The book tells me that I should set the die 1/2 turn back from the point at which the die contacts the case holder when the press is at its highest point. Then test the round in the rifle and it should chamber easily at some point.

I backed the die of 1/2 turn and it seated just fine. Should I back off the die until I find the point at which the case will no longer seat in the action?

Can I re-run the cases that I've already run back through the press? Will running them through again decrease the case life?

Tom

I don't recommend right off the bat trying to partial full length. I recommend full length. I did a bunch of tests where I found you can get inconsistent shoulders doing that. At first full length size. I don't like doing partial unless I have a shoulder gauge to tell me what exactly is happening.

It is best if you purchase a RCBS Precision Mic to fullsize your cases to the dimensions of your chamber.

If you feel you made a mistake, and need to resize your brass go ahead

Any timeyou workyour brass it diminishes its life to a certain extent.

Good luck.

I dont know what caliber you are loading but I found with my 308 that I didnt gain or lose anything by neck sizing or full length sizing the cases. because of that I just full length size them. never know you may want to shoot your handloads in a different rifle.

also what dies are you using? and what book said to back the die off 1/2 a turn. ive always only backed the die off a 1/4 turn and with straight wall cartridges I dont back it off at all.

I'm using Redding dies.

How does the above pertain to a belted magnum like the 300WM? Is the belt supposed to enter the die?

Hey BC, Can you explain what you mean by an inconsistent shoulder? The reason I ask is that the book states several times that this is the recommended approach to relaoding, ie to fit the shell to the action just beyond tight.

Tom

Ditto what HighDesertWolf said...............

"I backed the die of 1/2 turn and it seated just fine. Should I back off the die until I find the point at which the case will no longer seat in the action? "

IF those cases were originally fired in your rifle, you should be able to put them back in the chamber and close the bolt without having to size them at all! If this is the situation, then I'd set my die to just resize about the first 2/3 of the case NECK to hold the bullet firmly when seated. (You won't get incosistent shoulders unless your expander button is hard to drag back out of the case. If you don't lube up the inside of the case necks somewhat, this can happen, and it can pull the shoulder forward some. I use powdered graphite or "Motor Mica" as a dry lubricant for the inside of case necks.

In any case, set your die to WORK THE CASE BRASS AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE. So, whenusing brass fired in some other rifle, if you back the die off to where a case will not allow the bolt to be closed, then screw it back in SLOWLY until the bolt just locks up, that will work the brass the least, and this should help increase the life of the brass.

However, you do want it sized downmore for hunting ammo! I generally hunt with Ruger single shot rifles. For these, I want the cases sized to where the completed round will fall freely into the chamber with the muzzle pointed down to a depth that allows the block to close without having to push on the cartridge head, and then the round must slip back out when I raise the muzzle and lower the block! Ammo made like this always works in the field.

Ok there is one of my problems I never lubbed the inside of the case. I did find it somewhat difficult to pull the case out of the die. What should I be using for that?

By sized down for huntind do you mean the die set closer to the shell holder?

I have a bolt action ruger does this change anything in terms of the sizing?

Tom

Yep, alot of handloaders and writers have talked about partial FL sizing. Thats what it is. They are trying to size just enough of the neck and case not to push the shoulders back more than .002" so it fits your gun. but may not fit another gun.

I used to do this all the time myself. But found the gains were small alot of my rifles because the chambers matched the die pretty good FL sizing. Some guns where this did help, I bought a Lee collet die because the expander ball didn't drag the shoulders to "inconsistent places".

When you do what your doing, you have to use a top quality lube in the inside necks. Like imperialsizing. Or the expander ball pulls on the neck instead of expanding only. That pullin on the neck on the way out, causes you shoulders to be in different places. The collet die relieves this problem.

Key to reloading is consistency as you know.

These are good questions, and wished I could show you what I mean.

Eldequello....... A similar method to what you described can be done by holding the neck and shoulder of a case in the flame of a match for a second in order to place a coating of black soot on it. Then, with the die backed off, keep running the case into it and slowly srewing the die down a little each time until you just barely take the smoke off the shoulder.
I've used this method many times in the past with good results.