Various Questions:

[Unofficial Gun Addict (UGA)]

Dinky... Sorry that your gunsmith has such a solid impenetrable stance, however, he is totally missing the point of neck turning. The reason to turn your necks is so that you create equal pressure on your bullet from the entire neck circumference. The brass of your cases neck in many instances is thicker on one side than the other. This causes more pressure there than on the thinner side. When pressure begins to push the bullet out of the case, the side with the thicker brass will release after the side with the thinner brass, causing the bullet to slightly tilt as it leaves the case. It also causes the neck to stretch at different rates, which is the major cause for split necks.

Turning your necks so that they are uniform, increases accuracy and case life. You only have to do it once for the life of the case and that's it. Check some of your case necks with a micrometer and you will see that they vary as you work your way around the neck.

Now if you are only going to be shooting 300 or so yards, then perhaps I wouldn't mess with it unless my case necks start splitting. But you have a 300 rum and that is a distance gun, so for distance shooting, I would definitely turn all my necks.

 

[Dinky]

jboscobuys: Well, I am going to start with my 'smith's advice. The first fifty rounds I load (see my new thread on that load development, assuming you are breathless to find out what it is ), will be (1) working up to on of the loads he shot and sent me the target for. (2) I will also follow his advice and not only FL resize, but use small based dies as well. (3) Furthermore, I will NOT turn the necks. (4) and finally, I will seat the bullet such that the COAL is right on the money at 3.650 inches. In short, I will clone his recommended round!

But waiting in the wings, I have a nice batch of fifty more prepped cases and 500 more rounds of virgin brass in the bags, a couple hundred rounds of the same bullet, mucho primers, and enough RL25. So after the first fifty, I can afford to experiment--turning necks at least enough to clean them up and maybe even buying a collet neck-sizing die like you recommend and doing some of that. I may also play with seating the bullet a little further out, providing the magazine allows it.

One of my main concerns is whether or not to crimp the little bullet. I am thinking not. Thanks for you (and everyone else's) comments. Another concern is learning to use the inside micrometer well enough that it doesn't drive me crazy measuring wall-thickness. I have at least learned how to zero the damned thing and take a few measurements that don't sound downright insane. I would rather have something relatively fool proof and digital, but am really too cheap at this point of my retirement to free up the funds.