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For a while now I have been exclusively neck sizing my cases for all the calibres I shoot using either shop bought LeWilson type bushing dies or home made ones on a Arbor press. This includes cast rounds. I guess the cast rounds will be more forgiving. I noticed that some of my No4 .303 rounds were getting a bit stiff to close the bolt on. Not a lot but enough to make me think that a full length sizing session might be in order and maybe a case trimming session.
Is there a rule of thumb as to how many times you can neck size. Are there any signs to look out for.Do any of our more knowledgeable re loaders have any advice.

Alpha1 wrote:I noticed that some of my No4 .303 rounds were getting a bit stiff to close the bolt on.

Presumably you're neck sizing for an easy life (or you wouldn't be neck sizing). It sounds like your brass is already telling you how many times you can 'get away with it'. The count when the bolt started to feel stiff is the number, but it may be less next time as the brass hardens.

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Presumably you're neck sizing for an easy life (or you wouldn't be neck sizing). It sounds like your brass is already telling you how many times you can 'get away with it'. The count when the bolt started to feel stiff is the number, but it may be less next time as the brass hardens.

Not necessarily for a easy life the 6.5x55 has to be custom built because of the tight chamber. The Steyr .308 for accuracy. The rest of them are shooting cast so the cases are not being abused some of them are shooting reduced loads. I have hundreds of .303 cases I have had for years I rotate them but I have no idea how many times some of them have been fired. I don't normally anneal cases either all though I have got the kit to do it.
I don't really neck size for a easy life I use bushing dies. I like to tinker I prefer to do all my reloading by hand. I like to make dies and stuff to make my re loading more interesting. I do everything one step at a time.
For the cast stuff I neck size with a bushing die then use custom expanders to open up the neck to accommodate the boolit.
Just wondered if there was a number or some thing people used before full length sizing.

A lot also depends on how hard you work your brass.

If you are a dedicated cast bullet shooter, you will probably get away with more neck sizing than if you loaded hotter FMJ loads before having to full length size.

ukrifleman.

I F/L resize after I get my case back from the guy who anneals them but neck size otherwise. My cases are annealed after every 5 firings.

Why anneal after five firings what calibre are you annealing. I assume you are paying some one else to do it for you is there a reason you don't do it yourself as far as I understand its not a difficult process.

It depends on several factors, so there's no single applies-to-all answer. The main factors are:

Case design (body taper and shoulder angle - low taper sharp shoulder jobs see far less shoulder movement than heavily tapered shallow angle types).

Pressures the load generates - the higher the pressure, the larger the shoulder movement.

Powder type and case-fill ratio. It appears that shoulder movement is caused by the front half of the powder charge being compressed into a solid wedge by the pressure from the back end of the charge which burns first and releases copious amounts of gas that works on the unburned or partly burned kernels ahead.

This assumes that the chamber and case match / pressures being used don't require sizing of the main case body and that hard chambering is caused by shoulder movement. Some sloppily chambered rifles with heavy loads need FL sizing every time and will give better results if this is done sensibly. My minimum SAAMI chamber 308 and 223 FTR rifles with chambers gunsmith cut with good quality, little used reamers are only sized with Forster Bushing-Bump dies that size the necks and 'bump' the shoulders, the settings used knocking them back 0.001-0.002". Despite warm loads (damn hot for the 223s if I'm being honest), I never need to FL size and they chamber effortlessly and extract easily even after multiple firings.

On the other hand, neck sizing .260 Rem with a Lee Collet, I need to FL size or use a body die alternate loadings and even so, the case is a slight crush fit in the chamber on its second use with the NS die alone.

Many US and Canadian top L-R TR and FTR shooters get very good results combining the Lee Collet with a 'body die' on each reloading, especially in .223 Rem.

I personally seldom full length size however I do bump the shoulders back every couple of firings or so dependant on the cartridge and load and some seem to benefit more than others. As an example I was checking a 22-250 the other day and there was a fair amount of resistance closing the bolt on a neck sized only case. Setting it back .002" would be enough to alleviate this problem. I also use Forster bush/bump dies for virtually all of my cartridges including wildcats.

Do it on an "as and when" basis, the "as and when" being when you start getting signs (such as your bolt getting hard to close as you are).

Big variations seem the norm- a clubmate is on his 8th or 9th neck-sized firing and is still OK (but I don't know his load or rifle).

Interestingly enough I've just moved away from a Lee collet to a traditional RCBS neck sizing die; I was having some neck tension issues but this could well be down to my press.

Big variations seem the norm- a clubmate is on his 8th or 9th neck-sized firing and is still OK (but I don't know his load or rifle). [zanes]

He's almost certainly running low pressure loads then. In the days before I owned a bench press, I loaded thousands of 308, 6.5X55, 7X57, 303, 8X57 etc .. etc rounds using a Lee Hand Press and Lee Collet dies. Running very mild loads, I never had any chambering problems, even with 10 firings on some cases.

As I said in my previous post, it's a different matter now running 260 Rem and others with full-pressure but not excessive pressure loads. One, maybe two, loadings NS only and they become very hard to chamber.