Quote Originally Posted by 82boy
If your neck is truly .253, and you loaded round is at .252 you will have problems with strange fliers, that is not enough clearance between the brass, and the chamber. For a loaded round of .252 I would size with a 250 bushing. The .249 bushing would also be fine, would not go smaller than that. Do you have a consintricity gauge? The main thing is to see if your consintricity is off.
No matter what size the of the neck size bushing I use, after the bullet is pressed in, it will always go back to .252 because the bullet is .224 and the thickest part of the neck wall thickness is .014. The size of the neck bushing only controls the amount of tension that holds the bullet. The only way to increase clearance between the brass neck and chamber is to turn the necks to decrease the thickness or send my new barrel back to Shilen.

So the question here is, do I really need more than .001 clearance? But this is getting away from my original O.P.

No, I do not have a concentricity gauge. I just roll the cartridge across a flat surface and do a visual inspection.

On your groups size a .201 5 shot 100 yard group would be a good group. The main thing is not to try to get small groups but get an average group size. For a Savage I would say a average .350 ish average groups size would be about ideal.
I agree, .201 is very good and acceptable. I believe the new Shilen barrel is can achieve one hole groups.

You may have other factors going one preventing your groups from being small. To start have you just tried one bullet, or other bullets? Have you tried seating depth, and different powders, and charge rates? Do you have a good solid rest, and rear bag? Are you using wind flags?
Yes. All the above and different primers. My average for the 75 grain Berger VLD is .121. I'm working now with the 80 grain Berger VLD.