Honed out my 7.62x54 fl sizer die.

[littlejack]

I went to the range last weekend. I shot some 316299 NOE boolits I had cast up with my new mould. Results were not as good as I wanted, but it is early yet. Lots of time to play. Things will look up I'm sure.
Anyway, after running my cases through my walnut shells, I found one with the neck cracked.
I have never liked the fact that the dies will size down the case to .302 I.D. This really does a lot of stretching on the case necks when one pulls a 303 sizer die rod back through them.
I decided to do something about it today. My cheap China made drill press and me went to work.
I dismantled the die and swabbed out the lube.
I have a piece of .250 aluminum rod with a split up the middle. I slipped a piece of emery cloth in the slot and wrapped it around the rod. I made it tight enough to where I could just slide it in the neck size portion of the die. I honed for a few seconds, in a up and down motion.
I cleaned out the debris from the die and lubed it up with a Q-tip. I then sized a case without the expander rod. Not quite there. I repeated the procedure. Still not quite there. After another run, it came out right where I wanted it. I cleaned everything up, replaced the expander rod and sized a case.
I normally partial size, to not work the case body too much.
The I.D of the sized neck is .311. With the expander rod pulled back through the necks, it is .313 +/-. My 316299 boolits are .315+.
Now the best part of this whole senario is, the necks were originally sized to .302 I.D.
The necks are being sized a full .010 less than before.
The necks on the fired cases are .338 +/- O.D; this leaves me with plenty of room for releasing the boolit.
I still have two smaller expander rods for my jacketed boolits but it looks like this rifle is going to become my cast boolit exclusive.
I hope all my math is correct. Things re looking up.
Just for your information, a small drill press in the garage or workshop can do a lot of projects in a pinch. It can be a milling machine, lathe of sorts, lapping machine and of coarse a drill.
Jack

[nanuk]

do you mean the INSIDE diameter is 0.338?

if the outside diameter is 0.338 AFTER firing a 0.315 boolit, it means you have neck thickness of LESS than 0.0115.

isn't that pretty thin neck thickness?

[Nobade]

What size is the inside of the case neck after you fire it? I ask because my rifle has a rather tight neck chamber, and a fired case measures .314 inside. I just use paper patched boolits sized to .314 and don't need reloading dies at all. I just decap, recap, and hand seat the boolits. The powder charge/filler combo sets the seating depth. Sure makes the brass last longer!

[littlejack]

nanuk:
Yes, as stated in my original post. The O.D. of the neck after firing is .338 to .339 +, depending on where I check it and what load was shot in it. I would imagine that there would be a couple thousanths springback on the necks. So that would bring the true O.D. to .341 - .342.
The neck brass thickness is .011 - .0115.

Nobade:
After firing, the necks measure .338 - .340 depending on the load I shoot. If I shoot the hotter loads made up for hunting and jacketed bullets, the O.D. is larger, closer to .340+.
If I shoot the lighter cast boolit loads, the O.D is smaller.
The I.D. of the fired cases is .315 - .316.
Jack

[Nobade]

OK, so a fired case is .315 ID and so are your bullets. So why are you using a sizing die on your cases? Just pick a powder that allows you to have 100% load density and use it to locate the bullet. No tools needed, brass lasts a long time.

[littlejack]

Before I got this mould (31950) for the boolit I loaded today, I was/still am loading the 316299 NOE boolit. I honed the fl sizer die neck for my 316299 and jacketed boolit/bullets. It just happened that I received the 31950 mould in the mail yesterday. That is why the cases are sized.
After my next range session with the 31950 boolits (this week), I will probably not resize the cases for that boolit. I will however resize the cases for the 316299 boolit.
As for the powder and load density, I have been testing the 316299 boolit and so far the fast powders are all I have used so far, i.e. Unique, Herco and H Universal.
Just FYI. Just because a person picks a powder that will give the case a 100% or close to it load density, does not mean that the load will shoot accurately.
I have tried (a couple years ago) the 314299 boolit with heavy case loads of slower powder and the accuracy was less than acceptable.

[Nobade]

Yup, you're right about that!