How many times can you neck size .308 and 30-06?

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Scout21

Scout21

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A friend wants to try out a .308 and 30-06 Lee Classic Loader but is concerned about how many uses he'll get out of his brass until it will become excessively difficult to chamber. I advised him to at least get a Lee Hand Press, but he has reasons for wanting the Classic Loaders. I told him worst case scenario he can use my press to full length resize, but he's still interested in knowing how many uses he'll get out of his brass when only neck sizing. He says he'll be loading medium to warm loads. Anybody have any idea?
 
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Depends on the brass, the gun it’s fired in, the loads being used, etc. I’ve reloaded cases 10+ with cast bullet loads but I’ve never used a Lee classic loader for a bottleneck rifle cartridge. I’m sure I’d give up before the cases do with that tedious process.
 
If he is doing this for reasons and in the field, a hand press with regular dies would take up more pack room, but in most senerios just carrying more bullets to make it back would be more feasible. The cost isn't hugely more but the ability to reload would more than double likely tripple.
 
I have reloaded cast loads 10+ times with neck sizing only in 7.62x54r. No problems chambering.

None of the loads were hot, or even warm; all under 2000 fps.

I annealed at least every 3rd firing.
 
Scout21 said:
Bolt gun only, I already clarified what action the reloads will be used it.
Click to expand...

You did?

Scout21 said:
A friend wants to try out a .308 and 30-06 Lee Classic Loader but is concerned about how many uses he'll get out of his brass until it will become excessively difficult to chamber. I advised him to at least get a Lee Hand Press, but he has reasons for wanting the Classic Loaders. I told him worst case scenario he can use my press to full length resize, but he's still interested in knowing how many uses he'll get out of his brass when only neck sizing. He says he'll be loading medium to warm loads. Anybody have any idea?
Click to expand...

I'll clean my glasses...
 
I'm going on 10 firings neck sized Lee Collet in 7,5 Swiss with a couple of my batches of brass. This K-31 rifle doesn't have a particularly strong camming action either. The K-31 bolt operates kind of like a straight pull AK or M1 Garand action. You can feel some resistance at the end of the lockup stroke, but a positive bolt throw results in no issues. I'd call this a medium pressure load.

In my old Rem 788 that I used to have, I never knew bumping the shoulder back was even a thing. I'd neck size my practice loads until the necks split. IDK how many firings...a lot! This was with anything from a 7,62 NATO spec load to full power hunting loads.
 
In addition to the good posts above- It depends on how hot of a charge is put through the rifle chamber and the quality of the brass, a soft/conservative load might take several reloads to get fully fire formed whereas a full charge load may only take two or three firings.

This relates to some folks saying they Neck size without issues and other fellas have to FL size every time.
 
As most have already mentioned it depends on several factors , the Load ,Brass, Headspace and chamber of the Rifle .
So it's anyone's guess .
 
What I do whether good or bad , right or wrong is measure my new brass at the case shoulder junction and the body just above the .200 line as well as the shoulder location and write it down or draw a diagram. Every time that round is fired I monitor the growth until it stops growing.

That’s also my chamber gage…
 
It depends on how much you move the brass, in both directions. It will be “blow out” to fit the chamber upon firing. If it’s tight, and your die doesn’t size the brass too much, 40 firings/sizing wouldn’t be a shocker, if your load doesn’t loosen the primer pockets.

Benchrest guns, made with a tight neck, so much so it has to be turned to fit the chamber, and a custom die will do this. Things are actually close enough, it’s possible to fire a case 3 times for sure, without running it through a size die.

Just replace the primer, add powder and seat another bullet. Places like Harrels want to you do just that to fully form the cases before you send them in and they machine you a die for the chamber.

You can also ruin a case in one shot though, if things are too sloppy.
 
FWIW just because you full length size doesn’t mean you must undersize the case in every direction.

Not a lot you can do about diameters but the length is up to you. This method gives long case life without a lot of trimming along the way but really only viable for ammunition to be used in the rifle you set the die with.

 
Here’s a test I did that might be useful https://www.thehighroad.org/index.php?threads/30-30-case-life-test.896133/ while not specific to neck sizing or the calibers mentioned. I’ve used a lee loader on 30-30 and I got something like 5 loadings before I got hard chambering, best I recall. But a lever gun will not chamber a well fire formed case nearly as easily as a bolt gun.

A case that’s long at shoulder that makes chambering hard is still safe to fire, but a case that’s hard to chamber because it’s too long overall is very dangerous.
 
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