Neck Turning

[trapper10]

Do you turn the necks as a step in brass prep? As we square primer pockets, debur flash, chamfer ,etc . for brass prep. or only when you have accuracy problems?

 

[TackDriver284]

Do you turn the necks as a step in brass prep? As we square primer pockets, debur flash, chamfer ,etc . for brass prep. or only when you have accuracy problems?

I don't neck turn unless needed if the brass necks are not having enough clearance in the chamber. Neck turning .005-to under .001" to clean up necks is good too if you want to eliminate all the variables to get good accuracy and you may need to use a bushing die if you turn the necks. You will get less neck tension if you used a non bushing die. Most shooters dont really need to turn top end quality brass like Lapua or Petersons, but the other day I noticed variation in my 300 Magnum Lapua brass by as much as .002" , from .014" to .016" . I had to neck turn to .0135" anyway to give enough clearance of .005" in my neck chamber. Match shooters with custom tight neck chambers do neck turn. As for hunting, neck turning is not really necessary. Depends on personal preference on how you view accuracy as your goal.

 

[desertcj]

I do not neck turn and for the most part, have been able to find acceptable accuracy for my needs(1/2moa-1moa…occasionally better). I’ve considered trying neck turned brass to see if it makes a difference…..

 

[IdahoCTD]

I turn necks most of the time. For the most part you only have to do it once and it improves the neck tension consistency. That adds to accuracy. Its hard to get big calibers really consistent without it IMO. If your looking for max accuracy and consistency its a no brainer.

 

[frankm]

Nathan, just curious, do you hand turn your necks or have you built a fixture of some type to turn on your lathe?

Guy I know here locally built a fixture and drives cases onto spud in lathe and them cuts them with a carbide bit and has dial indicators on lathe carriages, etc. Pretty slick deal but takes a while to get everything dialed in before actually turning cases. About everything he builds is a tight neck so makes turning mandatory. As you said, typically one and done.

 

[trapper10]

So do any of you have an experience where changing seating depth, powder, charge weight, bullet type failed to give the accuracy you sought, and neck Turing did?

 

[desertcj]

So do any of you have an experience where changing seating depth, powder, charge weight, bullet type failed to give the accuracy you sought, and neck Turing did?

I don’t think it works like that. Accuracy is sort of like cooking…if you start with ingredients that you don’t like, they aren’t going to taste good even if they’re perfectly cooked! I’m in for experienced answers to your question though….

 

[RL338]

If your looking for max accuracy and consistency its a no brainer.

This
I like to do a clean up on my necks on non Wby brass. This allows for a consistent neck tension.

 

[TackDriver284]

This
I like to do a clean up on my necks on non Wby brass. This allows for a consistent neck tension.

How much do you remove to clean up? I cleaned up about .0005" off the Norma 300 , just some high spots. I may start cleaning up new brass once I buy them in the future. They do have some small variations.

 

[IdahoCTD]

So do any of you have an experience where changing seating depth, powder, charge weight, bullet type failed to give the accuracy you sought, and neck Turing did?

That is kind of the point of the thread Tackdriver had on his 300wm. The clearance on his brass caused accuracy issues that thinner necks fixed. That is far from the norm but it can be a problem.

 

[IdahoCTD]

I use a Forrester neck turner that is basically a converted case trimmer. I use a drill to drive it so I can do 100 cases in no time.

 

[desertcj]

That is kind of the point of the thread Tackdriver had on his 300wm. The clearance on his brass caused accuracy issues that thinner necks fixed. That is far from the norm but it can be a problem.

That was with his known/good load though. You don’t just pick some random load out of a manual, neck turn the brass and then your shooting bug holes?

 

[RL338]

How much do you remove to clean up? I cleaned up about .0005" off the Norma 300 , just some high spots. I may start cleaning up new brass once I buy them in the future. They do have some small variations.

Just until there is some fresh brass showing 360 around the neck.

 

[RL338]

I use a Forrester neck turner that is basically a converted case trimmer. I use a drill to drive it so I can do 100 cases in no time.

Forester hand turner and case chucked up in a drill for me also.

