Difficulty Factor: Straight Case vs Bottleneck

[bbuddtec]

My first cartridge was .223, you'll be fine. (and after you'll be invincible!! )

 

[gamestalker]

1. For the auto loading actions I would recomend sticking to either a FL resizing die or small base. For bolt actions you can go with a neck die, but if you do you'll still need to use a FL die to push the shoulders back .002" when brass becomes too tight. This usually happens after 2 or 3 neckings.

2. It is necessary to maintain brass trim too lenghts with bottle neck brass! If you don't keep it trimmed to or below max length it can cause an already high operating pressure cartridge to spike excessively high.

4. Make sure you ream and chamfer the mouths after trimming.

5. When lubing bottle necks don't use excessive amounts of lube, and don't get lube on the shoulder of the brass or you'll end up with lube dents. I also recomend very lightly lubing the inside of the necks.

GS

 

[Snag]

I wouldn't say one is any more difficult than the other, they're just different and both have their nuances.

As I'm sure you know with the 44 Mag you can spend a lot of time messing with the amount of expanding and subsequent roll crimping. With bottlenecks you'll trade that for messing around with headspace and seating depth.

Biggest difference as mentioned is the need to lube bottleneck cases always.

 

[Krogen]

Aw heck.... Read a book or three and jump in! I learned how to handload straight wall, bottleneck and shotgun that way. That was before the internet was so prevalent. It's all there for you - in those things they call "books."

(said with kindness.... I'm not really >that< cranky!)