dstoenner
Silver $$ Contributor
This thread is a follow up to a previous thread where I was talking about neck bushing causing runout. Several people had mentioned in that thread that if I had used a honed Forster die that I could have almost 0 runout out. I had said that yes I know because I have 2 Forster FL dies honed. 1 for my 6x47 and the other for my 6BR. What I found out when I started to set it up was that it wouldn't set the shoulder back, even with a normal shell holder. I normally adjust the amount of setback by using a Redding Competition Shell holder picked for optimum setback. These are measure in minus numbers to compensate for what most FL dies do is oversize the cases. The Forester were so under sized that a fired round, the shoulder was not set back at all.
I set this issue aside as I needed to get a solution for my Whidden bushing dies and that answer came in buying Whidden bushings. That gave me low runout with the right neck size using my Competition shell holder to set how much shoulder set back was done.
So with some time and Christmas over, I went back to this issue. I want to relate to everybody what I found and what was my solution. First thing I did was to take my GO gauge and put it in the die with out the decapping rod. I measured the 6x47 L Whidden and the GO gauge head sticking out was .155 while the shell holder inside surface to top surface is .125. So in essence the Whidden die is trying to set the shoulder back 30 thousands. In reality I don't find that. I use the -.010 competition shell holder and my sized cases are about .001 under the GO gauge measurement. My chamber is between .001 to .002 longer than my GO gauge. In my mind, perfect set back.
The problem is that the Forster die only measures .135 which is .010 under what I was doing with the Whidden and -.010 Redding shell holder. Hence why I was never touching the shoulder. I know I could have ground down a shell holder but I wanted more control and a 1 step operation. To me the solution was to modify the die not the shell holder. I tried files. Nope. Diamond jeweler's files did work but was too slow and they are not wide enough so I was afraid of getting the surface out of flat. I tried 400 grit sandpaper backed by a steel flat bar. That was working but at 2 hours and multiple little sheets of sandpaper I had gotten may .003 off the die. I was at the hardware store and came across the solution. It is a small grinding wheel, 1 inch in diameter by 3/8 thick that you chuck in a drill. I bought it and brought it home where I chucked it in my drill press and then used my drill press arm as leverage to slowly grind the die. I would go for maybe a minute or 2 and then measure. I walked it into my .145 target in about 5 minutes or grinding and 5 minutes of measuring time between sessions.
Now I put the die in my press and took a case and sized it with a standard shell holder. It was GO -.003. This was one of my hornady cases formed to 6X47 which I am sure is softer than Lapua so next range trip I will have some Hornady to experiment with. Even if I have to use the -.002 competition shell holder because I ended up a little to aggressive in the end, I am happy. Now I get everything all in one operation and no more bushings to contend with.
Here is a picture to give you an idea of what it looked like. And the price was 3.97 which was a LOT less than if I would have sent it off to Forster.
David
I set this issue aside as I needed to get a solution for my Whidden bushing dies and that answer came in buying Whidden bushings. That gave me low runout with the right neck size using my Competition shell holder to set how much shoulder set back was done.
So with some time and Christmas over, I went back to this issue. I want to relate to everybody what I found and what was my solution. First thing I did was to take my GO gauge and put it in the die with out the decapping rod. I measured the 6x47 L Whidden and the GO gauge head sticking out was .155 while the shell holder inside surface to top surface is .125. So in essence the Whidden die is trying to set the shoulder back 30 thousands. In reality I don't find that. I use the -.010 competition shell holder and my sized cases are about .001 under the GO gauge measurement. My chamber is between .001 to .002 longer than my GO gauge. In my mind, perfect set back.
The problem is that the Forster die only measures .135 which is .010 under what I was doing with the Whidden and -.010 Redding shell holder. Hence why I was never touching the shoulder. I know I could have ground down a shell holder but I wanted more control and a 1 step operation. To me the solution was to modify the die not the shell holder. I tried files. Nope. Diamond jeweler's files did work but was too slow and they are not wide enough so I was afraid of getting the surface out of flat. I tried 400 grit sandpaper backed by a steel flat bar. That was working but at 2 hours and multiple little sheets of sandpaper I had gotten may .003 off the die. I was at the hardware store and came across the solution. It is a small grinding wheel, 1 inch in diameter by 3/8 thick that you chuck in a drill. I bought it and brought it home where I chucked it in my drill press and then used my drill press arm as leverage to slowly grind the die. I would go for maybe a minute or 2 and then measure. I walked it into my .145 target in about 5 minutes or grinding and 5 minutes of measuring time between sessions.
Now I put the die in my press and took a case and sized it with a standard shell holder. It was GO -.003. This was one of my hornady cases formed to 6X47 which I am sure is softer than Lapua so next range trip I will have some Hornady to experiment with. Even if I have to use the -.002 competition shell holder because I ended up a little to aggressive in the end, I am happy. Now I get everything all in one operation and no more bushings to contend with.
Here is a picture to give you an idea of what it looked like. And the price was 3.97 which was a LOT less than if I would have sent it off to Forster.
David
