I just picked up a 220 Swift.
I was reading some of the older post on this cartridge, and seen several times where they mentioned keeping the O.D. of the neck trimmed. Or turned might be the correct terminology.
Said it was important on this caliber.
Can someone explain what this is and why it must be done? Doesn't resizing bring the case back into spec? Excess brass would be pushed to the top, and you trim your case length?
What am I missing here?
Thanks, Dave

As I understand it, The mighty Swift operates at high pressure and this along w/ the shape of it's case allows brass to flow into the neck, thus thickening it w/ repeated firings and resizing. If the neck is allowed to thicken sufficiently, then it makes the inside of the neck smaller when you resize it. This grips the bullet tighter and increases pressure. Therefore to relieve this pressure, you turn the outside of the necks--not shorten--- to reduce the pressure of the thickened neck's tension or bite on the bullet---inside the neck.

Okay, I understand now.
How about a tool recommendation?
RCBS, Redding, Sinclair, or others?

forster has been more or less the standard

I like Redding dies and case trimmers. For the more technical stuff--like a neck turner---I usu shop Sinclair.

Dave,
The two are separate operations. Neck turning corrects neck thickening and trimming corrects the length. I use Forsters trimming tool and Sinclairs neck turning tool.

Stepchild

If you can readidly slip a bullet into the neck of a fired case, you do not need to turn your neck. Each case seems to grow differently so check each case. If you are shooting a factory chamber, you will need to trim for length several times before the necks need turned. And by then you might want to consider just pitching that batch and starting with new.
That brass has to come from somewhere and by the time you've trimmed for length four or five times and now need to neck turn, the case walls may have thinned to where seperations and splits are near.

The bad publicity teh Swift has had has not been deserved.

The 220 Swift is one of my favourite all calibers, and it is no different to load for than any other caliber.

Turning down the necks is only required for tight neck chambers. And you really need to know what the measurement for your chamber is before you can decide how muc to take off.

We shoot a number of custom made Swifts, with tight neck chambers. We turn factory brass to fit our chambers. After a few firings, some cases need cleaning up. But, the cutter hardly ever takes brass off the whole neck.

We do exactly the same thing with custom rifles with tight necks of other calibers as well.

So the Swift is not alone in this.

quote:

Originally posted by wasbeeman:
If you can readidly slip a bullet into the neck of a fired case, you do not need to turn your neck. Each case seems to grow differently so check each case. If you are shooting a factory chamber, you will need to trim for length several times before the necks need turned. And by then you might want to consider just pitching that batch and starting with new.
That brass has to come from somewhere and by the time you've trimmed for length four or five times and now need to neck turn, the case walls may have thinned to where seperations and splits are near.

I turn the necks in all the calibers I load for that I want to eek the utmost accuracy from, whether factory or custom chambered. Having cases with uniform neck thickness has got to uniform neck tension and bullet release....

I have two varmint rifles that I don't do any case prep for; a custom barreled .22-250 and an A-Bolt .223 with BOSS. They shoot under .5 MOA. With that, maybe all that case prep is moot. My gunsmith loads his target ammo in his words, "like a shotgun shell" with no case prep whatsoever including primer pocket cleaning. His rifles shoot one hole groups. Maybe the quality of your rifle build means more that all that tedious prep.

Sorry woods

RC, I agree that neck turning to true up necks is a benificial thing because of the uniformity of the bullet pull. For a factory rifle it is certainly not needed for fit however.
When I was shooting Factory Rifle matches, I found that running a neck turner over the neck to clean up say 75% of the neck was benificial toward tighter groups. Slightly tighter. But then, sometimes slightly wins matches.
If I was shooting a match, I used turned necks; if I was going hunting, the increase in accuracy wasn't worth it.
I have a 7-08 with a Douglas barrel put on by Joe McCool in Tulsa. This was done when the 7-08 was still a wildcat. If I reformed brass from a .308, I had to neck turn; if I reformed brass from a .243, I didn't.

quote:

Originally posted by rcamuglia:

I turn the necks in all the calibers I load for that I want to eek the utmost accuracy from, whether factory or custom chambered. Having cases with uniform neck thickness has got to uniform neck tension and bullet release....

I have two varmint rifles that I don't do any case prep for; a custom barreled .22-250 and an A-Bolt .223 with BOSS. They shoot under .5 MOA. With that, maybe all that case prep is moot. My gunsmith loads his target ammo in his words, "like a shotgun shell" with no case prep whatsoever including primer pocket cleaning. His rifles shoot one hole groups. Maybe the quality of your rifle build means more that all that tedious prep.

Sorry woods

Heresy! Blasphemy! Someone track rc down and remove him from the public domain before he spews out any more drivel!

Actually I agree that with the proper rifle (usually heavy barreled benchrest guns), case prep is less important. My position is that the rifle is ~80% of the equation, the selection of components ~10%, the case prep and reloading methods ~5% and the shooter ~5%.

Generally speaking.

Of course, proper thingy use is 85% of good case prep and reloading methods.

On neck turning; it never hurts (as long as you don't do it wrong or thin too much), it can help and it is necessary on tight necked chambers.

Thanks Mentor