neck sizing

[theduke]

Can you use a lee full lenth sizing die to just size the neck of 7x30 waters.  If so how?  Do i have to buy seperate neck sizing die.  thanks

[wncchester]

First, Lee's FL size die is no different from others.

Neck sizing, correctly done, means you make no change to the case body.  The less body taper a case has, the less likely it is to work.  If you can run your case into the die so the neck will be sized to the base of the loaded bullet with no die-to-body contact, you will be fine.  If not, it won't work.  It's somewhat rare for it to work well.

Test your die and a fired case by painting the full body with a dark color "dry erase" felt tip marker.  Run the painted case into your sizer to the depth you wish and check for a hard body rub mark at any point.  Do the case insertion in a series of small steps, withdrawing it fully each time to check for the rub, otherwise you may get a very hard stuck case.  

[LaOtto222]

Unless the body has no taper or the chamber it is fired in is very over sized, you should be able to partially neck size a case neck with a full length sized die. You will be able to do this, but not all the neck will not be sized. You will end up with a small step in the neck. You back off the die at least two full turns from the press rams top dead center. Do this by running the press all the way up, then turning the die body down to the shell holder. Then you back off the die by at least two full turns. This should get your die far enough away from the case body to not touch it, but the neck will be two full turns short of fully sizing the case. I do not think this is all bad however. I sized 222 Remington cases like this for years and got very good accuracy. My theory is that the full sized neck, just above the shoulder, helps center the bullet in the bore One thing that you have to watch for, is the little step in the neck gets stressed more than normal and will fail right there, if it is not annealed once in a while. It works, I have done it. I would still be doing it, but my finances are better now and I buy special dies to neck size with now. If you have a "common" cartridge, chances are Lee makes a neck collet die for it. They can be bought for under $25 and they do a very good job sizing only the neck (all of it). I feel that neck sizing so the case is centered to the bore + making the bullet as concentric as possible contribute to accuracy more than any thing else you can do as a reloader; other than the gun itself. You can not get a bad shooting gun to be accurate, no matter what you do from a reloading stance. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[Val]

It would be so much easier to just buy a neck sizing die.

[theduke]

thanks for responses

[gcrank1]

Try it, per what has been said here. You have nothing to lose.