New to rifle loading

[gixxnrocket]

In that case, your biggest ES / SD gain will be improved by finding your accuracy nodes. Followed by seating depth/ jump to lands, neck tension (no crimp), followed by concentricity.
I've found consistant neck tension is best achieved by using good brass with uniform neck wall thickness, annealing and bushing sizing followed by mandrel sizing to maintain concentricity.

[J-cat]

1. Deprime. Why? Cuz the way the primer pops out will tell you if the primer pocket is loose. Why waste your time on a case with a loose primer pocket?

2. Cut the primer crimp out, if there is a crimp. Don’t swage. Swaging displaces brass into the head stamp area and the case is no longer flat. It needs to be flat and square to the case centerline. RCBS makes a great cutter that makes this quick and easy.

3. Clean the case. If you don’t want to tumble then just wipe the carbon off the neck. Breakfree on a rag works well for this. I like wet tumbling myself.

4. Size the case, taking care to change the shoulder length only .002” and no more, from the fireformed length. Otherwise you will reduce case life.

5. Brush the fouling out of the inside of the neck, unless you wet stainless tumbled, because seating the bullet against that hardened fouling will be problematic. If you break up the fouling with a brush, bullet seating will be smooth. If you wet tumbled, the case neck will be bare. I lube the neck with graphite. It ensures smooth bullet seating and stops galling and cold welding.

6. Expand the neck ID to .002” less than bullet diameter. I use a an expander mandrel for this. It ensures concentricity.

7. Prime, charge, seat.

8. Do not take any advice from F. Guffey.

[Fjold]

You don't crimp bottle necked cases, the de-priming plug has a neck swaging button on it that sets the neck diameter or you use a bushing die to set the neck diameter.

If you load straight wall rifle cases you will need to crimp since that are exactly like straight wall cartridges for pistols.

[freonr22]

In that case, your biggest ES / SD gain will be improved by finding your accuracy nodes. Followed by seating depth/ jump to lands, neck tension (no crimp), followed by concentricity.
I've found consistant neck tension is best achieved by using good brass with uniform neck wall thickness, annealing and bushing sizing followed by mandrel sizing to maintain concentricity.

How many neck tensions, do you recommend?

[gixxnrocket]

How many neck tensions, do you recommend?

I anneal before every sizing and for .308 i've settled on .002" for copper jacketed rounds. If your are going to use the Sinclair mandrels, The sizes are limited from .001"-.003" depending on the caliber. I have seen good results with .001" at the lands but it makes for a long cartridge. .003" has not worked for my yet. Maybe in a furure combination.
Im curious though if .003" works for anyone that uses moly or larger caliber solids.

[JagerDog]

Hey all, I've been doing some reading and tutorial watching for loading 308. I will be shooting it from a bolt gun and had some general questions on how to get started. I know loading for a rifle may require more steps than hand gun loading so I wanted to get those details straightened out. Please correct me if I'm wrong in my process. - First you deprime and clean the case, you then swage/clean the case if needed and proceed to trim the case. Then you prime, resize, add powder, seat your bullet and crimp it. Did I miss anything? Do we crimp projectiles for bolt guns? Thanks!

Trimming comes after resizing. The case "grows" when being resized.

Priming comes after trimming, just before powder.

I usually don't bother depriming before cleaning.

[JagerDog]

How many neck tensions, do you recommend?

2 shoulder bumps.

[ar15barrels]

Hey all, I've been doing some reading and tutorial watching for loading 308. I will be shooting it from a bolt gun and had some general questions on how to get started.
I know loading for a rifle may require more steps than hand gun loading so I wanted to get those details straightened out.

Please correct me if I'm wrong in my process.
First you deprime and clean the case,
you then swage/
clean the case if needed and
proceed to trim the case.
Then you prime,
resize,
add powder,
seat your bullet and crimp it
Did I miss anything?
Do we crimp projectiles for bolt guns? Thanks!

You have it out of order, but the steps are mostly there.
No need to crimp for bolt actions.

Pick up dirty brass at the range
Tumble clean.
Lube
Size and deprime.
Tumble clean to remove lube.
Depending on trimmer, you may trim while sizing or separate from sizing.
If separate, you would normally tumble clean before trimming.
Trim
Prime
Charge
Seat

[steelholder]

Thanks again for all the responses.

A question regarding neck sizing - I'm using the lee neck sizing die for 308 and it recommends a turn and half more after touching the shell holder when screwing in the die (loading on a turret). I'm noticing that many of the projectiles are not held in place well. They can be pushed in further while measuring OAL or spin around when i grip them with my fingers. Others are held in place tightly. Im using the same brand of once fired brass. Is there anything wrong with doing 2 or 2 and half full turns to get a better grip on the projectile? Im loading for a bolt and am not crimping, should I? My concern is the neck wall thickness and the stretch that may come from that. I hope I'm clear about my problem.

