If you have brass that varies .006 you should look at some different brass if there is any made in that cal. That is a tremendous amount for a case to vary. If your gunsmith can't answer just what neck diameter his reamer is, maybe you should have a chamber cast made, along with changing gunsmiths. This will tell you just how much you have to play with, along with uniforming your brass necks it is advantageous to keep the neck diameter and loaded ctg. neck as close as possible with at least .001 clearence. Inside neck reaming is a complete waste of time unless you are making a smaller case from a large one and just have too much brass in the neck area. All inside neck reaming does is enlarge the inside diameter of the neck without uniforming the walls at all. The reamer just follows the existing hole. If your chamber neck is large enough that a relatively tight fit between chamber and loaded ctg. can not be achieved, try to get your brass as uniform as you can and purchase a die with inserts to be able to seat a bullet with the proper neck tension. Bob

I have a wildcat chambered Contender barrel that requires that the finished brass be 'neck turned' as the chambering is very tight. The amount of brass removed is less than .002" total overall and provides for a very precise fit. Far from being detrimental to accuracy the thing shoots some bench quality groups. I have never 'ruined' even one piece of brass for the barrel from neck turning and will get many loadings per case. There is a noticable difference in neck tension from turned - unturned brass and for consistency I turn it all now. I did turn down the expander ball the precursor .001" so as not to open the neck quite as much.

bigcountry

IMHO it's not so much that Remington brass is getting worse, it's that some calibers are really bad while some are as good as Lapua or Norma. I don't know if Rem deliberately tries harder with certain calibers or if it's just the luck of the draw. Unfortunately, with the bad calibers all you can do is wait until somebody else starts making better stuff or spend the time to sort out the bad ones. I usually buy a bulk sack of 500 and HOPE to end up with 200 good ones and maybe another 100 for chronographing, setting dies, etc. It's a hell of a way to have to do it but I don't see any options.

Well, I know people will get on here and tell me they have no problem, but remington brass seems to be getting worse and worse. I measured neck thickness of some Federal once fired 308 brass. And it was unform up .002". I don't enjoy neck turning. Thats for sure. I have loaded for the RUM for 3 years now and for three different guns. And the first batches wasn't like this. They didnt' come all dinged up to where 40% of the cases has some sort of dent in them.

The way I look at it, sure I am removing brass, but your only as strong as your weakest link. Maybe I should approch this differently and buy brass by 1000 pieces and sort by neck uniformity. And sell off the rest.

I think I'm taking brass down to .013-.014 (rem brass for the 300 wby). Never thought about it but the bullets do seat real smooth and a fairly light touch to the handle when seating. I'm using forester benchrest dies. What does it feel like when you withdraw the brass over the sizing ball??? I'm guessing little or no sizing going on??
I also used a lee collet die on my neck turned brass without trouble and also had a rcbs die that never gave me trouble on the neck turned brass. Seems to me that a properly sized die would work the case neck inward and then let the sizing ball take it back out to the right inside dimension....even with neck turned brass.

FWIW--I took some measurements on my 300 wby/rem brass that I had neck turned. I have it turned down to .012" thickness. I checked some brand new unturned federal match brass in 30-06 and it measure .014" My sized 300 wby out of my forester measure .305-.306" inside diameter--it all depends on how hard I squeeze the caliper--so maybe i'm at .3055" inside diameter?? Anyhow this gives me enough neck tension to not have my bullets move in my wby. Checking some brass that I have sized with my lyman m-die I also get .305-.306 and this usually gives a pretty light grip on bullets in 30 cal but once again enough to hold bullets.

So, my question to you might be--if you have any contact in your sizing with the expander ball why not remove it altogether and then, I guess you already have a bushing die.

(maybe you are getting no contact with the sizing ball but I would think you are.) If this would be the case I would think you might be able to make the most concentric brass around?? PS--any chance lee makes a crimping die in your caliber????? You might really have the cats meow if you could build some nice lightly seated, straight ammo--and then hold it in place with a light crimp.

Umm, thanks Atiksen, You never even asked if it was a target or factory or anything. You just took it ran off.

Ok, pull your foot out of your mouth and settle down for a second. It is a very tight chamber. And is a krieger barrel on a gun that I resently have made my fun target gun since I packed it moose hunting twice and it is just way too heavy with a .95" barrel. Ruined the brass? Lets not get too dramatic. I can always buy a redding bushing die or have Lee make me a collet die. Just seeing if I had too or anyone else have this issue. I mean how much neck tension do you have to have? My RCBS die sizes the inside to .306.

Bigcountry

If you're going to shoot single-loading (No magazine) only a moderate neck tension is required. Test a few rounds to see if accuracy is ok. On many benchrest cartridges you can almost pull the bullets out with your fingers and you know how well they shoot. I don't think the brass is ruined. And, it may not be necessary to buy a whole new sizing die. There is a guy named Jim Carstensen who will modify any sizing die to take a bushing. I think he gets about $30 or so which is a real bargain. You should be able to find him at Ph 319-689-6258. i don't know if he has e mail or a web site.

Ray