Need help with shoulder bumping!!!

[aboltlrhunter]

As the title says I need help with bumping the shoulders back when resizing. Now I've been reloading for a few years now and I wouldn't consider my self a complete rookie to reloading, I also know I am no expert. I've read different manuals, watched plenty of videos so I believe I have a good grasp of reloading for precision rifles.

Alright so for my problem. I recently just resized a bunch of 300wm, 7mm rem mag, and 7mm-08. All of them my goal was to bump the shoulder back .002". So I used my hornady headspace gauge and started measuring each one and sorting them into .001" windows. In hope I could get my die dialed in for one, lock it in place and start plugging away at the rest of them that fell into that window. Then adjust accordingly to the brass that fell out of that .001" window. Well I found out fast that didn't work and ended up double and triple cycling every piece to get them just perfect. Now I've always double cycled when seating bullets. Just figured brass with the same measurement to the shoulder I wouldn't need to cycle it through more than once.

Background info:
I'm not using any competition dies, just standard rcbs FL dies.
The brass for all 3 calibers are from Remington factory rounds that have been fired through the exact same rifles I'm loading them for.
Using a hornady single stage press.
Oh and I resizing and depriming in one action, and I never got to lock my die in place cause I'm always adjust the die from case to case.

What am I doing wrong? Is it due to inconsistent powder charges from the factory so the shoulder doesn't get blown out equally shot to shot? Should I deprime then measure with headspace gauge and then resize? Or is it do to the dies or press?
Thanks for any help!

Trent

 

[pyroducksx3]

Umm, probably stop being so anal.....
Get the redding competition shell holder kits. Set your dies to full length resize on the standard shell then use the kit until you get the resize or "bump" you want. Record what she'll holders you used and use that one when resizing fired brass. When you want to full length resize new brass just use the standard she'll holder. No more adjusting your die for new brass or fired brass. Once you have your measurement you don't need to measure every single piece of brass. If your chasing .001 measurement you are just going to drive yourself crazy. Reload more, measure less equals shooting more equals happy you

 

[GKPrice]

Umm, probably stop being so anal.....
Get the redding competition shell holder kits. Set your dies to full length resize on the standard shell then use the kit until you get the resize or "bump" you want. Record what she'll holders you used and use that one when resizing fired brass. When you want to full length resize new brass just use the standard she'll holder. No more adjusting your die for new brass or fired brass. Once you have your measurement you don't need to measure every single piece of brass. If your chasing .001 measurement you are just going to drive yourself crazy. Reload more, measure less equals shooting more equals happy you

I agree 110% !! (had to read the OP 3 times to understand what he was doing ??) btw, never heard of not setting the lock ring on a sizing die .... am I missing something ??

 

[aboltlrhunter]

Thanks for the replies,
I know a I rambled on. And yeah I know I may be a bit anal but I know being as consistent in case prep as possible can only help with accuracy not hurt it, especially when shooting at further ranges. And as for your question gkprice, I don't set the lock ring because I have to adjust the die with each case to get a consistent bump on the shoulder. That is the problem I'm trying to fix because I would love to set the lock ring once and be done with it.

 

[pyroducksx3]

Set the lock ring and be done with it, you are measuring too much. You are not going to see any measurable gains bumping each shoulder individually. I know about longrange shooting and precision reloading. I've shoot out to 1900 yards and animals at 916 and 934.

 

[aboltlrhunter]

I'm just trying to understand. So what your saying is if I just set my lock ring and resize my cases, and the bump ends up measuring anywhere between ..001 and .006 throughout the batch, that's not gonna any difference at let's say 1000yds? Because everything I've read says otherwise, that's why I'm confused.

 

[ST52v]

Try marking the die body with a fine point sharpie and the ring with a small dot of white out. As you probably already know it only takes a small movement and things change. It was easier for me to do with reference marks. Not locking things down is probably not helping. How many firings on the brass?? If it has been shot several times it is probably getting hard and giving you spring out. If this is the case you may want to find someone to anneal them (join snipers hide and find the guy on there that does it) or ask for help on this site. Some guys pause at the end of the stroke, others pause them come out a bit and hit it again. I assume you are trying to work the brass as little as possible to help it last and increase consistency between rounds. If this is true then annealing is important also along with a type s full length sizer die. Annealing will keep your brass softer , more consistent and that die will allow you to avoid over working the the whole case not just the body of it. This will also give you control over neck tension. Is it getting really hard to withdraw the expander ball out of the cases? These are my thoughts and hopefully someone more experienced will chime in. 25 years ago I just loaded shells in the last year or so I have been loading with more precision.

 

[pyroducksx3]

This is why I really love the redding competition shellholders. I set my die up so it just has a tiny bit of cam over, I know some people say it a huge sin but it works. With that tiny cam over I know I'm getting the same sizing and I has brought my consistency way up. If using the lock ring and still getting variations of .005 something else is wrong.

 

[pyroducksx3]

Feel free to pm if you want to talk and I'll send you my number, there's just alot of variables that could lead to this.

 

[aboltlrhunter]

Try marking the die body with a fine point sharpie and the ring with a small dot of white out. As you probably already know it only takes a small movement and things change. It was easier for me to do with reference marks. Not locking things down is probably not helping. How many firings on the brass?? If it has been shot several times it is probably getting hard and giving you spring out. If this is the case you may want to find someone to anneal them (join snipers hide and find the guy on there that does it) or ask for help on this site. Some guys pause at the end of the stroke, others pause them come out a bit and hit it again. I assume you are trying to work the brass as little as possible to help it last and increase consistency between rounds. If this is true then annealing is important also along with a type s full length sizer die. Annealing will keep your brass softer , more consistent and that die will allow you to avoid over working the the whole case not just the body of it. This will also give you control over neck tension. Is it getting really hard to withdraw the expander ball out off the cases? These are my thoughts and hopefully someone more experienced will chime in. 25 years ago I just loaded shells in the last year or so I have been loading with more precision.

So the 7mm-08 and 300wm both are only once fired. And my 7mm rm is twice fired. And yes my goal was to work the brass as little as possible. Yeah I figured I'd have to anneal the 7mm rm after this next firing, that will be my next journey, I've never done it before. And no I have not noticed to pull the expander ball back through.
And thanks pyro for the offer I may take you up on that.

 

[16Bore]

Use a 7/8"x1/8" rubber O-ring between your lock ring and the press head. Once you get the die close to where you want the headspace to be, you can nudge the die in until the headspace measures what you want. No need to lock and unlock the thing.

Easy peasy.

 

[Screamrider]

I'm new to reloading and basically just went through a similar process. Using the OAL headspace gauge I tried to get all my brass bumped back 0.002. I thought I had my Redding 300 WSM die set perfectly for the task, but when I checked my work the 30 cases I resized fell between 0.0015 and 0.003, with an average of 0.002.

In the end I decided I wouldn't let it totally drive me crazy and I'll just go shooting, but I was frustrated to not be able to get the exact same bump, with my die locked in placed.

In the end the variation I got was relatively small, and I figure it could be due to way too many factors to begin chasing things (brass variations, caliper accuracy etc...)

 

[bpotter]

If redding shellholders great switch until find size that allows easy chambering. Even without can do same. Take a fired case and set die to just touch. Size and try to chamber ( pulling the firing pin helps with feel). Set die down in 1/4 turn or so increment and try to chamber and close bolt. Repeat until the case chambers easily. Will probably be .015 -. 020 bump. Try a couple more cases to make sure. Works for me.

 

[pyroducksx3]

He has the tools to measure his head space bump but this is the way to do it if you don't have them.