This neck sizer deprimes at the same time, what can I do with the primed cases that did not hold the projectiles in place? I really don't want to toss them.

[kevins750]

Push the primers back out just as if they were spent and catch them with your hand

or you can leave the primers in and do this.

This is how I size my 308 brass. Not saying its correct or the only way just my way.

I use a forester full length die( any full length die will work) with the expander ball
And decap rod out, size the case bumping back the shoulders how much you desire
The sized case then goes into a Lee neck sizing die but I DONT crimp just push
The case up the mandrel about an inch and then back down. This will uniformly size
The inside of the neck and give very consistent tension on brass.

Little lube on the mandrel every so often helps.

If you are neck sizing only then yes you will have to squeeze some more than others. In this style I would set the "different ones" aside or cull.

[Fastattack]

ABC's of Reloading. Buy it.

https://www.amazon.com/ABCs-Reloading-Definitive-Novice-Expert/dp/1440213968/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=abcs+of+reloading&qid=1587943465&sr=8-1

[JagerDog]

Push the primers back out just as if they were spent and catch them with your hand

or you can leave the primers in and do this.

This is how I size my 308 brass. Not saying its correct or the only way just my way.

I use a forester full length die( any full length die will work) with the expander ball
And decap rod out, size the case bumping back the shoulders how much you desire
The sized case then goes into a Lee neck sizing die but I DONT crimp just push
The case up the mandrel about an inch and then back down. This will uniformly size
The inside of the neck and give very consistent tension on brass.

Little lube on the mandrel every so often helps.

If you are neck sizing only then yes you will have to squeeze some more than others. In this style I would set the "different ones" aside or cull.

You are loosing the value of minimal work hardening of the brass that neck sizing only produces.

[JagerDog]

Thanks again for all the responses.

A question regarding neck sizing - I'm using the lee neck sizing die for 308 and it recommends a turn and half more after touching the shell holder when screwing in the die (loading on a turret). I'm noticing that many of the projectiles are not held in place well. They can be pushed in further while measuring OAL or spin around when i grip them with my fingers. Others are held in place tightly. Im using the same brand of once fired brass. Is there anything wrong with doing 2 or 2 and half full turns to get a better grip on the projectile? Im loading for a bolt and am not crimping, should I? My concern is the neck wall thickness and the stretch that may come from that. I hope I'm clear about my problem.

This neck sizer deprimes at the same time, what can I do with the primed cases that did not hold the projectiles in place? I really don't want to toss them.

You can try screwing the die down a bit further. I don't know how much "give" the Lee turret press has.

You can polish the mandrel down a bit.

You can order an undersized mandrel from Lee.

[ar15barrels]

Thanks again for all the responses.

A question regarding neck sizing - I'm using the lee neck sizing die for 308 and it recommends a turn and half more after touching the shell holder when screwing in the die (loading on a turret). I'm noticing that many of the projectiles are not held in place well. They can be pushed in further while measuring OAL or spin around when i grip them with my fingers. Others are held in place tightly. Im using the same brand of once fired brass. Is there anything wrong with doing 2 or 2 and half full turns to get a better grip on the projectile? Im loading for a bolt and am not crimping, should I? My concern is the neck wall thickness and the stretch that may come from that. I hope I'm clear about my problem.

This neck sizer deprimes at the same time, what can I do with the primed cases that did not hold the projectiles in place? I really don't want to toss them.

What is the specific part number of your die or die set so I can look it up.
Is it a collet/mandrel die or a traditional neck sizer with expander that pulls through as the case is withdrawn?
Either way, if you get loose bullets, your necks are too large and you need a smaller mandrel or expander button.
The reason SOME are looser than others is inconsistency in the case wall thickness or hardness.
Harder brass will have more spring-back so it will not size as small as softer brass.
Thick brass will get squeezed down more by a traditional neck sizer than thinner brass.

[steelholder]

What is the specific part number of your die or die set so I can look it up.
Is it a collet/mandrel die or a traditional neck sizer with expander that pulls through as the case is withdrawn?
Either way, if you get loose bullets, your necks are too large and you need a smaller mandrel or expander button.
The reason SOME are looser than others is inconsistency in the case wall thickness or hardness.
Harder brass will have more spring-back so it will not size as small as softer brass.
Thick brass will get squeezed down more by a traditional neck sizer than thinner brass.

Thanks it's the 308 ultimate die set neck sizer 90695