Do bushing dies do anything other than adjust your neck tension on a bullet? In other words, if your brass is turned equally, would a round with a .268 bushing and a .269 bushing have the same neck thickness?

Scott they size the neck only enough to grip the bullet. It minimizes the amount the neck can be move off center of the case body. It also minimizes how much the case is worked.

The .268 and .269 bushings would produce a round with the same neck diameter when meaured over a seated bullet. Before seating the neck sized in the .268 bushing will be about .001 smaller.

Well that depends on what type of busshing die you are talking about. Redding for example has a "Neck Sizing" bushing die and a "Full Length" Bushing die.
http://www.redding-reloading.com/pages/typesbushseatdie.html

Bushing Dies allow the reloader to control the amount of neck tension on the bullet as well as prolonging case life. But an overlooked advantage to the bushing die is that the neck is sized while the rest of the case is fully supported in the die. What is supporting the case as you pull the neck over an expander ball? NOTHING! This is what creates the runout that plagues non bushing dies. If you are not using bushing dies and are serious about accuracy, you need to start. I used to use neck only bushing dies but needed to Fl size the cases every now and then anyhow so I switched to FL bushing dies and will never go back. If done properly you can create very accurate reloads with almost no runout, and case life will exceed your expectations.

quote:

Originally posted by pointblank:
But an overlooked advantage to the bushing die is that the neck is sized while the rest of the case is fully supported in the die. What is supporting the case as you pull the neck over an expander ball? NOTHING!

After looking at the link above, the die would imply that the case is not fully supported as it is pulled over the expander?

[/QUOTE]After looking at the link above, the die would imply that the case is not fully supported as it is pulled over the expander?[/QUOTE]

Read the part about the "S" bushing die that says it can used with a de-capping pin retainer and no expander ball. Why would you want to drag neck turned brass over an expander ball in the first place?

I don't have any experience with other brands but as the previous poster pointed out, Redding bushing dies come with an expander ball and also a de-capping pin retainer. When you get the die, throw the expander ball directly into the trash can.

When you guys talk about "neck turned brass", do you mean inside or outside?
And when do you turn the necks, before or after resizing the case?
Sorry, if these seem as pretty stupid questions to you. But I am only just getting familliar with the topic.

Neck turning refers to the outside of the case neck. Neck turning is required when loading for rifles wth tight neck chambers(custom). The chamber is cut to minimum specs and a tight neck so that the brass will be a good fit and wont be "worked" by the sizing die too much. Also by turning the necks, you make the wall thickness very uniform and thereby help the round to be very strait when loaded. The interchangable bushings available for the dies in question in this thread allow you to adjust the tension placed on the bullet in the case neck. When you turn all your necks to a uniform dimension, you will be putting the same amount of tension on the bullet with each case. Brass from the factory is anything but uniform so achieving consistent neck tension is tough to do. Some brass is better than others though. Lapua make very uniform brass that is also some of the most durable brass in the industry. It may appear to cost more than some of the others, but if you do a lot of shooting, the difference will pay for itself in the long run. Unfortunately they have a limited selection to choose from. All this being said, if you are loading for a big game rifle with a factory chamber, you don't need to turn your brass. At most, take a skim cut to just clean up the outside to make it more uniform. That will help with neck tension consistency, but it will also make more clearence in a chamber that is already too large.

When using my S type bushing dies. I don't use the decapping/expander ball at all. I decap on a universal decapping die with no sizer ball and then run the cases through the bushing die to size them.