Reply With QuoteAre you having fliers? I nearly eliminated fliers by weight sorting brass and most importantly weight sorting the bullets.
Folks gave me a lot of feedback and I wanted to quickly update my findings with the Lee NS collet die in my previous thread. I chucked the mandrel/decapping stem in my little drill press. Went at it with 400 wet/dry, finished up with 600. It did reduce the OD by .001. The main effect was that the OD of the brass was reduced .002/.003 making the bullet fit just right. Not sure what caused my initial lost of fit. Maybe the bullets were fractionally smaller than what I have been loading over time. I can only measure to 3 digits on the bullets. Now that my neck tension issue is resolved, I won’t be able to blame my flyers on that issue. So overall answer is polish, grease, and reduce mandrel .001. Once I’m past this years ammo loading for prairie dog hunt, I’m going to have to look at annealing. Have resisted that for some time, but if it extends life of brass, I’m willing. Thanks for all the input.
Are you having fliers? I nearly eliminated fliers by weight sorting brass and most importantly weight sorting the bullets.
Hope to do some testing today/tomorrow. This will be the first neck sized ammo I'm sure that is good stuff (due to the die mod's). I take quite a bit of ammo to shoot prairie dogs so my brass is sorted kind of. I'm good about trim/chamfer and weighing charges. I've gotten brass over the last few years as it has been available. I have a mixture of W/W, Remington,Federal, and Hornady. So the brass is sorted per box of 50 or so. I've not weighed brass/bullets to date. We have a joke about being able to shoot MOPD (minute of prairie dog). My experience is that groups over .650 at 100 or so, are misses on pd's at 300 yards. We may be ready to make the next leap in reloading. It would be something more tedious than what I'm currently doing, and something less than bench rest techniques. My experience is that hits on targets at 300-400 yards mean more to me than the groups at 100. That's not to say bad groups at 100 go away at 300, but shooting at full soda cans at distance is my real gauge on how my shooting/ammo is performing. I have been a little disappointed with my new LRP 243. I don't want to blame the rifle for my poor performance shooting paper at 100. Apparently, this isn't my best talent. The back end of the stock is pretty flat, so I'm having to relearn getting elevation. Moving the small bag doesn't raise or lower the poa as much as my other stocks. Additionally, I've been trying to decide if my shooting is better off bags, bi-pod, or adjustable shooting rest. Things in life seem backward sometimes. When I was young and could see great, I didn't have money to spend on rifles and optics. Today I can afford those things, but my eyes and upper body have seen better days. I stay engaged, sling plenty of 55 grain bullets, learn something everyday, and am still passionate about shooting. Think I'll go weigh some bullets now.
Don't think that as you use up the brass the neck tension won't change. It's going to based on number of firings(runout). I have found that with the Collet die, turning the necks to a uniform thickness is the only way with these dies to have uniform neck tension thrughout the lot.
With a typical FL die, you're pulling the mandrell through the case neck and die to the same dimension every time so there is more consistency with the FL dies even as the brass gets used up. Redding figured that out and made dies with different size interchangeable bushings to make adjusting neck tension more about the outside of the neck rather than screwing up a mandrell for a short time fix. But with the Lee, that's pretty much what we have to do because the neck is squeezed to size.
The way to keep your brass consistent with the Lee Collet system, is neck turn(once) and keep each firing lot of brass grouped together. You'll need a smaller mandrell as your brass goes through more firings.
I believe you. I've got 200 odd pieces of once fired brass put up. Each box of twenty is different headstamp. 5/6 different factory loads. I've been wondering if I should just FLS all of them, trim to length, then act as if they were all the same headstamp. It's all about money ultimately. My shooting/reloading is mostly about varmint shooting. 55 gr bullets from 243. I think I can bite off neck turning quicker than annealing. I do appreciate the difference between the Redding dies and the Collet die. My shooting partner is using the Redding stuff to form 20 practical from 223 brass (using the bushings).
FL sizing will help with neck tension consistency. Case volume differences(pressure) will be the big variance with differing head-stamps.Originally Posted by gulf60
Sounds as if you're trying to learn the right way. Have fun. This is a great hobby for the mind.
I agree with mag. However, he did not address your comment about annealing.
Neck turning does not correct the problems associated with brass hardening. When brass hardens, it will not have the same elasticity as it does when new or after annealing. The dimensions of the neck AND it's hardness affect neck tension. Also, if you don't anneal, the neck will eventually split due to its hardness. Even before it splits, you will get different tension, which will affect pressure and velocity.
You should probably plan to anneal after 3 reloads. Some shooters anneal after every firing. I think that is much more frequent than necessary, but it demonstrates my point.
Excellent point. I never worried much about annealing due to primer pockets would usually loosen up before I needed to with most of my brass; However the 22-250 is the exception for me as I anneal after 3 firings, then the pockets will give up before I worry with the necks splitting. Except on Norma brass. That is the most brittle I've tried. (and pricey)
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