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Darryl Duke
Guest
J, it has a 1 on the bottom.
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Darryl Duke
Guest
Boyd Allen
Active member
So, to review, you screw the top off of the FL die and insert the Wilson bushing that you have been using in your neck die. Take a fired case and use a punch and some sort of base under the case that supports the case, and has room for the primer to fall out, and deprime the case. (This is so that any small amount of primer cratering or protrusion will not effect your "before" measurement.) Put the brass piece that you have referred to as a bushing, but which is in fact a gage, over the neck of the case, making sure that the flat end is up and that the case neck does not stick out past its end. Measure the overall length of the case and gage with a dial caliper that measures in .001" (no plastic calipers allowed) and write the number down. Put the die in the press so that it is .020 or so above the shell holder, with the ram in its uppermost position. Lube the case. Never put a lubed case in your chamber. Some of the case lubes are hard to get to completely remove without a solvent, and you don't want lubrication in the chamber for a full pressure load. Adjust the die down in small amounts, sizing and gauging after each adjustment until you get a measurement that is .001 smaller than your first one. Note the position relative to the shell holder so that if you have to adjust the die again that you can shorten the process ( not start so high).
A note to all of you "feel" folks, if his die is too big at the back, adjusting by feel will push the shoulder too far back, and I am surprised that this is so hard for so many to understand.
Two more tips- (actually one tip, and one afterthought)
Make sure that your decapping stem is not too far down in the die. Once, I put in a replacement that was a little longer than the one it replaced and managed to ruin a few old cases by hitting the end of the threaded part on the inside of the case. The bottoms of their primer pockets were deformed so that a primer could not be seated flush with the case head.
Use a case that has been fired at least three times to set up your die. They take a few firings to reach their maximum "headspace", and it from that, that they should be bumped back.
A note to all of you "feel" folks, if his die is too big at the back, adjusting by feel will push the shoulder too far back, and I am surprised that this is so hard for so many to understand.
Two more tips- (actually one tip, and one afterthought)
Make sure that your decapping stem is not too far down in the die. Once, I put in a replacement that was a little longer than the one it replaced and managed to ruin a few old cases by hitting the end of the threaded part on the inside of the case. The bottoms of their primer pockets were deformed so that a primer could not be seated flush with the case head.
Use a case that has been fired at least three times to set up your die. They take a few firings to reach their maximum "headspace", and it from that, that they should be bumped back.
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I think it is a test. If you figure it out on your own you get an A+ 100! I flunked = 0
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Darryl Duke
Guest
Thanks Boyd, I'll step out the back door and "unload" a couple cases. It's nice to live where you can do that.
When I am adjusting the die I use a different case after each die adjustment. Once I have the die correctly set and have sized several cases to my satisfaction I go back and redo the cases that were used early in the process and are still a bit long.
Sitting here thinking about it I guess it might be smart to remove the neck bushing when adjusting the sizing die to get the .001 shoulder bump. Once you get the shoulder bump set you could put the neck bushing back in and do all the cases.
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Darryl Duke
Guest
Fired cases miked 1.544. Took the bushing out and set the die till I got 1.543 Bolt closed just fine. I had been bumping the shoulders back too far. Now I have to fire the rest of the cases I set back too far, maybe at a slightly reduced rate to save a little powder. I do have 50 .220 Russians that have yet to be formed but my neck turning stuff probably is not accurate enough to turn to these specs. It's a forester setup I use on my factory stuff just to clean them up a little. It leaves tiny ridges cause the cutter is not truly 90° to the mandrel. Thanks to everyone for all the info it's great to have a site like this to go to.
JerrySharrett
Senile Member
Don't just reduce the load to refireform the brass you set the shoulders back too far. If you set the shoulders back over about 0.003-0.004 and just add powder and and a bullet the cases can stretch just above the web area and shorten the case life as well as possibly causing case head separation which can be dangerous.
Use a medium load and seat the bullets to where you have a hard jam into the rifling. This will hold the case head firmly against the bolt face and bring the shoulder back in place.
JerrySharrett
Senile Member
Lets discuss
Headspace/head space, notice the space part. Little Daniel Webster says space, generally, as "distance of place".
Used as noun the definition of headspace, as it pertains to cartridge type firearms is simply "the numerical distance between the face of the bolt and the base of the cartridge with the cartridge fully seated in the chamber".
Used as a verb, headspace. is holding a proper distance between a boltface or breech face and the cartridge base.
Some cartridges, such as straight walled cases like the 45ACP, 38 Super, 10MM Automatic, etc., headspace off the cartridge rim since there is no other place to restrict the cartridge case in the chamber.
Some cartridges,. such as rimmed design like 44 Rem Mag, 38 Spl, 30/30 Winchester. normally headspace off the rim. If there is any shoulder at all, like the 30/30, the shoulder makes a more precise fit than the cartridge rim.
Some cartridges, such as belted magnums, like 375 Holland and Holland, 300 Winchester magnum, etc., can headspace off the case base belt. Here again, it here is a significant shoulder it is better to use the shoulder rather than the belt.
The point here is, anything that sufficiently holds the cartridge base against the bolt face will get the job done safely. Us "feeley" guys simply use the first point of resistance that holds the case base against the bolt face regardless whether it is the shoulder, or case body taper. This does not HAVE to be the cartridge case shoulder. (As above, the positioning method can also be the jammed bullet)
I am not advocating doing anything stupid or dangerous, just using common sense.
Lets discuss this for a moment.
Headspace/head space, notice the space part. Little Daniel Webster says space, generally, as "distance of place".
Used as noun the definition of headspace, as it pertains to cartridge type firearms is simply "the numerical distance between the face of the bolt and the base of the cartridge with the cartridge fully seated in the chamber".
Used as a verb, headspace. is holding a proper distance between a boltface or breech face and the cartridge base.
Some cartridges, such as straight walled cases like the 45ACP, 38 Super, 10MM Automatic, etc., headspace off the cartridge rim since there is no other place to restrict the cartridge case in the chamber.
Some cartridges,. such as rimmed design like 44 Rem Mag, 38 Spl, 30/30 Winchester. normally headspace off the rim. If there is any shoulder at all, like the 30/30, the shoulder makes a more precise fit than the cartridge rim.
Some cartridges, such as belted magnums, like 375 Holland and Holland, 300 Winchester magnum, etc., can headspace off the case base belt. Here again, it here is a significant shoulder it is better to use the shoulder rather than the belt.
The point here is, anything that sufficiently holds the cartridge base against the bolt face will get the job done safely. Us "feeley" guys simply use the first point of resistance that holds the case base against the bolt face regardless whether it is the shoulder, or case body taper. This does not HAVE to be the cartridge case shoulder. (As above, the positioning method can also be the jammed bullet)
I am not advocating doing anything stupid or dangerous, just using common sense.
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Darryl Duke
Guest
I understand Jerry, I just got off the phone with my dad and he told verbatim the same thing.