I load for 6PPC and have a Harrell bushing neck die as well as their combo press, which accepts both threaded and hand dies. When I ordered the die, I'm pretty sure whichever Harrell brother I talked with told me that it'll size the neck, bump the shoulder back about 1 thou, and very slightly resize the body. In other words, one die does it all. In addition to sending the die and requested neck bushings, they throw in a little brass dingus that you can use to measure shoulder setback,or headspace, if you want to look at it that way).
Last night I had about 50 pieces of PPC that I annealed after maybe 5-6 firings. I measured the fired brass and established a baseline measurement, knowing I wanted to bump the shoulder back about 1 thou, or as close as I could come to that. But upon sizing the brass, I found that some shoulders didn't want to set back at all, while others easily pushed back as much as 5-6 thou, which was more than I wanted. In all cases, I was running the press ram up to where the shellholder made hard contact with the bottom of the die.
Screwing a die up or down in this press seems to have no effect on actual sizing because as best I remember the linkage doesn't actually cam over until the ram is somewhere up into where you seat the threaded die. But I'm totally confused about how I can run the shellholder hard against the die each time and end up with as much as 6-8 thou difference in shoulder setback. Just doesn't make sense to me unless it somehow has to do with the fact that this brass was just annealed. Maybe if a neck and shoulder are softened too much, a die like this might shove the shoulder farther back than usual. But how can that happen if the shellholder is going hard against the die bottom each and every time. I would think you simply can't push one piece of brass farther into that die than another.
Any idea at all what's happening here, guys? I know I can call the Harrells and they'll try to help me out by phone, but I thought I'd throw myself on the mercy of this forum first. I sure hope I don't look totally stupid by having overlooked some really obvious solution. Thanks for your help.
Last night I had about 50 pieces of PPC that I annealed after maybe 5-6 firings. I measured the fired brass and established a baseline measurement, knowing I wanted to bump the shoulder back about 1 thou, or as close as I could come to that. But upon sizing the brass, I found that some shoulders didn't want to set back at all, while others easily pushed back as much as 5-6 thou, which was more than I wanted. In all cases, I was running the press ram up to where the shellholder made hard contact with the bottom of the die.
Screwing a die up or down in this press seems to have no effect on actual sizing because as best I remember the linkage doesn't actually cam over until the ram is somewhere up into where you seat the threaded die. But I'm totally confused about how I can run the shellholder hard against the die each time and end up with as much as 6-8 thou difference in shoulder setback. Just doesn't make sense to me unless it somehow has to do with the fact that this brass was just annealed. Maybe if a neck and shoulder are softened too much, a die like this might shove the shoulder farther back than usual. But how can that happen if the shellholder is going hard against the die bottom each and every time. I would think you simply can't push one piece of brass farther into that die than another.
Any idea at all what's happening here, guys? I know I can call the Harrells and they'll try to help me out by phone, but I thought I'd throw myself on the mercy of this forum first. I sure hope I don't look totally stupid by having overlooked some really obvious solution. Thanks for your help.
