Question about shot brass

[Joefrazell]

Rifle in question 300 prc custom. Brass is lapua. After the brass has been shot the necks don't seem to be expanding much. I can get a bullet to go into the case by hand but it's fairly tough. How easy should this be? My sd/es numbers aren't very good and am trying to figure out why

 

[Deviant]

You might have to check your reamer specs. You may have had a neck turn reamer used on your barrel. You should be able to insert a bullet into a fired case with little to no resistance.

 

[Beluebow]

Talk to your gunsmith first. He should know the reamer specs and how much neck clearance you should have on a unturned piece of brass.

Measure a loaded round then measure a fired case this should ball park (springback) you on how much neck clearance you have.

For a hunting rifle .004 nk clearance would be the minimum for me.

 

[Wedgy]

Easiest thing would be to turn a little bit off the neck then try it or find some brass that has thinner necks that your Lapua.

 

[notahd]

You might have to check your reamer specs. You may have had a neck turn reamer used on your barrel. You should be able to insert a bullet into a fired case with little to no resistance.

When you reload that brass After you resized it maybe set the shoulder back 2 thousands Are you able to chamber that round If so you may not have to turn the necks

 

[Mike Matteson]

How many times have the cases been firer? Are you using Bushing dies? On your fired case check ID, and OD note them somewhere. Get the OD on a loaded case. Also check a re-sized case for ID and OD too. Put the number down on paper to ref too. That will give a little idea as to what' going on. That will also give you, your neck tension presently after sizing the cases. I am reading it's a custom rifle. Did you have it built? I would if possible go to that smith to see how it was built or reamed with numbers of OD & ID on paper to show him or her. Have unfired loaded round and a fired case un-sized at that time.
Thinning necks it not a bad thing and generally is a very good thing. There are steps in cutting necks. There different steps to cut necks between new cases and fired cases. The other is are you annealing your cases?

 

[65WSM]

Neck turning is suspected but I also suspect underloading. How do your velocity figures match Hodgdon load data (because it has pressure values)? Are the belts on your cases expanding? Flattening primers?

I like to full length size, bump the shoulder and leave the neck unsized, just above the shoulder to center the neck in the chamber. This can be accomplished with a bushing die or "body only die" with a second pass using an arbor press neck die with bushing (Wilson). It takes 4 thousandths clearance, in 30 cal, between the chamber and neck of the loaded round to get the centering effect of the partial sized neck. Berger describes this with color drawings in his reloading book. My riflesmith always puts the cartridge id, barrel twist and neck diameter on the barrel when he completes the job.

 

[Mike Matteson]

Most of my rifles have had there barrel changed out, because of there lengths or shape. I now FL size my cases, and bump about .002". I use bushing dies. I cut all my necks for thickness, and trim to length before cutting my necks for thickness. "Concentricity"

 

[Joefrazell]

My necks are expanding .003 after firing. Gunsmith says that's gtg. It's still just strange that it's kinda tight to get a bullet to go in. It's lapua brass and just a bit tight with the reamer I'm thinking. Don't know if this is the cause of my high es or not but it seems like it definitely could be. No pressure issues however

 

[65WSM]

My necks are expanding .003 after firing. Gunsmith says that's gtg. It's still just strange that it's kinda tight to get a bullet to go in. It's lapua brass and just a bit tight with the reamer I'm thinking. Don't know if this is the cause of my high es or not but it seems like it definitely could be. No pressure issues however

I believe your gunsmith is right. What happens when you up the pressure? I think you might try a hotter load. How much "web" expansion do you have with your handloads? That is the widest part of the case body, just above the extractor cut. How many thousandths does your sizing die reduce the neck diameter? How much neck tension do you have in thousandths? I like 1.5 Thousandths or I start dimpling the noses of bullets like Accubonds, Sierra tipped GameKings, etc. I partial size with bushings and use a separate expander to get the neck tension. The lower the neck tension you can tolerate, the less variance in neck tension you will get and better SD and accuracy. Of course if you are loading a magazine full of .375 H&H, you are going to need more neck tension than on my singly loaded Highwalls.

 

[Joefrazell]

I believe your gunsmith is right. What happens when you up the pressure? I think you might try a hotter load. How much "web" expansion do you have with your handloads? That is the widest part of the case body, just above the extractor cut. How many thousandths does your sizing die reduce the neck diameter? How much neck tension do you have in thousandths? I like 1.5 Thousandths or I start dimpling the noses of bullets like Accubonds, Sierra tipped GameKings, etc. I partial size with bushings and use a separate expander to get the neck tension. The lower the neck tension you can tolerate, the less variance in neck tension you will get and better SD and accuracy. Of course if you are loading a magazine full of .375 H&H, you are going to need more neck tension than on my singly loaded Highwalls.

Currently I'm full length sizing bumping the shoulder .002 and then running it through an expansion mandral and it's giving me .002 but I like closer to .001 so i ordered a bushing and die that should get me there but I'll continue to run it through the mandral when done. Hopefully this will give me my .001 neck tension. Im thinking this bartlein just doesn't like the 225'eldms. I've tried 3 powders without any luck. I've got some Berger 200 gr hybrids and some cx 190 gr Hornadys to try out. I really wanna try the 245 eol but haven't been able to get any yet. We shall see. If I try another bullet or two and still can't get accuracy I'll start diving deeper into why.

 

[65WSM]

Based on your response. Start miking the "web" of your cases for pressure, more reliable than primers or bolt lift. You might have to turn your necks to get the expansion, you should have, in order to get proper bullet clearance. After firing, you shouldn't have any neck tension.

 

[cjl2010]

If you have a spring ejector,
It could be pushing the case against the chamber and action wall causing a flat spot that would make hand pushing a bullet difficult.

 

[Mike Matteson]

You are saying that the case neck with bullet in place going into the chamber is hard?. Or is it hard when starting to load the case from mag into the chamber. The other is you haven't stated what the O.D. of the neck is as a loaded round is, and what the O.D is after firing the round in the neck area. Your case length should be around 2.850 from base of case to top of neck or very close to that. If longer by much could be pushing past the chamber area for the neck. At the same time you are saying you not having pressure problems. So it doesn't really figure either. You can otherwise get something like a Forester neck trimming system and cut the neck and bevels the neck inside and out at the same time. I would set it up to turn it with a powder drill. Cutting the necks by hand it a real pain in the A** and slow too with sore fingers. Again I don't see Lapua building a case that won't work in a standard chamber.