A resent thread I posted on .308 inherent accuracy somewhat diverged into a long neck short neck thing (my doing).

Considering comparative cartridges such as .222vs..223, .243vs..244(6mm), .257Roberts vs .250 Souper, etc.; does long neck or short neck really offer any ACCURACY advantage.

Opinions on this design feature are welcome, Solid proff is prefered and everthing in between, except divergance,is interesting.

Hopefully this will be as spirited as the .308 inherent accuracy thread. roger

By comparison the .243Win. has a short neck compared to the 6mmn Rem. The longer neck of course is easier to work with for handloaders, but the shorter neck is easier to keep fairly concentric. Also, the bullets won't be seated so deeply in the 6mm Rem. These thigs can be either good or bad depending on concentricity you can maintain while reloading. Just one mans opinion. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

I don't know about difference in accuracy but the necks on my 300WSM cases are really short and the chamber is short which makes loading heavier bullets near impossible. This doesn't bother me as I have other caliber rifles to shoot the heavier pills in but if this was my only rifle and I needed to shoot the heavy stuff I'd have to seat bullets down into the powder space to keep OAL in the chamber limits and this would mean reduced charges.

Long necks make the throat last longer, in theory.

Long necks allow you to avoid touching the dreaded doughnut.

Long necks make the round feed easier from the magazine.

Long necks make the round more elegant, which is by far the most important reason of all.

It depends on who your asking and what cartridge your asking about. If you ask the 300 WM crowd about it vs the 308 Norma then you will find how insignificant it is, however ask the same bunch about the 308 win vs the 300 Savage and you may get a different answer.

At one time (the 60's) a long neck was considered essential to ultimate accuracy. The reason given was always that it gave more accurate bullet alignment. I think this is likely true as long as the case is straight. However, my belief is that this has become a rather insignificant issue, given more advanced chambering, reloading and case preparation techniques.

quote:

Originally posted by Art S.:
At one time (the 60's) a long neck was considered essential to ultimate accuracy. The reason given was always that it gave more accurate bullet alignment. I think this is likely true as long as the case is straight. However, my belief is that this has become a rather insignificant issue, given more advanced chambering, reloading and case preparation techniques.

I think you hit the nail on the head. roger

Short neck......... Long neck........ No neck....... Take your pick........

If accuracy is your game move forward slightly to what is really important for accuracy - - - -

The throat!

The throat holds the secret to accuracy if it was machined correctly and bullets seated accordingly......

BigRx

Just to stetch the point, what is the big deal with cast bullet shooters and long necks? To cover all the grease grooves or the same accuracy issue?

I've reloaded both the .222 and .223 as well as the .308 and .30-06 and further the .243 and the .244 (6MM Rem) and could never actually find any accuracy difference in them as long as I used the right stuff.

Few disciplines are more affected by bad information and unscientific reporting than the firearms industry and reloading in particular. This long/short neck debate is among those unscientific reports. If there was real differences you would see it in the new products and it don't seem to be there.

quote:

Originally posted by tiggertate:
Just to stetch the point, what is the big deal with cast bullet shooters and long necks? To cover all the grease grooves or the same accuracy issue?

Way back when this first became an issue(?) a whole lot of folks used plain old Lead bullets to kill everything with. You controlled "Bullet Expansion" by either Tempering the Bullets, or with a double-pour design which had less Antimony in the Nose pour.

Meanwhile, lots of experimenting with the Lube Grooves(number, width, depth, shape, etc.) and grease concoctions(hard, soft, in-between). But, if a Grease Groove extended "into" the Powder or "out of" the Case, you had problems. Obviously Powder contamination if it is in too far. Then if out too far they were not only a mess to carry, but the grease in the exposed groove would also come off in high heat.

Less problems in typically "straight wall" cases, or switch to Paper Jackets - way back then.
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Today it just doesn't mean a thing, except for being able to fit in certain action lengths.