headspace

Started by Brasco20, July 03, 2009, 01:41:25 AM

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Brasco20

I was reading my hornady reloading  book.  They were talking allot about headspacing.  One thing that was said,  a once shot case for the rifle that your going to be reloading,the body is already fitted and has expanded to your chamber, so you need to size only the neck to achieve accuracy.  This will put the center of the bullet in the bore correctly.   That way when a round is fired there will be no more body expansion.  Do you guys use these guidelines?   How do you only size the neck with a full length sizing die.  
Appreciate any help


Brasco

Jamie.270

Quote from: Brasco20;94434How do you only size the neck with a full length sizing die.  
Appreciate any help
Brasco
We have always used a sharpie/felt pen to ink the casing from about halfway up the wall to the top of the neck.  Another way is to "smoke" the casing with a candle.

Running the inked/smoked case into the resizing die will leave witness marks where it is making contact and working the brass.

Back the die out until it is only working the neck.  Some go down a little further to get a little shoulder "bump-back" to insure easy bolt lock-up.

Clean the residue out of the die afterwards with some carb or brake cleaner.

In my match guns we used to leave a little neck untouched as well.  But a bushing die is better for this.

There may be better methods, but this is how we have always done it.

Hope this helps.
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sakorick

Other than my Acklies, I resize nearly everything as I own about 25 Mausers and many 06's so I don't know what case goes to each rifle. A word of caution. Just check case length and trim if necessary, neck size, load a bullet and see how it chambers......if the bolt is hard to close......resize the case. Things happen with various chambers and resizer combinations. If the round chambers easily......you are in business. At any rate at some point you must resize the case.....experience will dictate. Regards, Rick.
Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.

Brasco20

If i do resize the neck only, is this going to improve accuracy, or does it just depend on the rifle?
Thanks for the help

Brasco

sakorick

Quote from: Brasco20;94475If i do resize the neck only, is this going to improve accuracy, or does it just depend on the rifle?
Thanks for the help

Brasco
Possibly but not likely.....we are generally talking insignificant case differences here. Finding the sweet spot off the lands is way more important for accuracy IMHO. Regards, Rick.
Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.

subsonic

It would depend on the rifle. I have tried it and settled on resizing the case until it chambers freely, but not necessarily with the die touching the shellholder. The Redding .002" incriment shellholders are GREAT for this.
 
Forcing an unsized case into a chamber with the bolt has it's own set of problems.... not the least of which is increased wear on the locking lugs. And most importantly, if your chamber is not concentric, or your ejector (like a Rem 700 style) is spring loaded, it will hold the case slightly off kilter in the chamber, and then fire-form it off kilter. If you are indexing your cases and put them back into the chamber in the same orientation, this will work, but it can be tough to know true case orientation once you lower the bolt handle. This is important enough that some people remove the ejctor for fire forming.
 
The only way to know if it works in your rifle is to try it. IMHO, I cannot shoot well enough to judge it for sure, so I resize my cases more.

sakorick

Let me just add....forcing a case into the chamber can most importantly lead to loss of meat in the freezer as the deer amble off while you are frantically trying to chamber a round.... I have seen this happen and I'll leave the gory details to your imagination :cry:  Regards, Rick.
Talk to yourself. There are times you need expert advice.

subsonic

Yep. Always try cases destined for a hunting trip in the rifle after you size them.... some would suggest trying loaded ammo in the chamber - probably best done while at the shooting range and of course pointed in a safe direction!

Brasco20

Kind of like when you forget to chamber a round, or take the safety off, and then you pull the trigger.  Ha, been there.

Thanks guys

Brasco

Steve D

All good suggestions.  Lee precision makes sizing dies that only size the neck.  Some people don't like Lee Precision, so I'll leave you to your own on this, but they do have the dies.  They size somewhat differently and it is said there is less wear and tear on the cases.  Measuring and trimming is still necessary.  I will add that complete case sizing is especially important for semi-auto rifles, like Winchester 100's, for example.  Some rifles just don't have the strong camming action and it can be tough getting loosely saized cases in a tight chamber.
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