.475 neck tension

[subsonic]

While my wife was baking pies and cursing, experience told me it would be an ideal time to hide in the basement and do some "reloading stuff".

I made up 10 .475s with some cull (all I had left) Lee boolits for my FIL to shoot to see what the .475 recoil is like. My "culls" are probably better than some peoples "good" cast as I am very picky.

When I was seating them, I noticed they were easier to seat in once fired brass than they had been in the new brass.

So I used pin gauges and calipers to measure stuff.

I am unable to measure the expander in the Hornady die.
But the carbide ring measures .497"
Fired cases measure .505" OD and .474" ID
Sized .499" OD and .470" ID
Expanded .500" OD .472" ID

Necks about .015" thick.

[44man]

While my wife was baking pies and cursing, experience told me it would be an ideal time to hide in the basement and do some "reloading stuff".

I made up 10 .475s with some cull (all I had left) Lee boolits for my FIL to shoot to see what the .475 recoil is like. My "culls" are probably better than some peoples "good" cast as I am very picky.

When I was seating them, I noticed they were easier to seat in once fired brass than they had been in the new brass.

So I used pin gauges and calipers to measure stuff.

I am unable to measure the expander in the Hornady die.
But the carbide ring measures .497"
Fired cases measure .505" OD and .474" ID
Sized .499" OD and .470" ID
Expanded .500" OD .472" ID

Necks about .015" thick.
I never measured a thing, ever. If you can see the boolit base and a hint of GG's through the brass, you are good. A ripply look.
Remember it is EVEN tension that is more important then super tight.

[ole 5 hole group]

I “think” I have the same problem. I went so far as to blame the Hornady resizing die after which they sent me a new body with the same dimensions!!! I then thought the Hornady expander die was the problem and ordered a Redding Resizer and polished that down so nothing touches the case until it hits the belling portion of the expander die. Not a damn thing changed – the Gas checked .476 bullet (which measures .4755 at the gas check) still seats extremely light, so I always put a heavy roll crimp on. This is the only caliber that seats a bullet so lightly that I feel there’s basically no neck tension being applied at all.

My carbide ring also measures .497”
Sized case .4995” OD and .470” ID
Expanded .502” OD at the mouth and .472 just below the mouth and .470 one half inch from mouth
Necks on the Starline brass are .0135”

That so-called ripple effect 44man alludes to is what I look for and believe to be good neck tension – my cases don’t show it unless you tilt the case just so the light reflects off the case a certain way and then you can just barely see it - the ripple is not there on jacketed rounds.

The neck tension on the 475L bothers the hell out of me but they shoot pretty good. I think more neck tension would make them shoot better but unless I ream my cylinder throats larger I’ll never really know.

[subsonic]

I'm using Hornady brass.

[subsonic]

Not much ripple on the once fired. The new looked good/ripply and was quite a bit tighter.

[Frank]

Measuring speeds up the process. Why fool around with a defective die? My original Hornady .475 die was off. I called them up and they sent me another. The original was .502" OD. The new is .498" OD of the case. The first thing I did was measure after sizing. I wanted to see how much grip the bullet was getting. So is that a big sin? Using a measuring tool? A smart man doesn't listen to experts. He does his own research. When someone says, "Don't measure," that tells me I need to measure more.

[44man]

I don't measure because I can feel and see the process and can't tell you what sizer or expander sizes are.
Now Frank had a problem so he was right to measure.
I had another thought about it and it seems the larger cases just don't develop the tension that smaller calibers do. Necks are almost all the same thickness and there is just more brass in that larger circle to stretch.
Don't over crimp or you might break what tension you have. Make sure you don't bulge brass below the crimp.

[saz]

Don't over crimp or you might break what tension you have. Make sure you don't bulge brass below the crimp.

I had that problem with the 500. I was underestimating the strength of a moderate crimp and I was going too heavy.

[PacMan]

ole 5 hole group
If your bullets drive bands are measuring .476 and your GC is .4755 after it is crimped on you will never get good neck tension as the GC expands the case when it is seated. May need to anneal the checks.