Neck Sizer die important??

[Gert Odendaal]

Members, I am buying .338 Imperial Magnum dies from a company. It is the standard set Full length sizing dies as well as the seating crimping die....do I need to buy the Neck sizer die as well?

 

[cmk]

I would say "no" in general. I have no experience of the cartridge in question, though.

Normally I adjust FL dies so that they push the shoulder back a minimal amount, just so the bolt can close. The brass will not be work hardened too much by this.

If your chamber is very generous in size then the case could perhaps benefit from only neck sizing, in order to increase case life. Perhaps it boils down to cost of a neck die vs cost of (hard to find?) brass.

If the chamber and FL die are well matched, I would not bother with a neck die.

 

[BlueFlyer]

I do not own a neck sizing die for any of my cartridges.
My process is a little different, I FL size down to just short of the shoulder. And now I have an induction annealer, I anneal the necks and shoulder every reload.

 

[Just a dude in BC]

It is somewhat important to describe where a lot of the buzz around neck sizing dies came from. That is from F-Class and ultra precision shooting. The idea being that:
1. If you only sized the neck.
2. Mark your cases (this side up).
3. volumetric measure your cases for case capacity and sort based on this.
4. keep your chamber clean.
You would end up with as little variation in pressure as possible, which would control the extreme velocity spread (ES) and standard deviation of velocity (ES). And, this is mostly true.

However, you run into some problems with practical shooting (which is what hunting is). And that being issues with cases chambering in a hurry, or with a slightly fouled chambers. After all, if you only size the neck, then the case is almost a perfect match for the chamber. Anything that can upset that could make your case not chamber.

So, I am not a fan of neck sizing at all, especially for hunting. I use a case comparator to make sure that my sized cases are at least .002" of an inch back when I am competitive shooting, and like about .003"-.005" thou for when I am hunting. Because I would WAY rather turn a half MOA gun into a 1 MOA gun, than have a half MOA gun that jams. And that is the truth of hunting, most guns these days do noticeably better than 1.5", and 1.5" means you can hit an animals heart at 300 every time.

Long story short, no, do not get a neck sizer. The gain in accuracy is much much smaller than the risk of a round not chambering.

 

[sgt_zim]

Members, I am buying .338 Imperial Magnum dies from a company. It is the standard set Full length sizing dies as well as the seating crimping die....do I need to buy the Neck sizer die as well?

No point in the neck sizing only if you have FL dies.

The only cartridge for which I neck size only is my 9.3x62, and I anneal every 2nd firing.

 

[John Wasmuth]

No, no need for a neck sizing die if you have a full length sizer die.

 

[CBH Australia]

Members, I am buying .338 Imperial Magnum dies from a company. It is the standard set Full length sizing dies as well as the seating crimping die....do I need to buy the Neck sizer die as well?

No, the Full length die will size the neck.

Full length sizing is adequate or even preferred for hunting rounds.

It sizes the whole case including the neck and for most purposes it is all that is required.

Using a neck size die is an option to neck size only to avoid working the brass more but unless you are a high volume shooter or you want to neck size it is not needed and it might be an unnecessary expense if you never use it. But it’s an option if you wish to neck size only.

 

[Gert Odendaal]

Members thank you kindly, as usual it is great to have input of members shearing their knowledge , this is much appreciated for sure. Yes, as suggested and mentioned by all members I will then not purchase the neck sizer die. I wanted to make sure since this is a once off purchase and wanted to buy only what I am going need to use.

 

[uplander01]

neck sizing is for benchrest shooters, never neck size only hunting ammo.

 

[intj]

Neck sizing is absolutely NOT for benchrest shooters. At least not for long range benchrest shooters, which is my discipline. No one shoots smaller groups at long range and no one has a smaller 10 ring that LRBR shooters. Our 10-ring and X-Ring are almost half the size of F-Class target 10 and X rings.

Neck sizing was done many years ago when precision shooters thought that a tight fitting case was required for best accuracy. They also thought that cases would last longer by not working the brass as much.

They were wrong.

When I first became serious about rifle accuracy 30 years ago, I went through many phases, including the neck-only sizing phase. However, like everyone who has tried it, I noticed that after three firings the cases had sticky extraction. To fix that I would bump the shoulders .002" every third firing.

Then somewhere along the way I discovered that if I just bumped the shoulders .002" all the time that these hunting rifles shot just as well, if not better, and I never had sticky case extraction.

I first started shooting 1000 yd benchrest in 2005, and I just assumed that most all the competitors neck only sized. After my first match I asked that question, and to a person they all told me that no one neck-only sized, that they all bumped the shoulders with their competition rifles, just like they did with their hunting rifles.

I have not neck-only sized anything since then. I have multiple targets from competitons where I have shot sub 5" 10-shot groups at 1000 yds. All my shoulders are bumped .002 to .003". I also run more neck clearance than they used to think we should run.......and my brass lasts a very long time.

I can confidently say that no serious long range competitor neck-only sizes.

 

[Luvthunt]

Well I respectfully disagreed. I neck sized for many years with many of the cartridges I reloaded.
Was a hard core prairie dog shooter for about 15 years. Would load 5000 rounds over the winter ie 1000-223, 3000 223AI and 1000 22-250. Later years replaced the AIs with a 220 Swift. Also for a couple years shot a 221 Fireball.
Neck sizing was easier and without any occasional case sticking.
May not have given me the smallest group but minute of P.D. and Richardson ground squirrel was all that was needed.
Yes, in my BG,PG and DG I do full length resize but my point is for me neck sizing had its place.

 

[intj]

Well I respectfully disagreed. I neck sized for many years with many of the cartridges I reloaded.
Was a hard core prairie dog shooter for about 15 years. Would load 5000 rounds over the winter ie 1000-223, 3000 223AI and 1000 22-250. Later years replaced the AIs with a 220 Swift. Also for a couple years shot a 221 Fireball.
Neck sizing was easier and without any occasional case sticking.
May not have given me the smallest group but minute of P.D. and Richardson ground squirrel was all that was needed.
Yes, in my BG,PG and DG I do full length resize but my point is for me neck sizing had its place.

You made my point. The best long range group sizes are not gained by neck-only sizing. Given the the idea behind neck only sizing was to shoot better groups, we were all wrong back then when we thought we were doing everything we could to achieve best precision.

 

[Luvthunt]

Glad we are in unison.!

 

[FlyGuy]

300H&H is the only cartridge that I neck size.

 

[CBH Australia]

I have a bit of useless information to share

Here is a pic of an Australian made Super Simplex loading press. Ised for neck sizing
It used 5/8” dies from Simplex manufacturing. A smaller part of an Engineering firm.
These presses have probably been around probably more than 60 years and are used to neck size/deprime and seating operations.
Many, many Roo shooters would have used these to reload .222 ammo then later some moved to .233 but they would have been pretty common in the days when .222rem was the most common cartridge used for Roos.
Many of those people would have used a 17rem on foxes in the 70’s
Dies are also available in pistol cartridge sets as well as other common stuff like .308 that I have used.

 

[Luvthunt]

Down home primer catcher, many thanks for sharing.