Comments on: Reloading Basics: Neck Tension, Expander Balls, and Bushings

By: PracticalTactical

PracticalTactical — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 00:30:33 +0000

I wish Redding would offer custom expander buttons to work in conjunction with bushings.

That way the expander would size it on the ID where it matters most.

We’d get better neck tension consistency without neck turning.

By: PracticalTactical

PracticalTactical — Sun, 23 Jun 2019 00:27:14 +0000

I’ve found that with factory chambers where you need to reduce the neck diameter more than 0.010″ the neck takes on a taper where it’s smaller at the mouth than down toward the shoulder.

So the neck is not parallel.

To get competition grade loads with parallel necks, I size twice, once about 0.002″ larger than my finish size bushing.

The first resize creates the taper and the second resize removes it.

By: Aaron

Aaron — Sat, 06 Apr 2019 17:39:56 +0000

Is “springy” the opposite of hard? I’m new to reloading. (I haven’t started, yet, but I’m trying to do research to determine an initial set of tools.) It seems to me that as brass becomes harder, the diameter prior to seating the bullet would be a less reliable indicator of the neck tension. The corollary to that would be that if you are annealing brass prior to sizing(? Or is it shaping?) you would need a different diameter ball than if you are not annealing to get the same diameter prior to seating the bullets. Am I understanding this? Is it the case that the “ball” is not a sphere? Any other urls of strings regarding the basics of reloading would be appreciated!

By: Gary

Gary — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 20:40:07 +0000

How do you measure to get the first 10 loaded rounds? You had to pick a bushing how did you do that?

By: Ray

Ray — Sun, 03 Jun 2018 16:02:28 +0000

.0035 is what I shoot for

Ray

By: Mike Lameyer

Mike Lameyer — Mon, 08 May 2017 05:51:00 +0000

This article is exactly correct for normal to match loading ammunition. I have loaded semi-auto ammo for 35 years and have always used .003 thousandths neck tension and have never crimped and never had an issue. M1A three position match shooting and AR 308.

By: Mr Bill

Mr Bill — Sat, 18 Jun 2016 01:23:37 +0000

What about the condition of the inside of the neck? I promise that those cases you just fished out of the ultrasonic cleaner are going to be a lot more grabby than fired cases when you seat bullets. Does that count as more neck tension? You can certainly feel a difference if you use an arbor press to seat bullets, and if you have the K&M with the force measurement option you can see it too.