Neck bushing type dies

[Bigfoot]

Hey gang,

So I bought a redding neck sizing die of the bushing type (those guys make some really nice toys). In consulting wiht Russ Haydon he advised to either go .002 or .003 smaller than a loaded case. I went the .003 route and while my loads are certainly grouping nicely I'm noticing a ring around the bullet after I seat them. The amount of presure to seat said bullets is quite a bit more than when I was using a standard neck die.

Should I go up one thou and get a different bushing or am I fussing about the blem on the bullet for no reason?

[malinois]

I use the same dies from Redding and only use enough to grip the bullet....the bushings are cheap so I have several sizes...but this will change with diffrent brass so make sure you measure the cases with a good ball type caliper.

[yankee]

Be sure you chamfer the inside of the case mouth just a touch to take the burr off. This will make it a bit easier to start. So you may also want to get the next size larger or two sizes. You will end up with quite a few different sizes after a few years and different rifles and different cases. Some people use the expander button and some do not in these dies.

[DennisC]

I use .003 under for those loaded from magazine and .002 for STD rifle. (unless I get confused with brass) and yes there is a little more "feel" with .003...that said and assuming you're using the same seater die with the same bullets (when you didn't get the ring); I think the Yank may be on to it with more chamfering in the mouth.

Are you neck turning your brass?? If not there may be as much as .001 to .0025 variance in neck wall thickness (typically) . Go with the largest diameter for bushing selection.
Mine are neck turned on an old KM tool which even with me speeding it in a drill will cut to a .0001 (yes that's an extra zero) tolerance wall thickness and even then sometimes mine don't run true to the math, ie.. .284 bullet dia (micd) + 2 X .012 nk wall thickness should give a .308 outside diameter to use a .305 bushing. Occasionally they'll come out .3085 or .3087 in which case I'll go up to a .306 bushing. I gave up trying to make sense of it...don't need that tight of clearances anyhow, just bugged me when i knew what it 'should' be.

[Another Dang 9]

If you use a 60 deg. chamfer tool it helps too, the 45 deg. may be to sharp of an angle. and -.002 is a good standard for neck tension.

[Snake]

As an aside, if your brass is 'not work hardened' ...that is, still has good annealing then there's less spring back at sizing and a looser button works. Furthermore, uniform neck tension is the key and newly annealled brass is the most uniform

[ywltzucanrknrl]

What do you mean by a “ring on the bullet”? Where is it located and what does it look like, a copper sliver or a bulge? If the bullet seats hard at the start of the seating process and then seats easier for the last part it is likely due to chamfer. VLD chamfer tools help. Also, if you are seeing any cut copper slivers it’s likely your chamfer is not right. In this case, if you pull a bullet you can see where the copper jacket has been cut or scraped. When you size with a die that has an expander ball, the inside diameter of all cases regardless of thickness will be the same, not so with a neck bushing die with no expander. If you are getting harder seating pressure your bushing may be too small, but consistency plays into all of this….cases fired several times will seat with different pressure than virgin cases or once fired. Also there is quite a bit of thickness difference in cases from the same lot and some that seat harder may just be thicker, this is where neck turning will help. I’ve found that it takes quite a bit of work to get everything consistent. If you are not neck turning and annealing and keeping your brass sorted by lot and number of firings, it will be very hard to get a consistent seating feel or pressure.