Bumping shoulders

[Cooter]

Have you thought of making a custom die for your chamber?

I made a custom die from a well used Lee FL die that was otherwise not being used.
I polished the expander ball and inner die body (I must have read about doing it somewhere else), and it bumps the shoulders without resizing too much of the case body, or overworking the case neck.
I only use neck turned cases now, so I thought it was worth the effort, and it cost me nothing but my time.

 

[ChesterP]

I FL size everything these days using either Redding or Lee dies. These get stripped and cleaned (how many bother I wonder?) between every batch of about 100 sizings.

I set them up by first de-capping a spent round and using a comparator to check the fire formed shoulder base to shoulder distance as measured from the base to the point on the shoulder where the comparator contacts the case.

This I set as my "zero clearance" distance to the chamber, Ignoring the "turn in a 1/4 turn or more" from the sizer manuals, I start with the die just kissing the shell holder, lube one case up (not forgetting to lube the inside of the neck to prevent dragging and inconsistencies) and aim for that as a maximum after sizing and that minus 1.5 thou as a minimum.

I test the maximum ones in the chamber after first removing the firing pin. You can usually just feel a little resistance as the bolt closes home, and the bolt cycles nice a freely but still with a hint of resistance with the 1.5 to 2 thou shoulder bumped cases (there always seems to be a slight inconsistency between the cases).

Every chamber is diffierent and just because the manual says "1/4 turn" you may find that's too much. For my .308 Lee dies it results in about minus 1 thou but a little more, perhaps 3 thou for my .223 Lee dies, so they get turned back out an 1/8th turn.

The golden rule is don't bump back beyond 3 thou as especially on multiple fired cases which start thinning at the waist, incipient case-head separation can occur if you are unlucky.

I anneal every other firing.

 

[Muir]

I bumped shoulders with a woman at Walmart last week whilst squeezing past a jam up at the canned goods section. Does that count??

Seriously, as Chester said above. I don't remove my firing pin but when the bolt just closes freely (little if any resistance) on a sized case, I set the dies. No measuring. No fretting. Done.~Muir
(Auto loaders are the exception: Small Based die firmly to the shell holder)