I tried the straitener as well. And I agree about the neck tension... I did use a CO-AX press and a Rock Chucker. I tried setting up the dies in both presses and the runout was a little better with my CO-AX but not by much. I actually didint get a real significant change in either presses, so that tells me it's either with the brass or the dies, or technique, or all of the above...Personally I don't worry about runout very much for average reloads.
I do sort my rounds for long range precision work. .003 and under in the good pile and over is for sightseers. I tried the hornady cartridge straightener. In my opinion you have wrecked your neck tension by the time you straighten a bullet.
To keep runout minimal this is what I do.
Start with quality brass. I use Lapua
I use a co-ax press.
Use a quality sizing die. I prefer the forster bench rest dies but there are many out there that work just fine. I have them all. bushing dies, collet dies, body dies and full length sizing dies. I have found I don't like donuts and why neck size if every 3 to 5 firings you are going to full length resize anyway. Just set the full length die for a 0.0015 shoulder bump and go with it.
Check runout on the necks after first firing and resizing. Cull those with obvious problems. Sometimes I clean them up with a neck turner and try again.
I have found that the Wilson straight line seater is the best seating die for me.
I do have custom dies made from my fired brass. If I cull the brass I use in these dies there is no doubt they produce better ammo.
anneal every 3 to 5 firings. you can really feel the difference when seating a bullet.
You guys think the Imperial Graphite Neck Lube kit will help with expander ball drag and neck stretching?
If you sonic clean, you are going to need it. Otherwise you neck tension will be all over the map also.
One other thing, measure fired cases to see if it is a chamber issue to start with.
If you sonic clean, you are going to need it. Otherwise you neck tension will be all over the map also.
One other thing, measure fired cases to see if it is a chamber issue to start with.
Thats good to know Mike. That tells me I'm not SOL just yet.. I will keep practicing with the neck turner.I would not blame the die maker. Their design may not lend itself to 'best in runout class' specifically, but that doesn't mean there is anything wrong with it.
If I were there, I could show you 50 perfect new cases(out of ~1000) with zero thickness variance.
We would fire form those 50, partial size the necks with your Hornady without the expander ball, pre-expand the necks with a Sinclair expander mandrel die, seat bullets with a Wilson inline, and then measure loaded runout below 1thou on all 50.
If you have to FL size those 50 cases then runout will grow a bit in cycles, and settle near 3thou.
I'm confident that I could do this using your Hornady die.