I have a recently purchased mid 50's or 60's Hepburn varmint conversion in 219 Zipper. Barrel was formally a 218 Bee but was rechambered to the Zipper round somewhere in it's life.  Finally got to shoot it today so tried reloading some ammo and am having a time with loose neck tension. The cases and Hornady dies came with it. They are Hornady 25-35 Win cases and after some measuring the necks are not reamed as they check about .010 but after resizing they will not hold a bullet. I removed the sizing bell from the die and sized one and the bullet still wouldn't hold. Done a lot of reloading but have never had this problem before. Any ideas or suggestions welcomed.


JMH

Had one once in a Win. model 64 but not in a highwall

Similar problems over the years have switched to neck bushing does for most anything I load. Cartridges brass dies and chambers have fairly wide variances. Stack the differences you can get  some poor fits. 

With a bushing die you can make most anything work well. There is some trial and error getting the exact bushing size. I measure everything then make a best guess on bushing  size leaning toward over sizing. Then bring the neck up to proper size with a “M” die. “M” easier to make correct size in a home shop than a bushing, particularly with smaller calibers.

Boats

I really bought the gun for the action as it is a nice set trigger gun. I am just not a zipper kind of person but wanted to see what it would do. I did get a three shot cloverleaf group at 100 yards with the few rounds I managed to cobble up. Now it has me wanting to do more so I think I will find a piece of material and get on the lathe and try my hand at making a bushing. Lord knows I have made my share of them. Something else I noticed after getting into some good sunlight and that is I believe the barrel has been lined! It is an odd gun of sorts. Oh well lets get on the lathe and see what I can do...


JMH

I have some really small carbide ones in my tool box from my aircraft parts manufacturing days. I'll give it a try and thanks for the ideas...



JMH

Now that is funny cause that is exactly what I did. In my assortment of boring bars I didn't find the one I thought I had. I think I broke it somewhere along the way. I had a new 3/16 two flute carbide end mill that worked just fine. Polished it with some 600 grit paper and oil. After doing the math I needed a bushing of .240 inside diameter and after the second try I got it. First one I didn't allow for the polishing. All I had was some cold rolled material for now but I need a hardened bushing. Does anyone know of a source for hardened bushings? I need one .240 ID by either 3/8 or 1/2 OD. I can turn a die body for it. My old lead person when I worked at Boeing taught me the end mill trick. He was full of work around. Thanks guys...


JMH

Letter B drill bushing would be .238".