Neck or Full Length Resizing

[swampratt]

I shot yesterday in super windy conditions across a field into the target 250 yards away.
The wind was blowing so hard that my hat flew off 2 times while I was on the ground in the prone position.
Wind was blowing me side to side.
I had made up some loads to test different primers.. could not tell any difference. and I also had mixed headstamp brass for the .308
Some were even 243 and 270 cases made into .308 some neck sized, some the shoulders pushed back .010".

Could not tell any difference in any of the loads. So if you shoot in those conditions etc etc you may never see a difference.
Just bragging that I got to go shoot yesterday.. and my MOA of coke can.

 

[lee1000]

I like my Lee collet die. Neck sizing is supposed to increase case life also. You'll need a bump die to bump the shoulder back when cases start to become hard to chamber. If reliability is your highest concern you'll want to full length resize.

 

[swampratt]

Using a lee collet neck sizer I did this with a Lapua .308 case.

I have taken measurements and after 20x fired and neck sized the case has grown .0075" in length
The first 10 shots from it had it grown .005" so 1/2 of a thousandths per firing .

The OD of the case has remained the same ,, bullet seating and primer seating has not changed from the 1x fired .

Primer pocket still great in other words.
So far I only have shot and neck sized this piece 20x.

Bolt got a little stiff to lock down on the 5th resize.
But on the 20th it feels the same .. so I feel it has reached a point and has stayed there.

 

[Blitzfike]

I like my Lee collet die. Neck sizing is supposed to increase case life also. You'll need a bump die to bump the shoulder back when cases start to become hard to chamber. If reliability is your highest concern you'll want to full length resize.

I learned the hard way long ago to verify that each round will chamber when going away to shoot or hunt. Nothing worse than getting there and realizing that you made an error and your ammo won't function. In one case the bullets selected extended into the rifling and they wouldn't chamber.

 

[magna19]

I like my Lee collet die. Neck sizing is supposed to increase case life also. You'll need a bump die to bump the shoulder back when cases start to become hard to chamber. If reliability is your highest concern you'll want to full length resize.

I learned the hard way long ago to verify that each round will chamber when going away to shoot or hunt. Nothing worse than getting there and realizing that you made an error and your ammo won't function. In one case the bullets selected extended into the rifling and they wouldn't chamber.

Many a hunts have been ruined by not properly FL sizing brass and seating bullets too far.

 

[Larry Morgan]

You will get widely varying opinions as far as accuracy goes. Two schools of thought. 1) Neck sizing allows rounds to fire-form exactly into chamber, thus better accuracy 2) FL sizing every time resets the brass to the same dimensions each time, enhancing consistency and therefore accuracy. You can find benchrest and match shooters using both methods with great success.

As far as brass longevity, neck sizing only seems to be the obvious winner. However, how much it might help is dependent on your rifle. In my case, I am very lucky. I managed to get a factory 700 with essentially minimum headspace. Even when I let my FL sizer bottom out on the shell plate, it only moves the shoulder back 0.001 - 0.0005" from fire-formed dimensions. If your chamber is more loose, you can expect case head separation to sneak up much faster. So far the only failure I have experienced is a neck crack. My FL sizer works the neck just a bit more than it needs to, but not bad. This could be solved by a Redding Type S die, and I might do that some time in the future.