Pin Gauges

SJB358

Ballistician
Dec 24, 2006
32,095
2,429
I am not sure if this will be useful for any one or not, but with the 7mm Mashburn Super Magnum you sometimes get donuts when necking down 300 Win Mag brass. The extra brass accumulates around the bottom of the neck on the inside of the case. Well, I am not a neck turner nor have I ever, but with that donut getting completely straight rounds is pretty tough. Anyhow a few of us were tipped off by Darcy Echols to invest in some pin gauges to detect the donuts and also to use them to get your neck tension measurements.

Here is a picture of the pin gauges. Mine start from .250 and go up to .500.. I'll have to get a 2nd set of the small ones up to the .250 side. In reality, I need all of them in the middle of the two sets.. Oh well, they aren't alot of money but man have they schooled me on some things I'd never thought about.



Here are a couple of pictures of what I am talking about forming the donut without really knowing it is there.



There is a 300 Win on the left and a 7mm Mashburn on the right after going through the form and trim die..



This is a picture of a 160 Swift A-Frame that is stopped by the donut. The bullet will fall through the neck until it hits the donut and stop. Of course if I wanted to, I could easily push the bullet past it with the seater, but if you wanna see concentric loaded rounds, this isn't the way to do it.

Anyhow, so at this point, you have to use an inside neck reamer to cut that whisker of brass out. Once it is gone, it's gone, it is a one time operation, but man, figuring it out put a few of us through the ringer. Anyhow, hope this is helpful to anyone neck brass down from a larger caliber.

Interestingly enough, my 35 Newton is formed out of 375 Ruger cases and doe not have any sign of a donut, SO it isn't a hard and fast rule you will always get one, but if you do, there is only one way to fix it.
 
Interesting....i know a poster by the name of woods uses them too.
I read once ..... and wrongly so I guess .....that you are more likely to get a donut by necking up because you are pulling the thicker brass of the shoulder up into the neck area. Actually now that I look at your pictures a little closer it makes sense that you are using the shoulder of the 300 Win Mag to form into the 7mm neck....thus the donut?
 
Joel, it is easy. So, for us we are looking for .002/.003 neck tension. Well you find out what the case is after it is fired by sticking the pin gauge in there until it is snug.. Once you have that measurement you just use the collets and incrementally go smaller until the .282/.281 pin gauge fits. It's almost so easy a Marine can do it.

Very useful set of tools. I'll tell you, I've been handloading since I was 13-14 years old and I'll be 40 this Winter. I learn something new all the time.
 
Freshly turned inside and outside.



Here is the .283 pin gauge on the inside.



So now I just measure the outside and use a .001 smaller collet or .002 in order to get it where I want them.
 
The pin gauges would be good for checking Lee Collet dies too. Lee makes different sized mandrels, but you also need to think about how work hardened the brass is, etc. A pin gauge set would make it a no-brainer.

How is the concentricity out of the Redding dies? Last year I wasn't super impressed with mine, but I wasn't neck turning / removing the donuts yet. That probably would make quite a difference.

Concentricity: advantage to Lee collet dies
Consistent neck tension: advantage to Redding

I have both for the MSM, with enough time I'll test them both against each other.
 
Scotty I'm 28 years older than you and I started reloading at about the same age as you. Yep in reloading there is always something new to learn.
What you are experiencing with the MSM I think I also experienced with the 35/AI and that was what was causing the neck separations in the sizing die. The donut would hang up on the expander ball causing the neck separation. Of the cases I dissected I could see a ring on the inside of the neck at the base of the neck. This only showed up as the cases got older or wasn't annealed after 3 firings.
 
truck driver":7a3vg1jc said:
Scotty I'm 28 years older than you and I started reloading at about the same age as you. Yep in reloading there is always something new to learn.
What you are experiencing with the MSM I think I also experienced with the 35/AI and that was what was causing the neck separations in the sizing die. The donut would hang up on the expander ball causing the neck separation. Of the cases I dissected I could see a ring on the inside of the neck at the base of the neck. This only showed up as the cases got older or wasn't annealed after 3 firings.

Well, the donuts for this case show up right from the get go. I didn't realize they were really there with the old rifle since it always shot pretty well and seemed to shoot straight but I had weird flyers every now and again that I couldn't explain. Well, once I got the pin gauges and started checking stuff over I believe I sorta it out.

It isn't too hard to just run a few of the gauges in the neck and see what you have. If they fall right on thru you are probably good, if they hang up, inside neck reaming is the only way to really get after it.
 
joelkdouglas":13uwfpfn said:
And those necks look good, looks like you didn't have any problems with the K&M.

That K&M is a nice tool. Easy to use when it is chucked up in the drill. I started out just doing the inside of the necks and decided to do the outside and inside all in one swoop. Pretty easy, probably took me about 30-45 mins to do 50 cases. Going to resize them tonight and see what happens.
 
SJB358":2h0azumo said:
truck driver":2h0azumo said:
Scotty I'm 28 years older than you and I started reloading at about the same age as you. Yep in reloading there is always something new to learn.
What you are experiencing with the MSM I think I also experienced with the 35/AI and that was what was causing the neck separations in the sizing die. The donut would hang up on the expander ball causing the neck separation. Of the cases I dissected I could see a ring on the inside of the neck at the base of the neck. This only showed up as the cases got older or wasn't annealed after 3 firings.

Well, the donuts for this case show up right from the get go. I didn't realize they were really there with the old rifle since it always shot pretty well and seemed to shoot straight but I had weird flyers every now and again that I couldn't explain. Well, once I got the pin gauges and started checking stuff over I believe I sorta it out.

