Craig, I think that it's important to cut into the shoulder, especially with cases whose shoulder angle changes when fireforming. But...if you get a donut the first time you fireform, I don't think it's that big a deal as long as you take it out right away. If it keeps coming back, I think a guy needs to look at how each part of the case (neck, shoulder and case body) is being sized and by how much.

   On our WareWolf cases, I initially used a Wilson neck sizer that sized 3/16" of the neck, per Wilson's standard practice. I had some pesky donuts on the inside only..nothing you could ever measure on the outside, though. I then had my Wilson die modified to size the entire length of the necks and the donut growth rate slowed way down...didn't stop completely, but it was a marked decrease in donut growth. I then had a die made up that uses a floating neck bushing, rather than the fixed bushing like the Wilson and Redding dies use. Once I started using this floating bushing die, the donuts completely disappeared...zip, zero, nada.

   I'm not sure what you're using for a neck sizing operation, but I kind of remember you using a Wilson die and a small plastic mallet?????

   I believe that forcing the neck through a fixed, non-floating neck bushing is not good for not only case neck life and concentricity, but also for the donut situation. I also anneal my cases pretty religiously and I know that annealing helps the donut and neck tension situation out.

   But I almost got bit by shortcutting my own "always anneal after every 5-7 firings" law at the Mainville IBS Score Nationals this year. I should have annealed after the Van Dyne match in July, but pressed my luck and shot the cases again for the Iowa State match in August. What with moving into our new house in mid August and all the related stuff going on with moving, I didn't shoot the gun again until Mainville. On Friday the tuneup was pretty loose and it wouldn't shoot anything better than mid-.2's for groups indecent conditions...and they weren't very pretty mid-.2's either...lots of 'Mickey Mouse Ears' on each group....just didn't feel as crisp as usual.

  The necks didn't feel the same as usual when I sized them and then the bolt started to drag a bit when it was being closed. I went back and examined the case necks on the fired case and they looked fine, The case necks on the loaded rounds showed a slight bulge where the pressure ring of the bullet was, though! Our chamber neck diameter is .335 and I set my cases up to measure .3335 over the pressure ring with a bullet seated. I carry a set of Redding neck bushings with me as sort of a 'go-no go' guage kit to check that the necks aren't getting thick at the neck shoulder junction...I just occasionally slip a .334 over a loaded round to make sure it slides over the neck easily. Anyway...a .334 jammed tight on the neck just ahead of the pressure ring, and a .335 would only go if I forced it. Not a good deal...Randy witnessed the situation and maybe he'll put in his thoughts as well.

  Eveidently, the necks were pretty hardened by then, having probably close to 20 firings on each one by this time. They didn;t move around as much when I resized them, and I'll bet if I would have had the smarts to check the diameter of a fired (but not sized) case neck it wouldn't have been .334 like they normally are.

   Anyway, I scrounged up enough cases (16, as I recall) that were kinda herky, but useable, and shot them all weekend. The gun settled right down and shot real low .2's on Friday after I sorted out the neck deal...no more 'Mouse Ear' groups.

   I think inside turning to .310 might be a good way to go, provided you have a .309-ish mandrel to pilot onto the neck turner with and some method to make sure the finished neck O.D.'s won't be too small after you size 'em and seat a bullet.

 The other thing I would suggest is to forget about inside boring the necks at all and just outside turn 'em until the O.D. is where you want them with a seated bullet. This is how I set up our cases and they work well, although you cases have quite a bit longer necks that what we end up with.

   Another thing that I bet would work great would be to take an old barrel and open the neck diameter up to .005 or so over whatever a non neckturned case/non foreformed case measures, seat a cheap bullet over some snappy powder, and fire it. The neck would be nice and straight and you could then remove any small donut that may form when the case blows out....but I bet there won't be any since the brass will be thicker at the neck/shoulder junction in these unturned cases.

   You could then neck 'em down a bit, turn 'em and be set to go with straight case necks from the start. All it would take is a necking reamer of the appropriate size and an old barrel and/or barrel stub from a barrel that used to be fitted to your action with your chamber in it.

   Anyway...just some thought from the 'Forbidden Zone'.