Do I need a neck sizing die?

Specifically a Hornady neck sizer set in .25 Cal. I know in theory at least it should save some wear and tear on my 250 Savage brass. Since I am here in the big city in the great white north not many folks mess with anything smaller than .30 cal and the dies are finally on clearance for $9.89. They started out asking $30. :shock: Worth the price now? CL

You will eventually need a FL size die if you just neck size because sooner or latter you will need to bump your shoulder back some. I just use FL size die to part size my cases. You can smoke a case neck and shoulder with a match. Put your size die in the press and leave it a ways off your shell holder when you screw it in. Raise the ram with the LUBED case with the smoked neck in it and back it out adjusting the sizing die down in between raising the ram to adjust how much you want to size. You can see how much it is sizing by how it removes the smoked part. This does not work the web area of the case at all. Also do you know that you can make 250 Savage cases out of 22-250 cases by just running them into a FL 250 Savage size die.

the only time I neck size only is the first fire or two on new brass . this lets it get expanded to my chamber . after this I size my brass with a full length die set to bump my shoulders about .002 or .003 . or I use a neck size die along with a body die . the body die is set to bump my shoulders about .002 or .003 . to me accuracy is about consistency . I try to do everything the same every time . as mentioned above , if you neck size only , you will need to bump the shoulders back after a few fires or it will get to tight to chamber easy .

For $10, yes, you need a necksizer for the 250-3000 savage.

Btw, great cartridge.

Annealing your brass will help it last longer and shoot better due to more consistent neck tension.


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Thanks for the replies guys. Good info all. I generally need to FL my brass due to some apparent issues with the old Mauser bolt face not being quite square to the chamber/barrel. I have to give them a bit of a bump every time. Still for $10.00 I might experiment....CL

cloverleaf":1gd24kqa said:

Thanks for the replies guys. Good info all. I generally need to FL my brass due to some apparent issues with the old Mauser bolt face not being quite square to the chamber/barrel. I have to give them a bit of a bump every time. Still for $10.00 I might experiment....CL

Click to expand...

CL, your 250-3000Sav, is it a model 99?


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Nope- a Mauser action and a barrel of unknown parentage. somebody was way more patient and accurate with a dremel on that stock. She aint much but shes glassed and pillar beded in the rear w/ a old adjustable trigger, 1:10 twist. Usually shoots better than me ...I think :grin: CL

cloverleaf":2iics9ic said:

Nope- a Mauser action and a barrel of unknown parentage. somebody was way more patient and accurate with a dremel on that stock. She aint much but shes glassed and pillar beded in the rear w/ a old adjustable trigger, 1:10 twist. Usually shoots better than me ...I think :grin: CL

Click to expand...

Looks like a beauty to me! Thanks for reminding me!


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cloverleaf":1zz755te said:

Specifically a Hornady neck sizer set in .25 Cal. I know in theory at least it should save some wear and tear on my 250 Savage brass. Since I am here in the big city in the great white north not many folks mess with anything smaller than .30 cal and the dies are finally on clearance for $9.89. They started out asking $30. :shock: Worth the price now? CL

Click to expand...

If you have an itch .. scratch it!
Frankly I wouldn't bother neck sizing if you can F/L resize to your fired case headspace dimesion.

It's the case shoulder that just needs a touch in the F/L die to ensure you don't resize too much.
Bump the case shoulder Max. .002/.003" usually you can set the die to do this without trouble.

While SAAMI dimensions on brass are fine, it does affect brass life considerably, whereas, resizing to headspace dimensions is damn near as good as neck sizing in extending brass life .. and usually will provide very consistent accuracy. Not to mention that you can be sure your reloaded cartridge will ALWAYS chamber perfectly.