What is the best way to take the runout of new factory cases? I have 500 new Winchester cases in .223 rem and some of them have runout of .005".
I have a lee collet die but it doesn't seem to work. I used the RCBS FL die to resize them first. Will the Redding bushing die take care of this problem? I hate to load them and shoot them because I am sure I won't get the results that I am looking for.

bluecollar
Are you talking about neck run out? If you are i don't know of anyway of not having runout using dies. Only to neck turn the necks due to neck wall thickness difference. Turning them to all the same thickness

I ran into the same problem with some Winchester Brass I bought about a month ago. The brass was for 270. Resizing with either the RCBS or Redding Type-S FL sizing die didn't help the problem. As a matter of fact none of the Winchester brass was under 003" and 17 pieces were over 005".
The only solution I could find was to go back to Remington brass. In last batch of Remington brass I bought two weeks ago, none of the cases went over .003" and 20 cases were under .001"

ZM

Factory brass is seldom straight. The best thing to do it load it and fire form it to your chamber. Hopefully, your chamber is straight. You can FL size factory brass and straighten it a little, however, this does little to correct the problem until it is fire formed.

I had this problem a week ago too, but it was with fired brass. I found my chamber is off in my 300 Ultra. All brass was off about .005" at the neck so I made marks on all the cases when the neck was displaced all the way to one side while on the dial indicator. Lined them all up, marks facing me the same way and a tell tale scratch was in the same place on ALL the brass.

Well I just bought Redding S dies for it, so I ran them up in it to see if they'd straighten up. NO WAY, just squeezed the neck back down is all.

Well, run them up in a Redding FL die is all the choice I had now. OK, now they all had less than .001" runout! It obviously is a straight die.

Only way to straighten them is to fireform them and cross your fingers YOUR chamber's straight, or FL size, God forbid I hate lubeing cases and cleaning the crap off too.

How good do you think mine will shoot with .005" runout if I don't FL size and seat into the lands to keep stuff straight? Man I hate factory half ass stuff! The S dies are sooooo nice, it would be cool to just get to use them. I got to do a chamber cast to see what is centered with what now.

Maybe I'll get lucky and my neck will be concetric with the bore and not the body. I'll still have to index cases while target shooting though. Can't wait for the new barrel!

bluecollar---

There's only one way to remove run-out of cases.

First full length re-size, then turn the necks concentric with the hole, then fireform in a STRAIGHT and ROUND chamber that's IN LINE with the bore. That straightens the case with the chamber.

If your's is a factory rifle with a typical factory chamber you're wasting your time. It's crooked and the cases will be too.

Concentricity gauges are only usefull on precision rifles and ammo, but they DO tell you what's crooked. It takes a straight rifle with a tight neck to fix them.

HERE is a thread on another forum that discusses this.

[ 01-03-2003, 19:03: Message edited by: JBelk ]

JB,
If you chamber is not in line with the bore as mine may not be, it is definatly not with the body, can it be set back and fixed without a problem if setup in the lathe off the bore centerline, not the OD? I assume this is where the factories get some problems too? Will the reamer be forced to cut off center if it is already on that course or will it work fine if you just go slow and set it up perfectly?

Seems to me that even with a perfect chamber, when you fire a round that does not have even brass thickness throughout the body, it emerge from the chamber crooked due to unequal stretch.

Shoot them! About 3rd firing they will straighten out if your chamber is square.Most new brass will be out, especially if your reforming brass.(This is other than neck uniformity).-Jeff

TBob38,
In my case the offset neck was being produced in the exact same spot in the chamber, ruling out the neck thickness causing it. If it had varied as to its location in the chamber, which I was hoping was the case, it would indeed point to thickness variations just as you suggest. Without this telltale scratch on each case I found caused by something in the chamber I would still be wondering.