Neck sizing

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Sniper66

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I am fairly new to reloading...have been reloading rifle cartridges for the last 4-5 years. Decided to try a neck sizer for my .204. The info I have says to be sure to shoot it in the same rifle, which I do. I have a Ruger #1 .204. I neck-sized and reloaded about 50 rnds. Some of them fit Ok, but most slide in snugly, more so than my full-length resized rounds and a few, maybe 5-6 of them are too tight and will not fit. A friend says he has the same problem with neck sizing in general. Is that your experience too or am I doing something wrong?
I'm planning to buy a .22 Hornet and am told the cases last longer with neck sizing, so I hate to give up on it.
 
Are you sure that the headspace is correct? Most chambering problems come from the shoulders not being bumped back far enough.

Take one of your non-fitting cases and color it with a magic marker. Try to chamber it and see where the marker is getting rubbed off. It's probably at the shoulder.

You can do a "partial full length resize" by putting the lubed case in the press and screwing the die little by little until the shoulder gets bumped back and the case chambers without resistance in your gun. You should screw the die in a few mils (thousands of an inch) farther (1/6th of a turn is about 12 mils on a 7/8" x 14 threaded die). Mark those positions on your die/lockring/press and you will now know where to bump the shoulders back on tight fitting cases. You will need to do this every few firings.

The other method is to buy a shoulder bumping insert, but that's extra money.

If headspacing is what you are running into, one of these would be good to have. Hornady also sells them with no bushings where you can get one at a time. I use one for my 788 in .308. It's no fun to get a stuck case in your rifle.
 
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Ruger #1's I have fooled with have minimum headspace, and no closing cam power like a bolt-action.

Unlike a bolt-action, if they don't quite fit, you must quit.

With the .204 running 57,000 PSI, I think shoulder bumping is going to be necessary fairly often.

I'd also suggest chamber checking each neck-sized empty in the rifle before loading 50 of them.

rc
 
I have a Ruger #1V in .223 that exclusively gets neck sized reloads. I use the Lee collet die. The #1 has all the camming action needed to chamber neck sized loads in a .223-based cartridge. Once I ran into a problem with chambering and found that my seating die was off and I was actually driving the bullet into the lands. Make sure your OAL is not too long. I use a Stony Point gauge to check that. Once your dies are adjusted right, you should feel some resistance as you crush the loaded round into the chamber.
 
I have a No. 1V in 220 Swift that I neck size the cases. The rifle shoots considerably better with neck sized cases. After a couple of firings the cases need to be resized and use a body die to do so and bump the shoulder a little less than .002. The difference in headspace in the rifle between new brass and fire formed brass is approximately .006 to .007.

I neck turn all new brass to achieve a consistent neck wall thickness as one of the steps in initial case preparation. I use bushing dies without the expander plug to minimize runout.
 
Jdillon said:
I have a No. 1V in 220 Swift that I neck size the cases. The rifle shoots considerably better with neck sized cases.
Click to expand...

I noticed the same thing in my #1V. I spent a lot of time on load development, glass bedding the fore end, and fiddling with fore end pressure. These things helped, but the thing that really shrank the groups was going to that Lee collet die. This is the only rifle I have ever had that shoots tighter groups the hotter the barrel gets.
 
I have yet to FL a case fired in my rifle. I lost count but I know I have over 20 fireings & there is no hard chambering.
 
Decided to try a neck sizer
Click to expand...
Will the fired brass go back into the chamber before any type of sizing is done to it? If it will not chamber, the bolt face is not square to the bore/chamber. Or the chamber is oval shaped.
 
I don't have experience with the .204 yet but is there a chance that you are getting the bullet seated crooked? The reason I ask is I started reloading .22 hornet and had rounds that didn't chamber due crooked seating.

I now have a RCBS competition seating die that should seat them straight.

Clutch
 
Hey everyone Thanks for the thoughts. All my full-length resized reloads fit just fine, but the neck-sized ones all fit tight or will not fit. I think I need to adjust the die. I foolishly reloaded 50 cases before trying them...a rookie mistake for sure. My OAL is just fine, same as the FL sized cases. The seating depth is the same as with FL sized cases. Again, I think I just need to adjust the die. But, in the meantime, I have about 2,000 .223 and .204s that need to be shot at p-dogs real soon. I'll get back to this issue one of these days
 
Sniper66, how much you adjust a neck die will have no effect on head space, or shoulder position, as it were. If they are fitting tight or won't fit at all after neck sizing, you must run them through the FL die with it adjusted just enough to push the shoulders back about .002". Any more than that, and you've defeated your purpose in forming and head spacing the brass for that particular chamber.

I thought I would reiterate what had already been said, because it sounded like you might have missed the point about using the FL die to re-set the shoulders from time to time.
 
I also only NS my .204 however I do own a FL and only have done that when the are brand new and never been shot.

But getting back to you hard chambering what is your COL and what type of bullet are you using? Have you use a COL gauge yet? To determine the col for the type of projectiles you are using?
 
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