Neck sizing die

[justonemorear]

Anyone using a neck sizing only die for a bolt setup.
I'm using Lapua brass in a Savage bolt and they are harder to resize then my 284.
Thought about getting a Lee Collet Neck die?
Any thoughts
thanks

[A5BLASTER]

Buy the matching body die and resize the body every couple of resizing's.

[kmon]

I have seriously thought about a Lee Collet die for the Grendel for the bolt action. Currently I just use a Hornady FL die and bump the shoulder back .002 when sizing.

I do like th e Lee Collet for other calibers and they will make one but want a few pieces of your fired brass and a few bullets you intend to load to make one

[Cooper]

Anyone using a neck sizing only die for a bolt setup.
I'm using Lapua brass in a Savage bolt and they are harder to resize then my 284.
Thought about getting a Lee Collet Neck die?
Any thoughts
thanks

I use the Wilson inline neck bushing die. I use it in an arbor press. Hornady also do a short 6.5mm neck die. I have one but don't like it much. A Lee Collet die would be good. But it would be a custom order and you'll need to turn down the decapping pin as the Lapua brass runs the small flash hole.

[FLshooter]

Years back,I used to shoot with these ol nednecks on a cow pasture,in Holopaw,FL. We used to shoot steel out to 850 yrds with our 308 bolt action Rem 700.They got me to try neck sizing.
They swore that neck sizing helped prevent case hardening and neck cracks .Claimed that their brass last twice as long.So,I got a 308 used Redding neck sizing die and tried it.
Never noticed much of a difference,if any in case life.And the drawback for me is that sized brass is only good for the rifle it was fire formed in.So,I went back to FL sizing.
I say, “try it” .It may work for you.Especially if you only own 1 rifle in that caliber.

[FLshooter]

[Kswhitetails]

If I was bolt only, I'd do the same thing I do for my PRS rig. I'd get the Redding Type S full length bushing set and run the appropriate size bushing for .002 neck tension. There's no advantage to neck sizing only from what I've been told by the guys that shoot 4k/month in precision chambers. Part of the issue with Grendel is the SAAMI chamber was never intended to be a precision chamber. It was designed around the extraction characteristics of the AR platform. There's no extra leverage of a bolt handle, and extraction is relatively immediate (brass is still slightly expanded) in comparison to a bolt gun. Brass grows at the shoulder, mid belt, base band, and neck in my LaRue and in my Faxon barrels. My precision chambered Bartlein on my Creedmoor only grows a thousandth at the shoulder and neck, and no other dimensions change. Probably something to do with the lower taper on the case too.

I'm not sold yet on the idea that you get more brass life from this kind of die. Maybe one or two loadings, but for the cost of the dies and setup, that's a heck of a lot of brass to buy before it pays off. I do want my brass to chamber easily. This has to be 100%. Hard to not get down on yourself when you get to the firing line of a timed stage and have issues chambering your rounds because they're a couple thousandths too large or long.

My son's Howa (I just went out and measured) grows very similarly to my AR rifles, indicating anecdotal proof to my theory that the SAAMI chamber is designed around easier extraction more so than consistent brass dimensions...) Thinking on this more confuses me, as the brass should be sized to the SAAMI chamber, so I'm out of my element here. There's more to this than I know.

That said, if I had a gas gun as well, then I'd get the Hornady new dimension set, the VLD seating stem, and the micrometer seating adjuster. I think that's about 75 bucks, and your brass would be guaranteed to function in your chamber. You'd work the neck a bit more, but your gas guns would run better.

my two cents - and here, have a grain of salt too.

[LR1955]

If I was bolt only, I'd do the same thing I do for my PRS rig. I'd get the Redding Type S full length bushing set and run the appropriate size bushing for .002 neck tension. There's no advantage to neck sizing only from what I've been told by the guys that shoot 4k/month in precision chambers. Part of the issue with Grendel is the SAAMI chamber was never intended to be a precision chamber. It was designed around the extraction characteristics of the AR platform. There's no extra leverage of a bolt handle, and extraction is relatively immediate (brass is still slightly expanded) in comparison to a bolt gun. Brass grows at the shoulder, mid belt, base band, and neck in my LaRue and in my Faxon barrels. My precision chambered Bartlein on my Creedmoor only grows a thousandth at the shoulder and neck, and no other dimensions change. Probably something to do with the lower taper on the case too.

I'm not sold yet on the idea that you get more brass life from this kind of die. Maybe one or two loadings, but for the cost of the dies and setup, that's a heck of a lot of brass to buy before it pays off. I do want my brass to chamber easily. This has to be 100%. Hard to not get down on yourself when you get to the firing line of a timed stage and have issues chambering your rounds because they're a couple thousandths too large or long.

My son's Howa (I just went out and measured) grows very similarly to my AR rifles, indicating anecdotal proof to my theory that the SAAMI chamber is designed around easier extraction more so than consistent brass dimensions...) Thinking on this more confuses me, as the brass should be sized to the SAAMI chamber, so I'm out of my element here. There's more to this than I know.