It isn't too hard to just run a few of the gauges in the neck and see what you have. If they fall right on thru you are probably good, if they hang up, inside neck reaming is the only way to really get after it.
Come to think of it the donuts could also be there from the the get go in mine since I also experienced some weird looking groups. I just might dissect a new fire formed case just to see if it is there. I think they develop from moving the shoulder forward or back.
 
SJB358":3e287vml said:
truck driver":3e287vml said:
Scotty I'm 28 years older than you and I started reloading at about the same age as you. Yep in reloading there is always something new to learn.
What you are experiencing with the MSM I think I also experienced with the 35/AI and that was what was causing the neck separations in the sizing die. The donut would hang up on the expander ball causing the neck separation. Of the cases I dissected I could see a ring on the inside of the neck at the base of the neck. This only showed up as the cases got older or wasn't annealed after 3 firings.

Well, the donuts for this case show up right from the get go. I didn't realize they were really there with the old rifle since it always shot pretty well and seemed to shoot straight but I had weird flyers every now and again that I couldn't explain. Well, once I got the pin gauges and started checking stuff over I believe I sorta it out.

It isn't too hard to just run a few of the gauges in the neck and see what you have. If they fall right on thru you are probably good, if they hang up, inside neck reaming is the only way to really get after it.
Come to think of it the donuts could also be there from the the get go in mine since I also experienced some weird looking groups. I just might dissect a new fire formed case just to see if it is there. I think they develop from moving the shoulder forward or back.
 
truck driver":2p8maloa said:
SJB358":2p8maloa said:
truck driver":2p8maloa said:
Scotty I'm 28 years older than you and I started reloading at about the same age as you. Yep in reloading there is always something new to learn.
What you are experiencing with the MSM I think I also experienced with the 35/AI and that was what was causing the neck separations in the sizing die. The donut would hang up on the expander ball causing the neck separation. Of the cases I dissected I could see a ring on the inside of the neck at the base of the neck. This only showed up as the cases got older or wasn't annealed after 3 firings.

Well, the donuts for this case show up right from the get go. I didn't realize they were really there with the old rifle since it always shot pretty well and seemed to shoot straight but I had weird flyers every now and again that I couldn't explain. Well, once I got the pin gauges and started checking stuff over I believe I sorta it out.

It isn't too hard to just run a few of the gauges in the neck and see what you have. If they fall right on thru you are probably good, if they hang up, inside neck reaming is the only way to really get after it.
Come to think of it the donuts could also be there from the the get go in mine since I also experienced some weird looking groups. I just might dissect a new fire formed case just to see if it is there. I think they develop from moving the shoulder forward or back.

I am not sure. I wouldn't think you would get them with the Ackley process since you are just sorta changing the angles on brass. On the Mashburn you are bumping quite a bunch of material down and making the neck out of what was shoulder.

You can buy a few pin gauges for a few bucks that will help you out without having to buy a whole kit. I would think if you got the .352-.365 or so would give you all you'd need.
 
So....with all this work....what is the big advantage over the good old 7 rem mag?
I always thought the 7 wsm should have been more popular too....seems like a custom gun set up to hang the bullet out on the wsm would have been sweet....but it's already pretty much extinct.
 
Here's a picture of what I'm seeing in the 35/AI brass. If you look at the base of the neck you can see a raised area, not enough to keep a PT or flat base bullet from sliding threw a unsized case but still enough to cause a weak spot for the necks to snap off in the sizer.
 

Attachments

  • KIMG0334.jpg
    KIMG0334.jpg
    1.6 MB · Views: 2,292
kraky1":259jnhyf said:
So....with all this work....what is the big advantage over the good old 7 rem mag?
I always thought the 7 wsm should have been more popular too....seems like a custom gun set up to hang the bullet out on the wsm would have been sweet....but it's already pretty much extinct.

It's just a faster cartridge Kraky and not all cases require this. Winchesters are a load and go proposition. I just can't find the danged things.

I love the 7mm Rem Mag but it will not do 3200 with a 160 nor 3050-3100 with a 175.. if you don't care about the extra speed I'd likely just sticky with the old 7mm Rem as well. It still does a great job.

TD, if the bullet will slide through the neck I think you're probably good.
 
This is great stuff Scotty. You sure you don't want to move to Missouri and you can be the metal/load developement/barrel guy and I run the walnut end?

I bet in the end though we would just sit around and drink beer, eat alot of venison/elk steaks, and just talk guns. Probably not good for making money.

You know I often wondered if what you have discovered here is the reason why so many people have had trouble with the ABLR. Not enough surface area to create the proper fit/tension and the end result being one group good and the next like a pattern.
 
pre6422hornet":j1y6ycr5 said:
This is great stuff Scotty. You sure you don't want to move to Missouri and you can be the metal/load developement/barrel guy and I run the walnut end?

I bet in the end though we would just sit around and drink beer, eat alot of venison/elk steaks, and just talk guns. Probably not good for making money.

You know I often wondered if what you have discovered here is the reason why so many people have had trouble with the ABLR. Not enough surface area to create the proper fit/tension and the end result being one group good and the next like a pattern.

That's a great point Pat... wouldn't be hard to sort it out.

These Redding Type S dies are really danged good too. Digging them.
 
kraky1":39bjsxn3 said:
So....with all this work....what is the big advantage over the good old 7 rem mag?
I always thought the 7 wsm should have been more popular too....seems like a custom gun set up to hang the bullet out on the wsm would have been sweet....but it's already pretty much extinct.

Here's a good read on the Practical.

http://www.ballisticstudies.com/Knowled ... tical.html

And I agree on the 7 WSM as well. I've got one of those as well.

Here is Bob Hagels old article on the the Mashburn.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/54u5tkjsk4jvn ... .docx?dl=0
 
Back
Top