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All handloading data posted on Full-Bore UK from 23/2/2021 must reference the published pressure tested data it was sourced from, posts without such verification will be removed.
Any existing data without such a reference should treated as suspect and not used.
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All handloading data posted on Full-Bore UK from 23/2/2021 must reference the published pressure tested data it was sourced from, posts without such verification will be removed.
Any existing data without such a reference should be treated as suspect and not used.
Use reloading information posted here at your own risk. This forum (http://www.full-bore.co.uk) is not responsible for any property damage or personal injury as a consequence of using reloading data posted here, the information is individual members findings and observations only. Always verify the load data and be absolutely sure your firearm can handle the load, especially older ones. If in doubt start low and work your way up.
Laurie wrote:Personally, I'd never use an S-B type die in a bolt rifle even those with match chambers including 'minimum SAAMI' types'.
Laurie,
I've always head excellent results with small-base sizing. I felt that allowing wiggle room along the entire length of the case gives the bullet a better chance of aligning itself in the throat, where there's only 1/4 of a thousandth clearance either side in typical match chambers (rather than the case potentially preventing the bullet from achieveing such good aligment). From your comment you prefer a snugger fit - why is that? Do you think Jim Hull should have chosen a bigger type of turd for his violin case?
So when you talk about 'small base' dies. Do these just size down the diameter of the case? Or do they reduce headspace as well (I'm assuming the Forster sb die only reduces the diameter).
Laurie wrote:Personally, I'd never use an S-B type die in a bolt rifle even those with match chambers including 'minimum SAAMI' types'.
Laurie,
From your comment you prefer a snugger fit - why is that?
It's what works for me (in match chambers). In fact one of my favourite sizers is another Forster die type, the Bushing-Bump model. This is a bushing neck die that also bumps the shoulder but doesn't resize the case body. I have this type for 284 Win (a modified 6.5-284 B-B die as Forster didn't make it for the 284), 223 Rem and when I last shot F/TR competitively, 308 Win. If I had a quid for every time people said to me: "You wait and see, you'll have chambering / extraction problems and precision will suffer through an over-tight case body fit", I'd be less indigent than I currently am. I run 'hot' but not ridiculously so loads (223 aside when I shot this cartridge in national and international F/TR) and I wear a barrel out before having to FL resize the brass. My 284 Lapua cases are up on the 8th and 9th firings now with only shoulders bumped throughout, chambering / extracting really sweetly with index finger pressure alone on a Barnard P action. The 223 Lapuas (90gn VLD @ 2,910 fps from a 31-inch barrel) would be FL sized and transferred to my other 223 F/TR rifle after three or four firings and loaded rather less heavily but again B-B only sized. They'd eventually be retired due to case-head expansion / slack primer pockets still chambering / extracting easily.
This will only work well (I surmise) in a really good chamber 100% aligned to the bore. For factory rifles, I've always reckoned FL sizing is better to cope with non-concentricities / marginally out of round chambers etc. (Having said that, some makes now probably have as good chambers as match rifles of not so many years ago.) Another help is that in many makes of bushing die, a shallow larger diameter ring just under neck diameter sits below the sized section and will centre the front of the case well (if needed which I'm not convinced about with a 'neat' case-body fit).