I built a 7mm Rem SAUM off my Savage action, using a Shilen barrel. I did not have go/no-go gauges, but did have 200 rds of Remington unfired brass. The unfired headspace of the brass was very consistent, as measured with my Hornady Lock-n-Load headspace measure.

I headspaced the gun using the unfired brass, with one layer of scotch tape for a "go" gauge, and 2 layers for no-go.

I sorted the brass by weight and have been resizing it before the first firing. Weight based lots. The resizing consisted of neck sizing, it seems, as I was not able to push the virgin brass shoulder back any.

Now, after firing, I measured the headspace of the fired brass. Its at most a couple thou over the unfired brass.

When I try and full length resize and back the shoulder back a couple of thousands, I cannot. The resizing die hits the case holder of my Forster Coaxial press before the case is sized back any.

When I chamber the resized rounds (essentially neck sized), they chamber, but with a little resistance. Not bad, but its a hunting gun.

So.....

I assume I have set the headspace very tight on my build. This seems to result in my inability to resize fired brass back to a small enough case to allow for easy chambering. Of course, in an autoloader, one would purchase small base dies....

But I am thinking I should actually screw the barrel out a couple thousands to increase the headspace a tad. That would allow my fired brass to chamber fine, and next loading, I will be able to use the standard dies to push the shoulder back a couple thou.

Is that logic good?

Please don't lecture on getting go/no-go.

How much of a turn of the barrel should I aim for to move the headspace out .005"???

Thanks in advance....