

[Mikecr]

I think I can get you going
Click my name and 'private message' me your address

 

[joe0121]

I am also interested in neck turning some brass.

I also saw an interesting idea posted on youtube. Guy takes 30-06 brass sizes it down to .308 than turns the case neck till it just barley chambers with a round inserted. The end result is a neck that is as uniform and thick as possible. The idea being when you size down a caliber you are using a thicker part of the case for the neck than before. This theoretically get you very good and consistent neck tension. Not such a huge deal on say a .308 but for my .300 win mag that has a short case neck to begin with I can use all the neck tension I can get.


For the Op I would recommend annealing your brass and neck sizing only for UBER (I think thats what you kids say these days) case life.


And believe me I work two jobs and go to college full time and have a baby on the way so I understand all too well being on a limited budget.

 

[Truc]

I shoot a 30 BR (Lapau brass) and the chamber neck is cut at .330" and I cut them to .328 loaded and use a .325 or .324 bushing

 

[Truc]

I guess I should mention that I just barely cleaned up a case neck on my 270 WSM to .306" and the bullet was slightly loose which means I will need a bushing die if I turn the necks. I did this by hand to make sure I didn't cut much.
If Lapau makes brass for your cartridge buy it and don't worry about turning necks