Neck turning questions regarding necking down and wildcats

[Krob95]

Purchased a bunch of 6GT brass to neck down and turn into 22GT brass via a whidden 6GT FL bushing die and a .249 neck bushing. This is my first necked down wildcat that doesn’t really have factory brass (waiting for 22GT alpha brass). Do you have to turn necks in this case? Never had to neck stuff down before and not sure what to expect.


I ordered the 6GT neck turning lathe and a 22cal turning mandrel to start the wait since they’re still saying 4 week minimum lead time. Does this sound like the right stuff if I needed to turn said necks?

Thank you for fielding my dumb question of the day. It’s appreciated.

 

[ballisticdaddy]

I shoot a .284 Win in f-class that is a wildcat from 6.5 x 284 Lapua brass and whenever you neck up or down turning the necks would be a good idea. The chamber dimension would tell you if you really NEED to turn them but to keep everything concentric it is recommended.

 

[Krob95]

Neck diameter on the reamer is .255. It’s a no turn reamer. Should’ve added that lol I’ll go ahead and keep it on order.

Do you turn the inside of the necks too??

 

[ballisticdaddy]

Neck diameter on the reamer is .255. It’s a no turn reamer. Should’ve added that lol I’ll go ahead and keep it on order.

Do you turn the inside of the necks too??

Nope, I expand with the turner mandrel and that pushes all the imperfections to the outside of the case so after you trim...you're GTG

 

[Krob95]

Oh cool cool. And dry lube (graphite) will work just fine right?

 

[ballisticdaddy]

Oh cool cool. And dry lube (graphite) will work just fine right?

That should work but normally I would use imperial sizing wax

 

[Steel head]

First necking down cases can be problematic with bushing dies.
The bushing doesn’t like big changes ( you will get better results if you do it in a few stages but that won’t deal with second issue) or reach the neck shoulder junction.

you could turn the neck to relieve the area unsized at the neck/shoulder junction but that could lead to a very thin neck in that area.
I’d get a cheaper 22 GT full length sizer if possible just to neck down the cases.
You possibly could jam them into your chamber and fire form them assuming you have the neck clearance, workable but a bit caveman for sure.

Avoid dry lube for operations like this.
Imperial wax is your friend.

 

[Krob95]

First necking down cases can be problematic with bushing dies.
The bushing doesn’t like big changes ( you will get better results if you do it in a few stages but that won’t deal with second issue) or reach the neck shoulder junction.

you could turn the neck to relieve the area unsized at the neck/shoulder junction but that could lead to a very thin neck in that area.
I’d get a cheaper 22 GT full length sizer if possible just to neck down the cases.
You possibly could jam them into your chamber and fire form them assuming you have the neck clearance, workable but a bit caveman for sure.

Avoid dry lube for operations like this.
Imperial wax is your friend.

No one makes one unfortunately as I would’ve preferred to buy a non bushing die for the necking down process. The struggles man lol

 

[Mike Casselton]

If you have a standard seating die, it can be used as an intermediate step to 22.
The neck on a 22 caliber seating die is about half way between a 6mm sizing die and a 22 cal sizing die.

Imperial sizing lube.

 

[Steel head]

No one makes one unfortunately as I would’ve preferred to buy a non bushing die for the necking down process. The struggles man lol

I kinda suspected that.
l would try a few, see if they chamber without too much fuss, load them up with a minimum charge and fire form them.
Keep your lugs well greased.