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How to Reload Ammo with Neck Bushings

Bushings can improve accuracy and brass life
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ammo neck bushing size

Clint Ford

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Turn your necks to a uniform thickness. Use a neck-wall-thickness gauge to determine the thinnest dimension in your batch of brass, and turn the necks to that size. If your brass has minimal neck-thickness variation (.002 inch or less), you can skip this step.

calculating neck bushing size
Make sure to calculate the correct bushing size. Clint Ford

To figure out the correct bushing size, double your neck-wall thickness and add it to the bullet diameter. Then subtract .001 inch to arrive at the bushing size (e.g., a .308 with .014 inch case walls would take a .335 inch bushing). Or you can measure the outside neck diameter of several loaded cases and subtract .001 neck from the average.

Read Next: How to Build a Compact Reloading Bench

resize ammo neck bushing
Be sure to chamfer case mouths. Clint Ford

You’ll need bushing dies—available from all major die-makers—in order to use neck bushings. Be sure to chamfer case mouths and lubricate case necks before sizing. Should your cases show signs of getting tight in the chamber, run the brass through a full-length resizing die, which will also resize the neck, or, better yet, a body die, which will resize the brass without altering the neck.