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Anybody ever had to have a resizing die ground shorter?

As far as I know all shell holders are supposed to have a .125" deck height with a few exceptions.
The RCBS shell holder for the .45 Auto Rim and the .43 Spanish are both thicker because of the thicker case rims. Your .013 thicker Hornady shell holder is either a real odd ball or it is defective.

BTW LEE sort of goofed on their .43 Spanish shell holder. It is .125 deep but with the thick .43 Spanish rim the top lip is thin and breaks easily.
A RCBS shell holder used with LEE dies will not match up to put the shoulder in the right place.

Steve Donlon said:
Another thing to consider is that the Hornady shell holder is thicker than the RCBS shell holder. At least the 30-06 Hornady shell holder I have is. It's .013 thicker. With my situation. I only had to take my RCBS shell holder down a couple thousandths. If I was using a Hornady shell holder it would have been much more and taken longer because I used sandpaper to take it down. I went slow and kept measuring. I don't know but maybe all shell are different in this respect.
Click to expand...
 
What is going on that people have this issue so often? The tolerance on a chamber is typically around 10 thousandths. Are smiths missing that?
 
Dusty Stevens said:
The reason i prefer the shellholder mod (besides being cheaper) is you can do it on a lathe real quick with simple tooling where it would take a little longer with a surface grinder to get the hardened die down
Click to expand...
If you only needed a few thou more sizing, couldn't you use some finer grit sandpaper on a sheet of glass to dress down the shell holder? Just trying to find a way for us "latheless" and "millless" guys. Lol
 
fatelvis said:
If you only needed a few thou more sizing, couldn't you use some finer grit sandpaper on a sheet of glass to dress down the shell holder? Just trying to find a way for us "latheless" and "millless" guys. Lol
Click to expand...
Yes you sure can. Get some 400grit wet or dry and put some wd40 on there and get to it. If the die doesnt touch it (take it down far enough) it doesnt have to be straight and could be taken down with a bench grinder carefully (itll go fast)
 
ireload2 said:
As far as I know all shell holders are supposed to have a .125" deck height with a few exceptions.
The RCBS shell holder for the .45 Auto Rim and the .43 Spanish are both thicker because of the thicker case rims. Your .013 thicker Hornady shell holder is either a real odd ball or it is defective.

BTW LEE sort of goofed on their .43 Spanish shell holder. It is .125 deep but with the thick .43 Spanish rim the top lip is thin and breaks easily.
A RCBS shell holder used with LEE dies will not match up to put the shoulder in the right place.
Click to expand...
I went back and looked at my Hornady shell holder and your right. That measurement is the same but it's thicker under that and that is why it lifts the top of the shell holder higher. I was looking at the side of the die and saw it was thicker and never noticed where it was really thicker. I tried to use it once and noticed it changed all my settings and some thing was wrong so I painted it red and only use it on one of my Redding body dies. Thanks for the input.
 
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fatelvis said:
Those are great when you need to back off from the die, but don't work when you need the shoulder bumped back MORE than a standard shellholder provides.
Click to expand...

"Each shellholder has a distinct black oxide finish and is clearly marked to indicate the amount it will decrease case-to-chamber headspace."

I think you are correct but it seems to be worded poorly.

The explanation in the catalog makes more sense.

"The new Competition Shellholder Set includes five shellholders that are deeper than this in increments of .002”. Therefore, the set includes shellholders that are marked +.002, +.004, +.006, +.008 and +.010, which is the amount the shellholder will increase base to shoulder case length and thus decrease shoulder set back and case to chamber headspace."

And there there's that pesky headspace thing again. :)
 
If your rifle is a SAAMI spec cartridge and in spec for headspace Cutting the die down to fit that rifle won't hurt a thing or make it unsafe for other rifles. It should fit pretty much every chamber in spec within a couple thousanths. It doesn't matter if you take it off the dies or she'll holder the case still gets pushed up in the die more to contact the shoulder. The .200" line of the case still gets pushed up to the same place whether you take it off the die or she'll holder and will get sized the same amount either way.
Ledd Slinger said:
You have to be careful with that because if you take too much off the bottom of the die you can lose proper sizing on the base of the case. Which may already be the situation with the die not going low enough. Better to take it off the shell holder and allow the die to size the entire case body as it was designed.
Click to expand...
If you think about it this is not true at all. Draw it out so you can visualise it. If your rifle is a SAAMI spec cartridge and in spec for headspace Cutting the die down to fit that rifle won't hurt a thing or make it unsafe for other rifles. It should fit pretty much every chamber in spec within a couple thousanths. It doesn't matter if you take it off the dies or shell holder the case still gets pushed up in the die more to contact the shoulder. The .200" line of the case still gets pushed up to the same place whether you take it off the die or she'll holder and will get sized the same amount either way.
Now if it's a SAAMI cartridge that's not in proper headspace and is too short, yes cutting the dies down could set the shoulder back too far and cause case head seperation issues and the .200" line may get sized a bit more depending on the taper of the case.

Over the years I have seen about a dozen set of FL dies that didn't set the shoulder back at all. RCBS was the worst offender. One 7WSM die needed .028" taken off. I knew the chamber was about .001" over a go gage and took it all off the die. Carbide cuts dies like butter. It worked perfectly after that.
 
swd said:
If your rifle is a SAAMI spec cartridge and in spec for headspace Cutting the die down to fit that rifle won't hurt a thing or make it unsafe for other rifles. It should fit pretty much every chamber in spec within a couple thousanths. It doesn't matter if you take it off the dies or she'll holder the case still gets pushed up in the die more to contact the shoulder. The .200" line of the case still gets pushed up to the same place whether you take it off the die or she'll holder and will get sized the same amount either way.

If you think about it this is not true at all. Draw it out so you can visualise it. If your rifle is a SAAMI spec cartridge and in spec for headspace Cutting the die down to fit that rifle won't hurt a thing or make it unsafe for other rifles. It should fit pretty much every chamber in spec within a couple thousanths. It doesn't matter if you take it off the dies or shell holder the case still gets pushed up in the die more to contact the shoulder. The .200" line of the case still gets pushed up to the same place whether you take it off the die or she'll holder and will get sized the same amount either way.
Now if it's a SAAMI cartridge that's not in proper headspace and is too short, yes cutting the dies down could set the shoulder back too far and cause case head seperation issues and the .200" line may get sized a bit more depending on the taper of the case.

Over the years I have seen about a dozen set of FL dies that didn't set the shoulder back at all. RCBS was the worst offender. One 7WSM die needed .028" taken off. I knew the chamber was about .001" over a go gage and took it all off the die. Carbide cuts dies like butter. It worked perfectly after that.
Click to expand...

Yeah it would need to be determined if the die was at fault or if the shell holder is too tall. I never said you "can't" grind the die, I just said you have to be careful that you don't take too much off. I like to grind the shell holder first because it's the safest bet. You can take as much off the shell holder as you want so long as it still maintains enough strength to pull the case out of a sizing die.

If the die is not sizing the 200 line properly, then the die is not reamed to spec. In which case I won't trust anything else about it and will return it for a refund and purchase a different one. Can't return a cut die.
 
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jds holler said:
I wish someone would show up to straighten out alla youse die grinding, shell holder shortening, Okie, equipment modificating, shade tree, wannabe, reloading, neanderthals; Gufffffeeeeeyyyy!!!! jd
Click to expand...
Ah geez, it's been a good weekend, don't get the ol' Guff in on this one...
 
OK, I'll fill the void.....

Use a feeling gauge instead of grinding your hips. And then there's rams and punches
 
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