Bent case necks

[Delmar]

A friend of mine gave me some 308 cases as he sold his rifle-all once fired out of a 700P. I full length resized them and trimmed to length, but I noticed a little wobble in the case neck as I was running them through my zip-trim. My RCBS case master showed a .005" runout on most of the cases
I was using my Lee full length resizer, set up as per instructions.

Just to see what would happen, I ran a few cases through my RCBS die and the runout at the case neck dropped to <.001"

What effect, if any, am I likely to see with the cases resized on the Lee die?
Never had used it before-but I do like the Lee collet neck sizing die a lot.

 

[Steve Smith]

3 things.

1, there are some who believe that sizing a case, then turning it in the shellholder, and then sizing it again will produce less runout, but that seems random to me.

2, the RCBS could be straighter than the Lee. You must test a LOT of cases to really know.

3, this could all be acedemic. How far do you shoot? I'm not sure if concentricity would play a tremendous part in practical accuracy until you get out to 500 yards or so.

 

[Delmar]

Thanks Steve-I ended up resizing all 80 cases in the RCBS die, using the same shell holder. It straightened every one of the cases out, so the Lee full length resizer went to the trash. There are some good Lee products out there, but there are some bad ones too.

I suspect you're right on the accuracy-bambi would be just as dead at 250 yards, but I have this thing about everything being as precise as I can get it. I was ready to trash the whole lot of cases, but I am glad I tried the RCBS before I did. Actually, I should have left a few of them bent just to see what they would do on paper, but too late. Maybe I'll try running them through the Lee sizing die and see if I can duplicate it.

I am one of those who gives their cases a 180 degree spin and sizes again-my rifle is certainly more accurate than I am and I try to feed it the most consistant loads I can make. Maybe I'll catch up to it on a regular basis some day My best single group at 100 yards is .218". Don't ask me how it happened cause I cannot explain it, nor have I been able to duplicate it. Half inch or there abouts seems to be the norm for a 5 shot group. I think thats pretty good for a stone stock 700 VS off the sandbag.

 

[redneck2]

Mebbe...

the problem is when you try to neck size only with regular dies

during regular resizing, the case is held straight by the die holding the case body. If you don't full length resize, it lets the case float around in the holder.

Dunno if this is the problem...just a thought...HTH

 

[Delmar]

Redneck 2, that was the issue-I was full length resizing when this happened! Wouldn't have done me much good to neck size when the brass in question was fired in a different rifle.

 

[GooseGestapo]

Delmar,
Fish that die from the can and send it with a sized case to Lee. If it's really bad, they'll send you a new one.

My experience with Lee and RCBS dies, is that it's probably the expander/decapper rod is slightly bent. This will "Pull" the case neck out of alignment when the sized case is pulled from the die.

Also, the die may have been screwed into the press and locked down slightly askew. This is really a bigger problem with the older RCBS dies than the Lee's, IMO.

Either way, how you set up the dies can make a huge difference in the final result. I went through 3 sets of dies trying to get some good ones for a .22 Hornet till an "OLD-TIMMER" as in 90+ back in the early '80's told me a trick about the Hornet........
Full length size "always", and seat bullets to SAAMI oal. Sounded crazy, but it loads accurate ammo.
Seems most Hornets have such sloppy chambers (all except a T/C contender I once had) that you get better accuracy/consistency if you load them to "lie" in the chamber the same way rather than "press fit" as we customarily load.

Hence, your .005" run out might or might not make a difference, depending on chamber, bullets, ect.
In fact, a friends Bench Rest .22-PPC on a Sako 75 action, would actually "straighten out" an out of alignment round due to such a tight chamber, providing the neck was uniform in thickness and run-out was due to neck alignment only. With 'BAD" rounds, that gun would shoot in the "threes" (ie .300" 5 shot ctc groups).