Tried something different....

[Rifle Loony]

New to me anyways.......

Yanked the expander ball out of my Redding FL dieto investigate the rumor it would provide near zero runout....

The downside, or maybe not, was an increased neck tension by .006" with this bushingless regular FLdie.

Initial starting loads with fireformed (.243AI) Lapua brass, 44.0gr R19 on the left, and 45.5gr. R19 on the right. The flyer in the 44.0gr group was totallymy fault.

Cases annealed after fireforming, shoulders bumped half a thou', and 87gr Vmax's seated .010" off the lands, Federal 210 primers....

The kicker is, thesegroups were "rapid" fire 5 shot, something I really never do...and at 150 yards.

Pleasantly surprised, and optomistically looking forward to the upper end of the R&D, hopefully I can hit 3400 or 3500 but that might be wishful thinking with this 20" barrel.......

[HEAD0001]

As I have stated in the past, I took the expander ball out of my sizing dies a long time ago. I use the Sinclair sizing mandrel to size the inside of the neck. This has solved my runout problems,. and it has decreased my SD's by making my neck tension more consistent(IMO). All it takes is a touch of Imperial sizing wax.

I have thought for years that the expander ball is the "root of all evil". Did you size the inside of the neck at all?? I really think you needto use the mandrel, or you would definitely need to turn your necks to get consistent neck tension(again IMO). Tom.

[HEAD0001]

Is that the Cerakote(spelling) finish on that rifle. Mg gunsmith just finished my 22-250(LH 700 Rem). The barrel is a SS Krieger, and he also put the finish on the barrel. This is my first rifle with this coating. It looks good in the picture he sent me. I hope it stands up well. Tom.

[Rifle Loony]

Neck tension is a shot in the dark as this was just an experiment inleaning hard on the possibility ofzero run out.

I measured stuff up tonight and I'm getting .005" expansion over the sized dimension when a bullet is seated. I wouldn't think 2 and ahalf thou' a side would be diddly, but maybe I'm wrong.....

Got the itch from something I read from a 1000 yard competitorand the dude lubed the inside of his necks with some brew he cooked up to aid in seating. Nothing here I dared try except a spritz of One Shot on the bullets as I was seating them. Everything is coming out clean and with absolutely no undue seating resistance, so I don't think I'm over doing the tension. I'm seating with a Redding Comp Die.

Shot 46.0 grains tonight and got the same results. Gonna work up to 47 and see if I hit pressure or not along the way. We'll see where a stickyish bolt is then back down and start clocking stuff for ES.

So far I'm not worried at all about neck tension. I'll know more after I pop a few primers over a clockif this is something to keep up with. If I can repeat this kind of shooting, and it will hold together out to 700 or so (chucks and woofs), and I get the speed I'm looking for....then I can live with it fine.

It is Cerekote on this rifle, done by Doug Burche of Ultra Coatings Inc. in Kansas. He's done a lot of work for me.You'll not have any worries if yours was applied right........

[Rifle Loony]

Should add that this lot of Lapua's has .015 thick necks, throughout,measured in four places, I've got much faith in Lapua brass.......

[Rifle Loony]

Although this worked with the Vmax's it didn't work well at all with TSX's....conclusion,TSX's don't like an increased neck tension inthis rifle.

Ordered up the Redding Floating Carbide expander ball kits,to upgrade a couple of sets of dies.

I hear good things regarding runout, regarding these carbide kits.....