Reloading for match rifle

[Briman]

Right now I' m in the process of building an 03A3 rifle for high power rifle match shooting. I' m sending it to a friend who' s a gunsmith to rebarrel it as soon as I get my new barrel in. He said he will make the chamber as tight as possible just so that it closes on a Go Guage. The rifle will be chambered in 30-06. All of my other rifles seem to have fairly loose chambers meaning that the cases stretch a bit when fired and I generally neck size them, none of them I imagine are tight to the limits by SAAMI specs. With a tighter chamber will I need to fullength resize the brass, or would I be better off neck sizing every time? Just wondering if anyone had any imput on what type of dies I should order.

[eldeguello]

The minimum chamber should not be cut so tight that new, unfired brass will not chamber and allow you to close the bolt. (It won' t be a problem, if the bolt will close on a " go" gauge.) Then after the round has been fired, the case should go back in and let you close the bolt without too much force having to be applied to the bolt handle. If your rifle works like this, you will probably not have to full-length resize your brass too often. Neck-sizing only should be sufficient for a number of reloadings, as long as you are using loads developed for maximum accuracy, and not maximum velocity!! (My match load for the M1 Garand is 47.5 grains of IMR 4064 with the Sierra 168 grain match bullet in FA 59 match brass with a Federal 210 primer, 3.340" o/a loaded length. This should be plenty mild in an 03!!)

[handloader1]

You might have to turn the necks you will have to wait and see. Good luck.

[LARRY338]

You might want to consider getting a die blank and let the guy who chambers it cut your sizer with the same reamer. Some factory made dies dont fit the dimensions of a given chamber from one end to the other very well.

[Briman]

Now that you mention it, He asked me If I wanted to do anything with the old barrel- I said it might make a good tomato stake. He then mentioned that he could make some sort of custom die using the chamber section, but I didn' t inquire further about it at the time.