Hello,

I was talking with an old timer last week and he explained to me that turning the case necks was the most important issue to accurate reloading. He said more important that a couple of grains one way or the other and more important that distance from the lands.

Do you guys agree with this?

Tom

Well, I think turning case necks has it's merit, I personally don't believe it's more important than having powder charge weight errors of " a couple of grains". Are you sure he didn't say TRIMMING the case necks??
I've got some mighty fine shooting rifles that have had their cases loaded several times or more, and have never seen a neck turner. I'm not buying it.

Most important reloading measure....far and away is common sense. Turning necks isn't even on my top five list. I do it for my custom cut chambers but otherwise it is tedious and non-productive in a factory cut chamber.

The old timer might be right, but I believe the difference in acuracy you get by neck turning (outside?) is of more interest to a bench-rest shooter than to someone using a factory-built sporting rifle for big game hunting. I am pretty happy with 1.25 MOA for five shots from a hunting rifle, although I have several that do somewhat better than this. Neck turning is a real pain! I suppose it does add to the reloading experience, however.

A lot of so called experts say that the powder charge is one of the least critical aspects for accuracy. Personally, I do not believe that. With over 40 yrs of reloading experience and also from results by other reloaders have shown that consistant charges results in better accuracy. Changing a charge by even one grain has also shown to increase or decrease accuracy (group size) as does changing primers. I believe case trimming aids a good deal in accuracy too. Squaring up the case mouths, having the cases all the same length for consistant pressure on the bullet. I also have found that a factory crimp die like the one Lee makes shows increase in accuracy in some cartridges. I've never turned a case neck since I've been reloading.

Yes he was talking about trimming! Sorry. I'm a relative newbie and easily confused.

Tom

This old timer is dead wrong. Powder charge and bullet depth will beat out bullet runout/neck thicknessby a mile.

I have done extensive tests on the subject of runout. Ask Mossyoak33 on here how seriously I have taken it. I have found runout matters past .01"on big cartridges with alot of freebore. But if you are shooting 7mm08 and are .003" from the rifling, I found litterly almost no differnce up to .01" runout.

0.01" runout is huge. You can see this by rolling the cartridge.. by testing I would separate into batches different runout from 0 runout to .005" runout, to .010". My 300RUM, and 7mmSTW shot .7MOA groups with everything under .007" runout. Past that, I would get fliers and open up to 1.5MOA. I have a target 7mm08 with a very short neck, and I litterly got .5MOA with everything I put thru it.

My suggestion is to not go down the neck turning road. It can help with flyers. No doubt, but going down this road, you need to learn to anneal, and have quality concentricity gauges. For about2 years there, I turned reloading into work doing this.

But if youfind a good dynamic load, and yourgun is beddedproperly and solid, neckthickness matters very little.

So I will give it up. I'm getting groups around 3/4" with my Ruger M77 in 300 WM. That is with Sierra Spitzer BT's. Everything else results in around 1.25"-1.5" groups.

Tom

Neck sizing with the Lee Collet diesis supposed to helpa great deal with runout. I cannot say I even measure for runout myselfbutmost ofthe benchrest crowd believethat Collet dies makerunouta non issue.Collet Dieswould be an easy way to control runout without getting intoneck turning. I have found that neck sizing with collet dies hasgotten better accuracyfor me also.

This is another reason I quit worrying about it. I have collet dies for most of my calibers. I think Tom told me he did too. Good point.