A friend bought a set of Rcbs dies to reload. I told him we would reload some together. He sent me home with 60+ pieces of mixed Federal, Hornady and Winchester brass. I tumbled them all and I used my Hornady cartridge headspace comparator and measured a good bunch of the brass. It's all within .001" of one another, regardless of brand. I used my universal decapping die to make sure the primer was not protruding out past the cartridge head.

Now, I don't own a 7RM. I had no idea how much the shoulder needed to be pushed back to set up the FL sizing die. I set the die to bump the shoulder back .002". I stopped at that point until I could measure a factory round.

He brings me a factory Hornady round today. A 154gr SST. I measured it tonight and it is a full .014" less than the fire formed rounds! This seems excessive. I have never had this problem with any non-belted cases in my Savages. Should I see if I can get ahold of another factory round or advise him to get the headspace checked? It's a Remington 700.

I dont know how much is normal. What would the difference be between a set of go-no go gauges be? Surely not .014"?