Use the expander, or not?

[slowworm]

I have a nice shiny new Redding type s bushing die. I see that it comes with both the normal expander and then what is is basically a threaded sleeve to hold the decapping pin and not touch the neck.

My initial thought was to just use the neck bushing, but wouldn't you know, I dropped the brass I use using to play with the die, and dented the neck. This got me thinking that I don't baby my brass, I cycle the bolt with vigor and that my brass will likely get dented around the neck when it lands.

So now I'm thinking I ought to keep the expander in, because the bushing does solve the main problem I had which was the neck getting overworked, I am likely going to have slightly dented necks in any batch of brass I'm going to reload.

I'm curious how folks are using their bushing dies.

 

[FLIGHT762]

F/L with a bushing, no expander, then a mandrel.

 

[Dthomas3523]

The expander ball will work. But you’ll get better results with the above mentioned process.

 

[slowworm]

But doesn't the bushing require the neck to be round at the start of the process? If I shoot off a barricade and the neck gets dented out of round landing on concrete, I'm running a neck with a flat spot through the bushing.

That doesn't seem right, but then I've never used a a bushing die before.

 

[spife7980]

But doesn't the bushing require the neck to be round at the start of the process? If I shoot off a barricade and the neck gets dented out of round landing on concrete, I'm running a neck with a flat spot through the bushing.

That doesn't seem right, but then I've never used a a bushing die before.

No more so than any other die does?

 

[slowworm]

No more so than any other die does?

The expander will push the brass more into round on the way in. Typically the expander will only expand the neck by a couple of thou after sizing.

So if I resize dented brass, and we are talking tens of thou of dent, a clearly visible flat spot, the expander will make the neck roughly round within about 5 thou on the upstroke. The bushing should take the rest of it out.

I can easily see trying to size brass with a flat spot will actually make the dent worse.

 

[FLIGHT762]

With my mandrel, I can run any fired, neck dented cases through the mandrel die BEFORE sizing to iron out big dents. Then run cases through the bushing die and then again through the mandrel to give better neck tension.

Use your expander button if you like if you don't have a mandrel die. That should take out any neck dents.

What I like about a mandrel is it has a nice taper to it going in & out of the case mouth.

 

[OREGUN]

Go read post 3, which will lead you to re-read post two.

Those are the answers you seek. If you already know the answer you wanted, why did you ask?

 

[slowworm]

Go read post 3, which will lead you to re-read post two.

Those are the answers you seek. If you already know the answer you wanted, why did you ask?

I don't know all the answers.

Sometimes one answer leads to more questions and you get more answers. I half expect Dthomas to chime back in and say the dents don't matter because while they effect a significant part of the circumference, they are very shallow compared to the length of the neck, which is probably why dents don't matter than much. Some of us are just naturally curious about how things work. Sorry that my curiosity offends you.

In the meanwhile I will be using the expander I have, as suggested in post three.

 

[slowworm]

With my mandrel, I can run any fired, neck dented cases through the mandrel die BEFORE sizing to iron out big dents. Then run cases through the bushing die and then again through the mandrel to give better neck tension.

Use your expander button if you like if you don't have a mandrel die. That should take out any neck dents.

What I like about a mandrel is it has a nice taper to it going in & out of the case mouth.

That makes a lot of sense, thanks.

 

[Dthomas3523]

If you’re not using the expander ball and you have dented necks, then yes, you’ll need mandrel them first.

If it’s a small dent, can get away with sizing and then mandrel. If it’s substantial, you’ll want to uniform the neck first.