Drilling man, I understand and know exactly what you are talking about but I just wanted to make it clear for the people that do not know how a belted cartridge headspaces. Fire forming, which is what you are doing with once fired brass as I am sure that you are aware, and reloading with out setting back the shoulder for a specific rifle has absolutly nothing to do with that or any other rifles head space measurement. That rifle still has the same head space measurement as it did before you fired the round and still needs to feed all ammo reliably. The fired cartridge just fills that chamber better with much less "slop". However, the belted cartridges aren't any more or less "sloppy" than the rimless cartridges. They all have to fall within SAAMI specs. Any cartridge can feel really "sloppy" if you get a chamber that is of maximum SAAMI size and some new ammo that is of minimum SAAMI size.
. (Couldn't understand at the time why they put the dang belt there for a purpose.....only to tell me that it actually was not needed for that purpose?!?)
AK, I agree 100% with the belt serving absolutly no purpose what so ever with modern case design. IMO, the folks that made the "modern" belted magnums were just too dang lazy to come up with a case design that didn't have the belt there. Like Drilling man said earlier, they just ended up useing it as a marketing ploy. And they say that the "short" magnums are all hype and marketing. Huh, fooey!!!!
Just like the rest of them.