Brass sizing question

[Dogleg]

this is what I did to determin my overall length, how would I do it to know if I need to bump the shoulder back ?

When it gets hard to close the bolt the shoulder needs to be bumped. A hard to close bolt can have other causes too, like over length cases, bullets seated into the rifling, cases bulged by improper crimp amoung others. You really should read your reloading manual again, most of this stuff is basic.
You're confuseing me by writeing about setting OAL with a match, that's a way to see how far down the case you are sizing, so you can tell when the die just touches the shoulder. OAL is set with a caliper and case length is checked the same way. Could you be confuseing terms?

 

[jacky]

hmmm I don't think so. This is what I did and it did wonders for the accuracy of my loads.

I took a bullet and ever so little, loosely seated it into a trimmed unprimed case. I then took a match and blackend the bullet and the case and chambered it. What happened was that I saw where the lands were touching the bullet. I measured the length and seated the bullet a little more than the measurement indicated. I found that for my rifle a COL of 3.35" ( as opposed to 3.29") resulted in better accuracy and the bullet still fit in the magazine, chambered and fed perfect.

I got the idea off CGN wed site a number of years ago. I think maybe Todd Bartel suggested it. Anyways it was easy and it worked.

Thanks for the help.

When it gets hard to close the bolt the shoulder needs to be bumped. A hard to close bolt can have other causes too, like over length cases, bullets seated into the rifling, cases bulged by improper crimp amoung others. You really should read your reloading manual again, most of this stuff is basic.
You're confuseing me by writeing about setting OAL with a match, that's a way to see how far down the case you are sizing, so you can tell when the die just touches the shoulder. OAL is set with a caliper and case length is checked the same way. Could you be confuseing terms?

 

[Dogleg]

OK, that part's good.
You can also use the blackened case to set your sizeing die to bump the shoulder. Smoke the shoulder and neck area of a lubed case and run that into your sizing die in its present, backed off state. Withdraw the case and observe how far the die has made its way down the neck. Screw your die in a bit at a time until it just barely touches the shoulder, then set the lock ring. That will be just enough to touch the shoulder without setting it back more than needed. That will keep your chambering easy, without leading to case separation issues.

 

[jacky]

I am going to do that. good idea

OK, that part's good.
You can also use the blackened case to set your sizeing die to bump the shoulder. Smoke the shoulder and neck area of a lubed case and run that into your sizing die in its present, backed off state. Withdraw the case and observe how far the die has made its way down the neck. Screw your die in a bit at a time until it just barely touches the shoulder, then set the lock ring. That will be just enough to touch the shoulder without setting it back more than needed. That will keep your chambering easy, without leading to case separation issues.