Advice on .303 British Neck Sizing

[MissouriCrowinMass]

I picked up a Jungle Carbine a while back. My shoulder (vicious recoil) has healed enough that I want to try reloading for it. I reload 7.5x55, .30 Carbine and 7.62x54R for rifles.....I've ALWAYS full length sized.

I read up on a lot of posts on neck sizing. I have Lee Full Length Dies for .303British. I ran the Shell Holder all the way up in my Rock Chucker. Screwed bown the Die to just touch the Shell Holder and backed it off 1/2 turn. I did some math (dangerous) and a 1/2 turn looks like about .035" to me. I checked and the brass chambered real easy in the Jungle Carbine after sizing.

I'm always pretty conservative regarding Loads. I never approach Max Loads.

QUESTION: Is there anything I did wrong before checking the case length and priming. I did order the .311 case mouth reamer from Lee and took out the .308 one that the Die came with. I have a supply of .311 bullets. IMR 4350. I'm working with once fire Privi Brass.

 

[armoredman]

I bought the actual Neck Sizing Die from Lee, works great. My No4Mk1* loves the Hornady 174gr FMJ/BT .3105 diameter bullet. Sounds good to me.

 

[351 WINCHESTER]

Prvi is the best brass for reloading that I have ever used. It's quite a bit thicker at the web and not as brittle as s & b. For some real fun get some ak bullets or sierra pro hunter 125 gr. .311. You can drive those up to about 3000fps with some H335. They are very loud from a jc and accuracy is quite good. For hunting I have settled on 150 speer bullets as accuracy is quite good and also the remington 180 core loct (which is .310).

 

[PADutchman]

MissouriCrowinMass, you actually already have a perfect neck sizing die in hand for the 303 British. The 7.62X54R die with a .311 expander works great as a neck sizing die for my 303, and my 7.7 Japanese. The Russian case is wide and short compared to the 303 & 7.7 therefore they slide into the die with no resistance up to the neck sizer. I put a light coat of liquid paper the length of the case neck of my case and slowly adjust the die down removing the liquid paper as I go until I size the neck as low as I want to go. Lock down the die and go. I use a universal depriming die to remove the primer before I neck size.

 

[MissouriCrowinMass]

I have this pet expression......it goes like this......

"If you locked me a room with no windows for 100 years, I never would have thought of that."

Great tip. Thanks!

 

[shinz]

A popular method of setting up dies for neck sizing as opposed to full length is to smoke the neck shoulder region with a candle & then adjust your die as described by PADutchman above. This will work whether you set up your regular 303 FL die like this or another suitable die such as the 7.62x54 one already mentioned. my No5 Mk1 has a very "generous" chamber as you describe & this workes Ok with the RCBS FL dies I have for it & cuts back brass working greatly.
Steve