Neck Size?

[Dinny]

I got some brass that was loaded and the bullets pulled. Should I neck size the brass prior to reloading them again? Will the seat die put the neck where it needs to be when I seat the bullets?




Thanks, Dinny

[res45]

Well you have two choices.

A. Full length resize the entire case and install a new primer.

B. Neck size the case only and seat a new bullet.

All the bullet seater die does is seat the bullet to the correct depth and apply a crimp if it's desired.  Bullet  tensions is a combination of the dia. of the expander ball in the decapping die,thickness of the case neck and the bullets dia. 

Long story short when you pull a bullet you need to either FL resize the case  if you didn't load it to begin with and know it was correctly sized so it fits you firearm or neck size the case if you loaded it yourself and know how the case was prepped.

[Dinny]

Since I know the origin of the brass and am confident with how it was prepped, I'm gonna neck size it. I loaded and shot some without any sizing, other than from the Lapua factory, and had somewhat dismal results. Not knowing if it was the load, shooter or barrel I thought I would ask. Now I can further narrow it down.


Thanks, Dinny

[necchi]

Yup, need to resize the neck somehow. Seating then removeing the first bullet changed the neck size affecting any tention needed for the next bullet.
 
res45,
 You can FL size and not knock out the primer. Just remove the primer pin (RCBS+Redding dies), or raise the expander button (Lee dies). Just be carefull of the lube and all is well

[Dinny]

Just be carefull of the lube and all is well

Can you elaborate? I'm not one that has thought much about the lube other than having some on the case when sizing.




Thanks, Dinny

[necchi]

 I use the RCBS lube and pad, the lube is placed inside the neck with a brush that's been rolled on the pad to pick up some lube.
 I have to wash this water soluble lube out of the necks after sizing or my neck tention/bullet grip is affected by the lube,(a bad thing).
 
 If I pull bullets for some reason and want to re-use the case with the primer in it, I'll use the Lee stuff in a tube for lube. It dries differently than the RCBS stuff and they say it doesn't affect bullet grip. I'll still take a damp Q-tips and wipe the inside of the neck.
 

There's a bunch of case lube techniques, with my described technique I want to be sure there's no lube left inside the case neck that might affect bullet grip or contaminate the powder or primer in any way.

So if I want to save the primer in a bullet pulled case I just use a little more care with the lube, `cause I can't wash it,,

I actually use a Lee Universal De-primer die for all my de-priming, I've found that positioning the expander button higher in my FL sizing dies gives me much better control of case neck runout, a big deal with the long throated Handis,, but all that is a different topic.

[Dinny]

I see said the blind man to his deaf daughter.   I use Imperial sizing wax. Right after neck sizing, I cleaned all the necks with a clean Q-Tip so that none of the lube would catch and hold any powder. Hopefully that takes care of any potential neck tension problems.


Thanks, Dinny