Adjusting FL die for Headspace

[BoydAllen]

How do you know which of the Redding competition shell holders to use without measuring. and how can not measuring be better than measuring? Having a pretty good collection of old reloading manuals I can say with good confidence that we have learned quite a bit over the years that goes well beyond what they contain, and we have equipment that was not available back in the day.

 

[bigedp51]

How do you know which of the Redding competition shell holders to use without measuring. and how can not measuring be better than measuring? Having a pretty good collection of old reloading manuals I can say with good confidence that we have learned quite a bit over the years that goes well beyond what they contain, and we have equipment that was not available back in the day.

I never said anything about NOT measuring cases for proper shoulder setback, and even pictured my Hornady cartridge case headspace gauge for doing so. On the other hand in over 46 years of reloading I have never had a case head separation using nothing more than a felt tip marker to "gauge" shoulder bump. (before investing in proper gauges in the last ten years)

Going further I keep asking "WHY" the die manufactures want our presses to cam over and the die make hard contact with the shellholder, meaning for what reason?

The cases below were resized with the die adjusted to make hard contact with the shell holder. (cam over) And no adjustment made for for minimum shoulder bump as per the die setup instructions. NOTE: Some websites recommend a shoulder bump of .003 to .006 for M1, M1A and AR15.





The average person who reloads just for hunting and target practice can get by with just a set of feeler gauges and a black felt tip marker to gauge his shoulder bump.

"BUT" anyone who has the Hornady Cartridge Case Headspace Gauge can convert his Wilson case gauges to very technical looking paper weights and pen holders.

 

[Old Navy]

How do you know which of the Redding competition shell holders to use without measuring. and how can not measuring be better than measuring? Having a pretty good collection of old reloading manuals I can say with good confidence that we have learned quite a bit over the years that goes well beyond what they contain, and we have equipment that was not available back in the day.

Ditto. Later! Frank

 

[BoydAllen]

Thanks for the clarification. Given the picture I was a little confused. One more thing that you obviously know. The Hornady gauge is a lot cheaper than other systems if you are reloading for a lot of calibers that have different shoulder to head measurements. Also, I have one of those pen holders. ;D

 

[gsg5pk]

I take a fired case, put the die in the press, lube up the case and measure the case after every movement of the die till i get a measurement that i have bumped the shoulder back .0005 from the fired measurement. Seems to work for me,

Wow I only can control number within 0.001

Do you have some trick for those set up?

 

[Bulseyetom]

One way to adjust the die until you obtain the necessary gauges is to dismantle the bolt so you just have the bolt body. Adjust your die until it doesn't quite touch the shellholder and size the case. Try it and you should feel the bolt being hard to close. Adjust the die in a little at a time and when the bolt closes firm but not hard you are about where you want to be unless it is for hunting purposes. The downside is that once the bolt closes easy you cannot tell if you have sized the shoulder back .002 or .008. Tom

 

[BoydAllen]

One thing to remember is that you may not want to have bump set that close if you are loading for a situation where every round needs to chamber the same. Brass varies in hardness and for that reason the cases in the same lot, that have been shot the same number of times with the same load and all treated exactly the same will not be bumped the same amount by a given die setting. This is particularly the case with cartridges that have thick shoulders. The variance can be significant, enough so that if you happen to set using one of the softer cases to set your die, that the harder ones will be extremely difficult to chamber. Other than looking at every case with the appropriate gauges and using individual die settings, the other solution is a well controlled "stress relief" type of annealing. I am relating personal experience on this, about work that was done with the best equipment.

 

[johara1]

I adj. my dies with the use of a stub made from a chamber reamer, but if you use a Harrells die it will come with a small one . You measure the fired case and set it back with the amount needed. Very simple mark the die with a marker next to the seam on the locking collar and move it away from the mark if you get too far away make an other mark. Remember when you size, dwell time means a lot,so if you size one fast and the next one slow it will give you a different reading......... jim