That said, if I had a gas gun as well, then I'd get the Hornady new dimension set, the VLD seating stem, and the micrometer seating adjuster. I think that's about 75 bucks, and your brass would be guaranteed to function in your chamber. You'd work the neck a bit more, but your gas guns would run better.

my two cents - and here, have a grain of salt too.

KSW:

I wish more guys understood your first paragraph when it comes to gas operated rifles in general, the AR-15 specifically, and the intent behind the Grendel chamber. The true Grendel chamber was intended to accept a variety of factory loads using different bullets under harsh conditions such as combat or hunting. That would probably solve a whole bunch of problems guys come up with when they try to 'make things better' with their brass and thus destroy it in the process or agonize over minutia in loading techniques.

I am not a proponent of neck sizing only for either a bolt or gas gun. I have neck sized for bolt rifles and after a couple of shots have needed to full length size and bump the shoulder a little in the process. Of course you find out you need to body size only after you have loaded a hundred or two rounds and find that 1/3 of them won't chamber easily anymore.

Also, most guys who neck size only for bolt rifles usually overload to get some sort of believed advantage so they end up with two or three shot brass and thus never have to body size. By the time the brass gets sticky, the primer pockets are gone.

I do think the necks last longer if a guy uses the right diameter neck collet. But that has little or nothing to do with primer pockets getting too loose. A guy can buy a tool that will crimp primer pockets a little and thus allow them more use from the brass but I will just stick with Lapua brass and not have to worry about it.

LR55

[Lowell Higley]

I put together a Bolt gun using a Remington XB40 receiver. Screwed on a 26 inch barrel and chambered it in the 308 Winchester. Fire formed some 1980 LC Match Brass I picked up at the National Matches. I necked sized the Brass using a Forester Bench Rest Die and it worked fine for me Access the Course.

[justonemorear]

As for the flash hole, I deprime w/ a universal decapper in a dedicated press. I remove the decapper from all my dies. I do use Starline brass also for certain bullets, it sizes easier then the Lapua.
KSW and LR1955, you both have it down. For years I did the grendel in an AR platform when it first came out and got away from it as it grew in popularity(curse of working at a gunshop getting stuff at cost). Came back to it after moving to ID. Wanted to play w/ it in a bolt so I'm not that limited by the AR requirements for proper cycling and mag restrictions.
Never loaded for it, ammo was so cheap then Wolf Gold was about $4 a box.
Using 123gr Lapua w/ Lapua brass and 120gr Rem Corelok, 120gr Sierra SP w/ Starline. Using IMR 3031 and getting good results thus far.
Thanks for the input

[Lowell Higley]

The subject here is the Neck Sizer Die. I Neck Size the brass for the three Bolt Guns I have. They are each one of a different caliber. 308 for my Remington Match Gun. 30-06 for my 1903-A1. And the 1938 build of my Mouser 7.92 x 57 MM. Each gun, being a different caliber, has its own Neck Sizer Die.
I have found that once Fire Formed in the Chamber of that one Bolt Gun, and only that gun, at 45,000 to 60,000 pounds per Square Inch, CUP, the cartridge case already fits into that chamber snugly. Fitting snugly, as the powder charge burns, depending on the amount of the powder charge and depending also on the stress on the brass itself, the brass itself does not have to flow to find the walls of that chamber.
I have found that having the cartridge fitting the chamber, that the groups, on the paper target, are better.

[Klem]

Justonemore,

I use neck sizing for three bolts guns; 6.5*47, 223 and 303. I also use the Lee collet die for all three. The collet die is the only piece of kit Lee makes that I still use. The collet comes in from the sides and does not slide down from the top like other sizers so no need for lube. I do two strokes of the press spinning the case each time to try and get a more concentric squeeze. Unsure if this makes for more accurate ammo but it certainly doesn't harm it.

Other guys here are advocating full length sizing but I only do that for auto loaders. I don't know if neck sizing is more accurate than FL but it works the brass less and no messy lube needed. I also have FL dies for those three calibres but they rarely get used.

[centerfire]

Anyone using a neck sizing only die for a bolt setup.
I'm using Lapua brass in a Savage bolt and they are harder to resize then my 284.
Thought about getting a Lee Collet Neck die?
Any thoughts
thanks

Why is it harder to resize? There's nothing special about Grendel cases compared to any other comparable case, even your 284.

[Popeye212]

Why is it harder to resize? There's nothing special about Grendel cases compared to any other comparable case, even your 284.

Agreed, the Grendel cases are the easiest I have ever worked with.

[justonemorear]

Why is it harder to resize? There's nothing special about Grendel cases compared to any other comparable case, even your 284.

It was fresh Lapua brass and new dies, just seemed to take a little more force than the 284 brass.
As for neck only, that is all I use for the 284 but every 5th load I fully resize.