Neck tension

[TedBrewer5]

So I pulled a few bullets recently and was amazed at how easy it was compared to my ‘06 that I also recently pulled some bullets from. High tension on the ‘06 to the point that the collet damaged to bullet. That all got me thinking about crimping so I did an extensive bit of research in the forum about found alot of interesting info about crimping and neck tension. The bit I latched on to I believe was from Klem a while back about measuring with calipers for neck tension. So I measured the OD diameter of a sized case(.287) and a loaded round(.289) giving me .002 neck tension. I then pulled out the expander and spindle on my sizing die and ran a fired round through it and that gave me .280. So that is too small. I have ordered another expander(.263) to polish and see if I can get my neck tension to .004ish. My handloads are good and I am happy with them but there always seems to be a flyer. I am hoping that tightening the neck tension up will help. I’d rather not have to crimp if at all possible

[LRRPF52]

I have never crimped Grendel.

I think crimping makes sense with heavy-recoiling cartridges that have a lot of projectile mass, neither of which are the case with 6.5 Grendel.

[Zeneffect]

I had a bad grendel die that wouldn't size the necks tight enough. Only found out after loading 100 rounds and was able to pull the bullets out by hand every one I tried.

I crimped it, then sent it. Still sub moa out to 550 yards. Crimp was only there to keep the bullets from literally falling out. On the extreme of nearly no neck tension it seemed to be irrelevant to accuracy

[Mark611]

My neck tension on my case is ran thru a expander mandrel on new brass, then neck sized with a Lee collet die, after I seat the bullet, I use a factory crimp die that just barley puts any pressure on the crimp on the neck, I don't know if it's needed or not? but it makes me feel a bit better knowing I did, my last loads I loaded awhile back I think I over crimped them and adjusted my Crimp die? I had to pull 1 bullet and it crimped a ring into the bullet, so I backed it way off! last Sunday my last loads for my 6.5GRR produced some of the best loads I have made for my rifle, I think my Collet mandrel is about 2.5k under bullet DIA, IMO 4k under may be too tight? the good thing about Lee is you can order a mandrel in any DIA you want that will replace the mandrel that came in the collet die for about $10 bucks? they use to be 5 bucks + shipping a few years ago so I don't know the cost today? but this would be a cheap way to find the correct size that would work for you IMO, I started using LEE collet dies for all my calibers a long time ago and I see no reason to use anything else that's how well they work for me!!!!