Neck turning

[troyboy]

Just thinking. Since I use the Lee case trimmers in my lathe...... I should be able to use them to trim the case necks. Does anybody else do this? The trimmers might not have a tight enough tolerance but since I am not home, thought I would ask.

[Calamity Jake]

Neck turning and case trimming are two differant things. Both can be done a lathe with the right set up for each.

[1hole]

Are you speaking of "case neck turning" or "case length trimming"? They ARE different.

[Crusty Deary Ol'Coot]

Yes, case neck trimming should be a standard part of almost all reloaders bag of tricks.

Case neck turning may or may not be a useful advantage in most cases, the level of quality in many to most off the shelf firearms likely to not really show the difference.

While in other cases, it could be the difference between having and enjoying your rifle and distroying it!

For example, making .243 brass from .308 brass is a quick and simple one step operation which has been known to turn a nice .243 into unusable junk if neck thickness is not properly reduced.

I have found that neck turning is more or less a labor intensive operation. And as said for standard brass it has yet to show me an advantage in decreasing group size.

However, you would be amaized at just how much case neck thickness differs on most of our new brass. Normal is to have the turning process remove lots of metal from one side or the other on a piece of brass while barely or not at all touching the case neck on the other side.

BUT !!!!!!!!!! when decreasing the neck dia. as much as required in the conversion from say, .308 to .243, the neck thickness is increased to the point that there may not be enough clearence in the chamber to allow enough neck expansion to safely release the bullet.

If this happens and your lucky, you just may see very high pressures and a stickly bolt or such.

OR ---------- you may be left with pieces such as happened to one nice pre 64 model 70 I once read about.

I have seen a friend's Sako bolt fall to the shooting mat in pieces, spring/extractor etc. because of this situation.

That was much before I had read the write up about the model 70 and had any idea of that potential problem.

Considering that, "labor intensive" is just the price I pay to keep my .243 in fine shape.

Keep em Coming!

Crusty Deary Ol'Coot