ORIGINAL: HEAD0001
My first question would be-how much did you take off the necks?? You really do not need to take off a lot if you are not prepping for a tight match chamber. And you definitely need to full size your brass before you turn your necks. You have to take the runout--out of your brass before you turn the necks. If your neck and case body arenot aligned before you neck turn, then all neck turning does is compound your problem.
I measured my necks at .011 with a mic. I asked a guy at work and he said it is on the thin side but as long as the bullet held in tight it was ok. With the Lee die they did hold in just fine, but I am thinking the Lee Die as Lawrence said must be smaller then the RCBS die. I tried not to take much off the necks, only tried to make them uniform. Seamed like .011 made them all the same, guy at work said tool does not need to take metal off the entire turn, just nock off the high spots. These cases had all been shot several times before being turned. Then they where all FL sized with the lee dies and turned.
Are you using your expander ball with the Neck sizer?? You could be working the shoulders too much also. The expander ball will have an adverse effect on the shoulder if it is not supported.
Expander Ball? are you talking about the pin/shaft in the center of the sizing die that pulls the neck back out after it has been shoved in? Yes it is in, supposed to be in right? Not sure what you mean with this.
I am, a bit disgusted with new Winchester brass. I normally have to buy 500 pieces and sort through it to find 100 pieces that are acceptable. I just did a little study on 500 pieces of Winchester 223 brass. The results were awful. I sorted out 80 cases from 500 that I thought were acceptable to use.
What do you consider bad brass and good brass? Hope all this brass looks better after the first time it is fired, right now it looks kinda sad, I FL sized them, which helped the bent necks look better, but the body's are still full of dents.
I believe I understand what you are trying to do by using the different dies. I basically do the same thing(I do not use the body die). I also do not like to overwork the brass, which is what I think your goal is??
Over working is part of the goal, better groups is the other part. I use the body die to just bump the shoulder, why? cause I read it on forums like this and have not tried to just plain neck size only. I have a break open style and was told I would have to get a body die to just bump the shoulder, otherwise my break open would not "lock up" good and "pop" open a little when fired, so that is why I use the shoulder die. My head space is about .008 difference from a FL sized case to a fired case. I bought the RCBS shoulder mic and bullet measurement tool. Then when I use the body die I set it up to just bump the shoulder .001 off from the fire case original measurement.
However IMO part of your problem is being caused by the expander ball. I take the expander ball out of my dies, and I use the Sinclair sizing mandrel. Tom.
Again, explain more of the expander stuff to me, this removing it stuff is new to me and this is the first time I have heard of taking it out. And explain more of the Sinclair sizing mandrel and what you use it for.
Thanks guys so far, sorry I talk long winded. Also here are some pics of my RCBS modified neck turning tool. The mandrel that came in it was to short IMO and the neck could be pushed out of round when turned real easy when I was doing it. I have access to a lathe and made a new style with a pin on the end for the primer hole to hold the case centered and true. I then milled out a spot for a mic and can measure necks with the same tool. When compared to a feeler gauge it is right on the money.
Jason
