Question for the experts: Fire formed case, bolt action, How do you know if you have neck- sized enough?

After sizing and trimming, I put the casing in and it is a snug fit with slight pressure to cam it into the chamber. Need more or just right?

How many times have you fired those cases?

Does the bolt close with more force on a case than it does with no case in the chamber? Most rifles will have some resistance when locking the lugs in. You have to gauge the amount of force between an empty chamber and chambering a case.

TWice fired cases. Yes bolt takes a moderate effort to close.

Want to stretch out brass life?

besides neck sizing, when the case is difficult to chamber, using a Redding Body Die.. it will resize JUST the shoulder back...

In playing with this and neck sizing as opposed to full length resizing.. I am noticing a dramatic increase in the life of the brass...

especially if you start annealing the necks every 3rd or 4th shot..

When only neck sizing, the neck of the loaded round does not come in contact with the chamber if sized correctly using standard dies. What will make the bolt close hard is the shoulder of the case hitting the chamber. This is called cartridge headspacing. Soon or later you will have to Full Length Resize your brass, this will move the shoulder back a few .001's If you are using a dies set that uses an expander button, there is no case life difference between FLRS and Neck sizing. The case neck is worked the same with both. There are bushing dies availabe that reduce working of the brass, but better left to the expert reloader.

I use Redding Comp 3 piece die set. They seperate the body die from the neck die, and you buy bushings for the neck die to find out what bushing i just loaded a bullet in an empty BRAND NEW case, measured the neck and subtracted .001 and that is what i neck size to. so far it's working great! i only resize brass thats brand new or shot in a semi auto (ar15). I keep brass seperated as to which gun it was shot in. I fully believe in neck sizing only!

You can usually neck size only for 3 or 4 firings until the case becomes too tight in the chamber. Then, like 243winxb says, you will have to push the shoulder back. Only push it back far enough to relieve the crush fit. That will give you the best case life.

I've found it best to partial FL size. Get yourself a set of head space gauges and adjust your FL die to set the shoulder back 0.0005"-0.001". There are other methods ("crush fit" or smoking the shoulder) but head space gauges give you a definitive measurement and make the process almost foolproof. You can PFL size your brass every time you reload it, brass life is greatly increased, and rarely will you have to trim it.

quote:

How do you know if you have neck- sized enough?

In an attempt to actually answer the man's question, when you're sized down to the heel of the seated bullet you have gone as far as it makes any difference.

Neck size 4 times, then FL size 1 time, then neck size 3 times then fL 1, neck 3 again if it will let you and it just goes one until you have to FL evertime if your brass is still good, now you could anneal your cases after they 4 NK 1 FL ...