Boyd Allen
Active member
Do you have a tool to measure shoulder bump?
N
ncnbrsa
Guest
There is a more simple solution that works more often than not. It is lube your cases on a pad. Put extra sizing lube on the pad and roll cases on the pad. The extra lube may be enough to size the needed amount to eliminate your frustration.
Some dies are made with a finish reamer and the lube on case is enough to size case properly.
Some dies are made with a finish reamer and the lube on case is enough to size case properly.
N
ncnbrsa
Guest
There is a more simple solution that works more often than not. It is lube your cases on a pad. Put extra sizing lube on the pad and roll cases on the pad. The extra lube may be enough to size the needed amount to eliminate your frustration.
Some dies are made with a finish reamer and the lube on case is enough to size case properly.
Some dies are made with a finish reamer and the lube on case is enough to size case properly.
M
macv
Guest
Yes, I do have a shldr. bump guage. Since the sml. base die is working, Im wondering if I can go back to my Comp. nk. die, or am I going to be better off just FL sizeing all the time. I neck sized those cases about 6 times before the trouble started. So that was 600 rds. of good luck. Then came the FL "S" die. Then after a while that die started to give me trouble. Then came the "S" die in Smalll base, Thats working so far. I have to get some more fired cases first to do a little more testing. Especially on the shldr. bump.
A
abintx
Guest
Boyd Allen
Active member
The only function of die lock ring shims are to facilitate precise changes in die setting without having to move the lock ring on the die. If you stack the shims correctly to start with, and have a variety of thicknesses you change the die's setting by a known amount more surely and rapidly than the usual method that requires one to adjust the die a smidge, size the case again, and remeasure bump, repeating until you get it right, with the risk of overshooting the mark. The late Skip Otto, a long time Benchrest competitor used make the die shims. When you are at a short range Benchrest match with a half hour between matches to reload and clean, being able to change a die setting by an exact amount can be a real advantage, particularly if you have trouble hitting your mark for a change in die setting to get the desired bump due to work hardening of the brass due to repeated reloading of a small set of cases. Loading at home, with a larger set of cases, this is less of an issue, unless you find adjusting a die for the desired amount of bump to be difficult.
One issue that is not often brought up, when discussing die settings, is that the annealing of factory brass, even of the best manufacture, can be sufficiently inconsistent such that the same die setting can produce different amounts of bump, even if the cases are from the same lot, and have been fired the same number of times. A friend, who ran into this problem, bought a rotary annealing machine and his variation in the amount of bump became much less, solving the problem. I think that this is more likely to be the case for cases that tend to be thicker at their shoulders. His were magnum.
One issue that is not often brought up, when discussing die settings, is that the annealing of factory brass, even of the best manufacture, can be sufficiently inconsistent such that the same die setting can produce different amounts of bump, even if the cases are from the same lot, and have been fired the same number of times. A friend, who ran into this problem, bought a rotary annealing machine and his variation in the amount of bump became much less, solving the problem. I think that this is more likely to be the case for cases that tend to be thicker at their shoulders. His were magnum.
L
Larry Elliott
Guest
Why go back to a situation that caused problems ??? Full Length Size All The Time!
AMEN!!! Neck sizing used to be the thing to do, with all sorts of reasons why it was superior to FL sizing. The ONLY time I can say that neck sizing did anything positive for me was in an old .22-250 with a HUGE chamber. If cases were FL sized they suffered from head separations within 4 or 5 firings. Neck sizing was the only way to have reasonable case life. Every other rifle I've ever had has never shot better with neck sized cases, while many have shot better with FL sized cases. It didn't matter whether the rifle had a minimum custom chamber or a factory chamber.
If cases are properly FL sized, and the rifle's chamber isn't way oversized FL sizing is the ONLY way to go IMHO. But I'm biased.
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