The UK's Finest Independent Forum for Shooters and Gun Owners. Est 2010.

Is this normal or is this a sign of a worn throat in my Parker Hale 1200TX?

I have once fired LC 69 Match brass (.308) it measures .343 at the top of the neck.

I neck size the brass using .336 TiN bushing and it now measures .333

With a 155gr (2156) Palma bullet seated measures .333

Now fired measures .343

Expanding .010, is that normal or excessive?
Am I using the wrong size neck bushing?

Am I ok, or is the throat worn out?

Much Appreciated.

Noahbody wrote:Is this normal or is this a sign of a worn throat in my Parker Hale 1200TX?
Now fired measures .343
Expanding .010, is that normal or excessive?

The SAAMI chamber dimension at this point is .3442", so you are right where you want to be with 0.001" of brass springback. From memory 0.010" is exactly the neck expansion I saw when I measured it for my (fairly new) Palma barrel. I'm sure you could work with a (non-standard) tighter neck if you stick to neck-turned brass, or brass of a specific/known brand or maximum thickness, but I don't think it is excessive for a rifle/barrel of this type.

Noahbody wrote:Am I using the wrong size neck bushing?

Generally the recommendation from Redding etc. for single-loaded target ammo is to use a bushing that is 0.001 smaller than the neck diameter of a loaded round, which should give you a sized neck of 0.0005" to 0.001" less than when loaded (depending on the amount of brass springback), but it looks like your sized necks are coming out under the bushing size by quite a bit. One possible cause of this is sizing down too much in one step. Some folks suggest sizing down in several steps of up to 0.004" or so per step. However, if your sizing results are consistent and give you repeatable seating force, sufficient bullet grip for your application and low neck runout then what you are doing could be just fine.

..

How does it shoot on the target?

I have only taken it out once trying different seating depths: touching the lands to .040 jump.

.040 jump gave the best results, about 2inch at 200yards.