Shoulder bump

[Boondoggle]

I trimmed all my Lapua brass to 1.515 when new-- none of them have lengthened past 1.521 - some after 15 reloads.

All the small details are what makes loading fun.

I should have caught it when I resized the brass and had to trim it. Since the case wasn't fully in the die the sizing ball was stretching the neck on the down stroke. Fun

[Rickc]

Just my opinion. This is the way I set up a die for.a shoulder bump.

First you need a set screw style lock ring for your die. I like the Forster but that is a personal preference. The reason. Is you only want to do this once and if you lock down the ring it will always be the.same.

With an AR you want a .003 to .005 shoulder bump. With a bolt gun you want..001 to .002 shoulder bump.

You measure your fired brass with this tool.

http://ads.midwayusa.com/product/479704/hornady-lock-n-load-headspace-gauge-5-bushing-set-with-comparator?cm_vc=ProductFinding&cm_mmc=ps_google-_-google-_-GS_Tools_Jigs_Fixtures_Beta_G-_-hornady%20headspace%20gauge&gclid=CjwKEAiAs_PCBRD5nIun9cyu01kSJAA-WD-rwOyJov_XbmrKvFEJTfklSIP9q3vrwXx13xhdWolkfRoCA2jw_wcB

Now you want to set your die up to bump the shoulder back on your fired brass .003. Trial and error is the only way I know of. Back your die out one full turn and size a piece of brass. Measure the shoulder. Probably didn't do anything. Continue until you get the proper shoulder bump. Realize when you get close just a tiny movement moves the shoulder.a lot.

Lock that ring down and don't mess with it.again

[LRRPF52]

One thing to consider on your expander ball is polishing the tool marks out of it carefully by spinning it and touching it with some light abrasive paper. JB bore paste or toothpaste in a patch is another way to polish. If using a drill, don't try to polish the expander with a rag or anything large, as it will catch and pull your fingers in and round and round.

I have noticed that when I have my die set up for Hornady brass, if I switch over to Lapua, I need to make an adjustment to get the shoulder and body down. The Lapua brass doesn't like being pushed around as much, and is a very resilient alloy.

[jkingrph]

Several years ago I had similar problems when starting to reload for the Grendel. Using the Sheridan gauge all my cases seemed a bit too long, and would often get stuck in my rifle chamber requiring quite a bit of effort to get them to extract. I was using Redding dies for my reloading. My solution was to slowly remove a bit of metal from the top of my shell holder in the press so the case could enter the die a little more. I did this by working it on a piece of w/d sandpaper glued on a flat plate, going slow and retrying frequently until everything worked.