 

[Charlie-NY]

I started neck turning when I was ordering custom tight neck chambers. From there, I began to just skim neck turn all of my brass for all of my rifles. Over the years I have reconsidered the need or potential advantages of neck turning. Using high quality brass, in custom barrels, it was difficult, if not impossible, to actually measure the difference that neck turning made.

It is interesting to note that many competitive benchrest shooters do not neck turn cases any longer. Ordering custom barrels with "no neck turn" dimensions is rather common today. Personally, I run a 6mmBR rifle with Lapua cases in a no neck turn chamber. The rifle will shoot .25 moa at 400yds, and occasionally better.

Neck turning for factory rifles seems counter intuitive to me. Factory chambers generally have more than ample neck clearance to begin with. Reducing neck wall thickness will only increase the clearance between the case neck and the chamber neck. This will not improve accuracy or case neck life. If junk brass has an extreme variation in neck wall thickness, then the remainder of the case will also have extreme variations in dimensions. You'd be better off just buying better brass. Quality brass that is not shot at excessive pressure or over-worked by resizing should last for at least 10 reloads and often quite a bit more.

Just my 2 cents. YMMV

 

[IdahoCTD]

That was with his known/good load though. You don’t just pick some random load out of a manual, neck turn the brass and then your shooting bug holes?

It was a known load in Norma brass not Lapua brass and he figured out his loaded rounds were too tight in the chamber. If you read the whole ordeal he couldnt find any load that shot under 1.5". The original question was had anyone seen a accuracy improvement by turning necks, there you go. I've experienced the same thing when trying to run too little neck clearance. Generally speaking most people wont see a difference by turning necks. Most of the high end brass is pretty consistent now days. You can see it when you skim necks. Brass like Winchester and Remington is usually off a couple thou from one side to the other. When everything is sized from the outside that puts the bullet off center.

Before bushing dies I turned necks to reduce neck tension which can also improve accuracy. The tolerances on everything is much better than 30 years ago, obviously Charlie can attest to that. 30 years ago it wasnt uncommon to have .008 neck tension plus sloppy chambers and the dies would overwork case necks, causing them to split early because most didnt anneal either. Now the neck tensions are about half that and chamber neck clearances are .003-.004. A prime example of this is my 300wsm reamer that I had done with a .338 neck diameter. Winchester brass would clean up with a loaded diameter of .335, .336-.337 before clean up. A SAMMI neck diameter is .344. Now with ADG brass a loaded round is around .340 and I have to turn a bunch off to fit my custom chambers. I'll probably order a new reamer for ADG brass but for now I turn necks.

 

[TackDriver284]

Just until there is some fresh brass showing 360 around the neck.

Do you remeasure the loaded bullet diameter again and get a new bushing .002" under bullet diameter? What is your preference? Since you removed some material, possibly about .001" each side.

 

[IdahoCTD]

You didnt ask me but I typically try to run .003 tension in hunting magnums. Any less and you could see bullet movement in rounds that sit in the mag box.

 

[trapper10]

I use a Forrester neck turner that is basically a converted case trimmer. I use a drill to drive it so I can do 100 cases in no tI

I use a Forrester neck turner that is basically a converted case trimmer. I use a drill to drive it so I can do 100 cases in no time.

You didnt ask me but I typically try to run .003 tension in hunting magnums. Any less and you could see bullet movement in rounds that sit in the mag box.

How do you measure tension?

 

[desertcj]

It was a known load in Norma brass not Lapua brass and he figured out his loaded rounds were too tight in the chamber. If you read the whole ordeal he couldnt find any load that shot under 1.5". The original question was had anyone seen an accuracy improvement by turning necks, there you go. I've experienced the same thing when trying to run too little neck clearance. Generally speaking most people wont see a difference by turning necks. Most of the high end brass is pretty consistent now days.

Exactly…he had a known, good load with acceptable accuracy for himself. Changed brass and ran into the neck clearance issues evidently. He was not starting from scratch and couldn’t find any load that shot, turned his necks and then bam, magic accuracy. I agree that most people won’t see a difference in accuracy by turning necks. It could help and I doubt that cleaning up the necks would hurt anything.