Article: Sizing Die Setup and Shoulder Bump

[J.Baker]

You can view the page at http://www.savageshooters.com/content.php?476-Sizing-Die-Setup-and-Shoulder-Bump

[Robinhood]

Nice Article Jim.

[mike21]

Agree with Robinhood, excellent article. The Sinclair comparator is on my shopping list. Never felt real warm and fuzzy with the lock n load thing of three parts stuck together for measurements (KISS). Thanks for your efforts, well done.

[J.Baker]

Thanks. The Sinclair Comparator is basically a 1" hex nut, but on the one I have it's not exactly 1" on all three measurements. One's dead nuts 1", ones 0.997", and the other is 0.998" IIRC. Mainly it's designed for measuring/checking ogive consistency on bullets.

[imartin]

Jim,

Nice article. To add my .02, I use Redding Comp Shell Holder sets. For those who aren't familiar, the sets include shell holders of different thickness (.010 - .002 IRCC). You start with the thickest shell holder, run the brass through your sizer to see if you are getting .002 bump. With my 25-06 for example, the .010 and .008 shell holders don't bump the shoulder back at all, but the .006 provides the .002 of bump I'm looking for. Either way it involves some trial and error along with measurements to see what's giving you the results you want. In this case, you aren't moving your sizing die up and down, but rather the brass via the thicker or thinner shell holder. For me, it gives me the confidence that my die is tightened down in the press without any play to keep concentricity issues to a minimum. At least in my head, that's what gives me confidence and has worked for me. Always happy to learn about different ways of doing things. Thanks again for the good info.

Isaac

[J.Baker]

I have one of those Redding sets for .222/.223 sized cases - only because I got a set of .222 Rem dies that were something like 0.135" short. Given what a set costs I'm not about to buy one for every size shellholder I use. Both my presses are turret presses so once the dies are set they stay put and I just change out turret wheels when changing calibers.