Stop Neck Sizing! Why You Should Full-Length Size Your Brass
Why It’s Smart to Full-Length Size Your Brass
Commentary by Erik Cortina
Should You Full-Length Size Your Cartridge Brass?
Absolutely. Let Me Explain Why…
I have seen it time and time again, shooters on the line wrestling with their rifle trying to get the bolt closed while the wind is switching. They were too focused trying to get their bolt to close and getting their rifle settled back on the bags that they missed the wind switch. Bang… Eight! The straw that broke the camel’s back for me was at the 2017 Canadian Nationals. I was paired up with a young girl and she would try really hard to close the bolt on her rifle. The majority of the time she would get it to close, but often times she could not even get the round to chamber. She was focused on her rifle the entire time rather than on the conditions. When we completed our strings, she had five rounds that did not chamber out of 15! That is way too many! I told her she needed to think about full-length sizing with 0.002″ shoulder bump, or Controlled Full-length Sizing like I call it. I told her not to worry about losing accuracy. I told her that I full-length size all my rounds and asked if she noticed how smooth my bolt was and noticed my score. She said yes, they were both great!
Controlled Full-length Sizing Does NOT Harm Accuracy
I have found that Controlled Full-length Sizing does NOT hurt accuracy or shorten brass life. I find that I can focus much more on the conditions when I don’t have to think about chambering a round nor extracting it. It has become second nature. After firing, I keep my head welded to the stock, I open the bolt by placing my thumb on top of stock and rotating hand upwards. I reach in and retrieve spent case, place it back in ammo box, and pick up another loaded round and put in chamber. I verify conditions and when ready, I push the bolt in and close it with my index and middle finger.
With Controlled Full-length Sizing you “bump” the shoulder around .002″ for bolt guns.*
Image courtesy Sinclair International which carries a variety of Full-length dies.
Whidden Full-Length Sizing Dies
by AccurateShooter.com Editor
For proper Full-length sizing, you want a quality die that’s a very good match to your chamber. For our project rifles we usually turn to Whidden Gunworks which offers both bushing and non-bushing FL dies. And if you want the hot new option, check out Whidden’s patent-pending, click-adjustable FL-sizing die. This gives instant, precise control over shoulder bump. It works great.
*With gas guns, such as the AR10, you may want to increase shoulder bump to .003″ or more. With some benchrest cartridges, .0015″ bump may prove optimal. But .002″ is a good starting point.
Similar Posts:
- Quit Neck-Sizing — Why You Should Full-Length Size Your Cases
- Quit Neck-Sizing — Why It’s Better to Full-Length Size Your Cases
- ‘Quit Neck Sizing’ — Cortina Explains Full-Length Sizing is Better
- TECH Tip: How to Adjust FL Dies for Correct Shoulder Bump
- Tech Tip: Shoulder Bump — How Much Is Enough?
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Tags: Erik Cortina, Full-length Sizing, Neck Sizing, Reloading Dies, Reloading Tips, Whidden Gunworks
Good point. KISS is usually a great answer. However,if someone must neck size only before a match, why not make a quick trip to the range (or any other safe location) to verify all rounds are in usable shape?
Am I missing something here?
Where has this guy been for the last 20+ years? No serious marksman just neck sizes their brass. Good article for the beginner.
We’ve been arguing this for a decade. It’s still opinion and what works for the reloader/shooter.
Listen to what he said. No one that wins neck sizes. Maybe at your local mom and pop shoot you will see some neck sizing but not at the big shooting competitions.
This is a context specific argument.
It’s perfectly fine to neck resize only once or twice, then perform a shoulder bump, then repeat.
I’ve found in my testing that neck only resized brass produce higher and more consistent velocities than when shoulder bumped.
If you neck only resize too many times in a row, you will have problems. It also depends upon how hot your load is.
F Class typically run at the ragged edge of destruction, so guys who do may only get a couple firings anyway, so that dismiss any reloading policy built around more than that.
Yes, a very specific why. This is not a for everyone rant.
Nothing wrong with neck sizing every other firing. Extends brass life and if you use a collect die you can skip the lube and extra tumble.
I check every one of my reloads in my chamber before I go a match.
Tell this to many short BR shooters and see how far you get. Blanket statements like this just show the posters ignorance and giant ego.
Paul
TO Commenter Paul — this is common day accuracy standard.
After watching the Cortina Youtube video where he polls participants at a match if they did FLR or NO, I did the same at a local PRS match. Everyone answered FLR except one that said both. The “both” answer makes sense unless you don’t want to track FLR vs. NO on each piece of brass.