Neck tension improvements, Good enough?

[PigPknHeat]

So Let me start be thanking all of those who have helped thus far... Thanks!

I have been having an issue with the .224 55gr fmjbt and neck tension but I think I finally fixed it or at least made it better. confused as to why it was happening with only the fmjbts I thought my dies were ok but it turns out that the Lee pacesetter mandrel was .223 in dia so I sanded and polished it to .222, which seems to have fixed it.

Now my neck OD after seating is .0025" to .003" larger. I have to press pretty damn hard for them to get set back now.

For all of those who do not crimp, is this amount of neck tension enough? Any definitive way to measure neck tension? I saw somewhere to press it on a scale and anything over 35lbs was good to go.

Thoughts?

 

[mac1911]

Im not a pro reloader but the gent I learned from said .002" is a standard. ...

 

[EddieCoyle]

If you make the neck ID any smaller than 0.003" under the bullet diameter, the bullet will deform the neck back out to this dimension when you seat it.

In other words, anything less than 0.003" under the bullet diameter is a waste, and will not provide any additional hold compared to a 0.003" undersized neck.

Yet another way of putting it is that the inside of a case neck (regardless of thickness or diameter) can be stretched 0.003" and will spring back to its original dimension, but when stretched by more than 0.003", it will spring back to whatever dimension it was stretched to, minus 0.003"

 

[PigPknHeat]

If you make the neck ID any smaller than 0.003" under the bullet diameter, the bullet will deform the neck back out to this dimension when you seat it.

In other words, anything less than 0.003" under the bullet diameter is a waste, and will not provide any additional hold compared to a 0.003" undersized neck.

Yet another way of putting it is that the inside of a case neck (regardless of thickness or diameter) can be stretched 0.003" and will spring back to its original dimension, but when stretched by more than 0.003", it will spring back to whatever dimension it was stretched to, minus 0.003"

So optimal or target neck ID for sized .223/5.56 brass should be .221? Anything less will get stretched and deformed, and not any tighter?