Expander Balls and Neck Sizing

[Zeke Menuar]

I have a No1 MkIII and Ishapore 2A Enfields. I went out yesterday and shot the 2A. Groups were outstanding using a handload of 45gr RL-15 and Hornady 165gr SP. I now have enough brass to handload and I have the 308 neck sizer(303 British is OTW).
The Enfield does stretch cases some. In the case of the 303 it shoved the shoulder forward and reshaped it. I am guessing the chamber in the No1 MkIII was cut a little big.
The 2A is scary accurate. It shot two separate 2" groups at 80 yards shooting offhand. No resting off the car. This gun warrants further load development.

I'd like some opinions on whether to use the expander ball in the neck sizer or not and why. FWIW I am using a free floating shellholder in my press, Wilson case trimmer, RCBS casemaster runout gauge, and a bunch of expensive measuring tools leftover from the days when I worked in a machine shop. 308 dies are standard RCBS dies.

Thanks
ZM

 

[swifter]

I wish you'd had a "maybe" choice...

I voted "no" because I'm shifting over to bushing dies, at least for my accuracy stuff.
The only die set I've purchased recently that had an expander ball was for .17 Remington. No bushing dies available for that round. :banghead: So I polished the expander to a mirror finish, and it works OK... But I wish I had a bushing die for it. Sigh...

Tom

 

[donkee]

The only reason I said yes is because noone else did yet!

 

[goon]

Someone on here recommended to me to use the expander ball to just barely bell the mouth of the case enough to get a bullet started in it. It seems like a fair idea to me, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. Still working on other projects. You would presumably also need a universal decapping die for this.

Also, watch the .303 brass. Neck sizing works OK to deal with the stretching, but the cases from my SMLE sometimes (usually) end up with a small bulge after the second firing. Some of them even have this after the first firing (factory ammo). I am hoping that I can mitigate this by working up some light loads with 124 grain bullets for the 7.62x39mm, but again, I haven't managed to try this yet. Still working a load for deer season so the practice load is on the back burner until I get a chance to play with it.

 

[30Cal]

I'm not really heavy on loading for bolt guns, bushing dies, etc... My understanding is that you pick the bushing based on the thickness of the case neck to get the neck tension you want on the bullet, yes? What happens if the necks aren't uniformly thick?

I'd be tempted to use the expander ball--that way you're squeezing a round bullet into a round hole instead of a round bullet in an occasional oblong hole. You can run a few through with the expander ball then check the runout to see how uniform the thickness of your case necks are.

Ty

 

[ocabj]

I remove the expander ball/stem from my neck dies. If I'm going to take the time to measure and find the right bushing for my necks, I don't want the expander ball to mess with the neck size on the upstroke.

If the brass I'm going to neck size is dented on the neck, then I'll run an expander through it to get the neck round again.

 

[Fatelvis]

With a bushing neck die, I don`t use an expander. With all others I do.