expander ball removal?

[captnasty]

Has anybody out there ever removed the expanderball from your sizing die
on dies and brass that are gun specific? I understood a suggestion from a benchrest forum that to do this 1. the brass -already shot in the rifle was formed to your chamber and did not need expansion and 2. it would prevent the expander ball from distorting{however minute} the case neck. The bullet would
seat just fine and be as true as the chamber.

RC

[versifier]

It depends on the brand of die how successful that will be. Some FL sizers reduce the neck too much for you to be able to seat a bullet without expanding the neck, with others it works out OK.

Better still is to simply use a neck sizer like the Lee collet die which uses a mandrel to keep the neck at the correct diameter, or a bushing style that lets you control the exact outside diameter the neck is sized to. Bushing dies can be very particular as to the brand of brass though, so if you use a lot of range brass with different headstamps, you need a selection of different bushings. Conventional neck sizers work like FL sizers without touching the shoulder or case body and use an expander ball.

Bench rest dies are a whole different universe compared to regular loading dies (as are the rifles) and are often custom made to the chamber of a specific rifle. You can buy a decent hunting rifle or two for what a set of bench rest dies will cost you, and for a production rifle IMO they are a complete waste of money. OTOH, if you have a custom BR rifle that can shoot .25MOA or less, then they make sense.

[captnasty]

Thanks- That clears that up quite well-
RC