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I posted a while back on bringing a pair of Hornady Pro-Jectors back to life as rifle case prep stations.
This week was I processed the first batch of magnum bolt-face rifle brass this way.
The deprime, full length size and neck mandrel work very well.
Priming on the press is not as good or as repeatable as I would prefer. There is not enough leverage on the reverse stroke to overcome tight rifle primer fit, resulting in variations in seating depth that I can feel by running my fingertip over the seated primer, and some primers fractionally proud. I had to uniform the seating depths on my ram prime setup.
Going forward, priming on the press is not feasible, but still get 3 operations per ram stroke - deprime, size and mandrel.
It's a big time saver, performing those 3 operations in one stroke.
Posted : 18/02/2026 5:30 am
For hunting, a mandrel is of no real gain ?
I am who I am - I am not who you want me to be.
Therefore I am me.
Posted : 22/02/2026 5:06 am
Topic starter
There is no simple answer, there are some factors to take into account.
The only way to prove it is test and see if you can shoot the difference. You may change from one method to the other and not see any difference on the target.
What makes the mandrel generally better than the expander ball is that the madrel is always straight, but the expander ball is on the decapping pin, which may be at an angle. If the expander ball passes through the neck at any small angle, it deforms the neck towards that angle.
The main advantage to using a mandrel is control over neck tension. Mandrels come in different sizes.
Expander balls are not available in different sizes, what you have is what you get.
And you may change the neck tension and not see any difference in how the ammo shoots.
Posted : 22/02/2026 8:23 am
Using a mandrel to set neck tension for hunting rifle ammo is the equivalent of using a micrometer to measure a plank to cut it with an axe.
Whatever gain you may get from all the advanced reloading techniques get lost in the noise of positional shooting used for hunting. Maybe when doing long (600+) range hunting?
Using the cheapest Lee dies and scale correctly, using premium components, you will load ammunition that is as good, if not better, than the most expensive premium hunting factory ammunition.
Posted : 23/02/2026 1:08 am