Setting Up Dies For Precision Reloading

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KAZ
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Setting Up Dies For Precision Reloading

Post by KAZ » Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:50 am

Most reloaders agree that die setup is critical to the construction of precision in our reloads. We want to wind up with as much of the case supported as posible. Since the headspace at the shoulder is where much of the action resides when firing we are seeking to bump the case 0.001" to 0.002 at the most when we resize. This guy makes a tool to measure the case at the shoulder using a just fired case from the rifle. I would be interested in your thoughts on proper die setup. Regards
http://www.larrywillis.com/resizing.html
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blue68f100
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Post by blue68f100 » Wed Jul 20, 2011 2:12 pm

I do not think a FL sizer can just do the neck/shoulder area without doing the full length. Might be possible on some calibers but none of my guns. Now all this goes out the window if your shooting a Auto, then you must full length size. The proper way is to get a sizing die to your gun. Now this get expensive if you have many guns you want to do. Normally you can neck size about 6 times before you need to bump the shoulder. But if your going to get a custom die there is no reason to neck sizer since the custom die does every thing.

All of this is mute point if your not prepping the primer pockets, using a micrometer head bullet seater, have checked volume on all of your brass (all equal), and weight all of your charges, etc...... I thought I saw a setup for checking how much bullet tension you had. This changes as the brass work hardens. So that's something you must watch very closely. And document how the groups change with each reload. You may find that on the 3rd reload every thing is as good as it gets. The before and after groups are not as good.

Year ago when I started reloading I did all of the brass prep, but discovered it made no difference in my rifle. Once you find a brass/primer/bullet/powder combo that gets you to 1 ragged hole at 100 yrds with std sizing all the extra steps are a waste of time. The sad part is that every gun is different and likes a different diet.

Now will any of this do any good for a $100 gun, I think not. But you never know.
David

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KAZ
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Post by KAZ » Wed Jul 20, 2011 10:50 pm

I agree that neck sizing is not enough as to his point the shoulder keeps moving forward with every firing. I've been using his tool to set up my dies and with a just fired case reading and adjusting my FL Redding die to just leave 0.002 of the shoulder it is producing some great reloads. You are also correct about the importance of the primer. I've seen groups cut in half just by changing primer brands. Regards
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