I am a fairly experienced reloader but I have never turned the necks on my brass. I trim the neck but I don't turn the brass on the outside of the neck. Since most of my reloading is for hunting, I am wondering how important neck turning is and if it will give me any noticeable added accuracy. Thanks for any advice.

30/378,

With a standard factory chamber it is more likely to be a disadvantage. If that 30/378 of yours was chambered benchrest style then you would need to neck turn so as to chamber cases. Neck turning for a factory chamber simply increases the clearnace between case neck and chamber. Perhaps if had some real crappy brass things might be different.

Mike

.30-378WBY,
I am a firm believer in turning the outside of case necks. Will it help? That depends a lot on the quality of your cases. Does it always help? Nope. It does help enough for me to do it as a normal part of my case prepping. I don't have a single rifle that uses the case that the rifle actually chambered for. My .22-250 cases are headstamped .243 Win.. My .270 and .30-06 both use cases that are headstamped .280 Rem..I have several gauges that help me determine the dimentions of chambers. If the chambers are sufficiently larger than S.A.A.M.I. specs, and they always seem to be, I'll convert a larger case to the case I want. With few exceptions this results in cases necks that willnot allow a loaded cartridge to chamber. I'll use my 7mm-08 as an example. The length of the chamber was .050" longer than spec. If I'd trimmed cases in the normal method I'd been using cases that were .060" shorter than the chamber. Cases this short would not hold enough of the bullet to let met seat the bullets so they just touch the lands. Which is where I like to start my bullets. I started by trimming away about half the neck of .30-06 cases. I had .308 Win. and 7mm-08 Rem. dies adjusted in such a manner that the .308 die would size a case so the body of the case was .005" longer than my chamber. The 7mm-08 die was adjusted so the head space of the cases was the same as the chamber. After sizing to 7mm-08, the cases were trim to actual chamber length, minus .002". At this point all cases were sorted by weight and the necks were turned to .003" of the junction of the neck/shoulder of the case as determined from a case that had already been fireformed in my rifle. Necks were turned to a point that the diameter of the cartridge was .002" smaller than the chamber with a bullet seated. The cases were then fireformed and usually ended up about .010" shorter than the chamber. I use the Redding competition dies so It's easy to get the correct sized bushing for necksizing. The .002" clearence is more than enough to permit the neck to expand and release the bullet during firing. The necks spring back to almost the starting point. This require minimum flexing of the neck during resizing and the cases last a very long time with reasonable loads. I donot size the full length of the neck, but rather leave about 1/16 of an inch chamber size to act as a pilot to align the bullet to the bore. It is ALOT OF WORK, but Im retired and it keeps me away from the bars and wild women. Darn it.

All this is dependent upon how your rifle is shooting without the extra work. As well as what you are willing to accept as accurate enough. If an inch is good enough, then don't bother with it. If your not happy unless your five shot groups are in the twos and threes, then get ready for a world of work. But it's FUN. So I keep telling myself. I hope that this is of some help. Good luck.

I got into neck turning for my 300 wby. I just couldnt get consistant runnout from the remington brass I used. (YUP to cheap to buy the good norma/wby brass.) After neck turning I can consistantly build loaded brass at right around .001" runout. NOW DOES IT HELP?? I really don't know. I'm a believer that accuracy comes from consistant neck tension and I do think it can't hurt. I've had several other calibers where I don't neck turn and have had good luck getting my dies set up for minimal runnout. My advise would be that before you spend the time turning necks, invest in a case runnout tool and see if you really have a problem. IN ALL HONESTY FOR A HUNTING RIFLE NECK TURNING IS PROBABLY TIME WASTED--but we all go through life doing these types of things don't we??!!

Thanks for the advice folks. I appreciate it.

30-378 WEATHERBY; WHAT THE LOAD(S) ARE YOU USING I HAVE SOME DIFFICULTIES FINDING A GOOD ONE...

I am using a couple of loads:
150 Gr. Nosler/Winchester Ballistic Tip with 124 grains of H870

165 Barnes XLC with 120 grains of H870

Both of these loads shoot well over 3500 fps. The H870 is cheap but unfortunately it is being discontinued so get it while you can.

I have also tried Hodgdon's Retumbo. So far it is working well but I still need a little more experience with it before I give it my seal of approval. Of course every gun is different even if it is chamber for the same caliber. I would avoid H1000, it isn't fast at all and accuracy is awful, but of course things could be different for your gun.

I have an Enfield No.4 mkI that was keyholing .309 bullets in surplus ammo.
The barrel has .318" grouves.
So I got a neck turner and shot some .323" bullets.
While I was at it, I got some more surplus 303 that had .310" bullets.
The new surplus shot better than the 8mm bullets, so I gave up on neck turning.

The Forster is a nice machine, and I am glad I got it, becuse [for case trimming] it beats the Hell out of using the RCBS Turn Pro that came in my Rockchucker kit.

[ 08-27-2002, 19:32: Message edited by: Clark ]

30-378 Wby;thanks. I have tried 180 grs without good accuracy.In September I will try 150 grs MK and 150 grs Hornandy SST,powder H-870,h-4831Sc and Retumbo, I will let you know my results.I dont like H-1000...

Hey no problem. Let me know how they shoot I am always interested in new loads.