I would like some info on case neck turners. I’m sure they aren’t all created equal.
What are your experiences with them and what brand do you use?
I’ve heard people talk about them and run out before and never paid any attention to it.
I brought the subject up to a couple of other hand loaders I know and they thought I was from some other planet because I didn’t know anything about it. They of course don’t use one and couldn’t tell me a good one from a bad one.
I would like to get one sometime this week and put some loads together to try out to see if it will make much of a difference before I start loading for this years pd trip. That single stage Rock Chucker sure takes a long time to put together a couple 1000 rounds.
Any help would be appreciated.

Greg

The best neck turners are those operated by hand, such as the Pumkin, K&M, and Sinclair. If you are going to be prepping 2 thousand cases there aren't any hand turners that will do it in just a few hours, or a few days.

Powered turners can do a decent job quickly but are expensive.

It may be too late but if it was me and I had to make 2000 cases I would have a chamber cut for no-turn brass and get the best brass available.

With that many cases to make I assume you are talking a varmint rifle and it may be that you would not see enough gain in accuracy with turned necks vs. fitted necks or even non-fitted factory necks. Also, if you have a factory chamber, turning necks could make a sloppy situation even sloppier.

Ray

In general, it is probably fair to say the Pumkin (sp?) is the best turner. At a more reasonable price, the K&M is supposedly the easiest to adjust.

Other that that, I agree with Ray that you should tell us a little bit more about why you'd like to turn. Do you NEED to turn, or do you want to turn??

If you NEED to turn, that will indicate you have a custom chamber with a tight neck. Depending on the caliber and use of the rifle, this may make sense or not. Should you wish not to turn, but not want to rechamber completely, this is easily rectified by having a neck reamer run through your chamber.

If you simply want to turn - e.g. because you have heard this has advantages - then you have to consider the arguments Ray presented. Normally, it is not worth turning for a factory chamber using factory dies. It is unlikely to bring you a whole bunch in terms of accuracy, and you will work your brass a lot more with resultant problems.

- mike

If you're going Pdog shooting, it ain't worth the effort. You are talking about small, very small gains in accuracy. We're talking 1/8" or less. I have neck turned my match ammo to shoot in a factory rifle and it does help but it ain't gonna turn a bad load into a one-holer or anything like that. I think the gain is in the more uniform neck pull. By any road, it's not something I would do 2000 of.

Sinclair NT 3000

The Sinclair is about the best for quality of cut, but can be a bitch to adjust. I have adapted a number of them to be set with a micrometer that makes it quite easy. I do not know how to post pics here but may be able to get a friend of mine to do it for me.

Mine is the attachment for my Forster trimmer. It works well enough but I'd never do it to 2K cases for PD's. Like others have said, if you have a factory chamber, it won't make much of an accuracy improvement.

Hi Bob,

This is the only picture I have of it.

Frank D

A Sinclair turner set up like this is the best of 2 worlds.Cuts very nice and is easy to reset. I have the 3000 model with the same set up but Frank does not have a pic. of it. Still very easy to do. I have never found any of the lathe type turners to be of any value at all. Please excuse the mess on my desk, I just cleaned it up.

Friends-

I'll cast my vote for the K&M. They are easy on the pocket book. Easy to adjust. That along with an electric screwdriver chucked up with a shell holder you can turn some necks in fairly short order although, 1000 rounds is going to take some time to do.

Plus, you are not going to find a nicer guy than Ken Markel (K&M).

I have a Forster hand turner. I like it, butIn the Rounds I shoot (338WM & 30-06) I did not see any difference in accuracy between turned and unturned necks.

That said the Forster tool is nice and easy to use. I did get a Sinclair expander because some of the necks were just too tight to get on the TURNER PILOT… I have turned more than 600 cases… and if I were to start from scratch with a new caliber I would not turn the necks again… It is the only piece of case prep which did not yield a noticeable result

Unless you have a tight necked chamber the exercise of neck turning is a waste of time from my own experience.

Layne Simpson once said that unless you're already shooting 1/2" groups, there is no reason to turn necks and I concurr with him completely.

However if you insist on turning necks this one from Hornady is surprisingly good!

My BR friends keep telling me don't waste your time unless you have a custom chamber. I even had a saleman at Sinclair talk me out of buying a neck turner if I did not have custom chamber.

That was enough for me. Don't waste my time.

I agree that without a tight necked chamber you are probebly doing more harm then good.The more you cut off the neck the more you have to work the brass to size it.

I know this is heresy, but I have a Gracey outside neck turner. This one is set up for .308, and turns the neck walls from ~.015" to .013". It actually works real damn good.

Mr. Gracey can set one up for whatever caliber, and to whatever depth. I had to do zero adjustment on mine when it came. I inherited a couple rifles with tight necks and tight Wilson die sets. When the present stash of brass is worn out I will send in some sample cases, and he will set me up with the tooling to change out the cutting head on my present unit. In a short afternoon I can do enough brass to last a lifetime of varmint shooting.

Since I replaced my Gracey trimmer motors for stronger units, I have some motors lying around that I would sell CHEAP. Then you only need to get the actual neck turning unit, attach the motor, and take a fast drive to Fat City.

JOhn