[F. Guffey]

Gunplummer,

This whole thread is about "Feel good" extra work. I remember a '17 Enfield that after resizeing the brass it had gained about an average of .020-.025 in length. That is because military chambers are different. At 100 yards it shot great with factory ammo. I did an 8x57 barrel for a guy and he wanted it built to the dies he had. He fired off half a box of the brand of brass he was using, resized and trimmed all to length. I took measurements off the brass, and will admit there is a lot of "Feel" involved when you do this. I did the chamber, we fired off the reloaded half a box of brass that was sized and trimmed, resized it and started measuring. Not one case was more than .001 longer than the original trimmed size. I doubt neck sizing is that close, and there are issues with that I won't go into here. It shot O.K. at 100 yards but not great. This Guy liked to play and tried all kinds of recipes and it never was a tack driver. A lot of the reloading advice is nonsense because the gun or barrel is not good enough to take advantage of it anyway.



I have no ideal why you are so angry, “feel good” is about helping someone, you claimed you chambered a round in an Enfield, pulled the trigger, extracted the case and then you full length sized the case, I believe that is a bad habit, I suggest you measure before chambering, again after firing and then again after full length sizing to minimum length, and if you do not know the length of the chamber from the bolt face to the shoulder of the chamber full length sizing to minimum length is another bad habit, as I have told you and told you I am the fan of cutting down on all that case travel.

“A lot of the reloading advice is nonsense because the gun or barrel is not good enough to take advantage of it anyway”

I do not agree with some advise given when every answer has a solution that includes “You need another tool” again, I am the fan of getting all the use I can out of every tool I have, my full length sizer dies are ‘versatile’ full length sizer dies, I form/size cases for short chambers, I form/size cases for long chambers with ‘versatile’ full length sizer dies. That is .012” shorter than minimum length to .014 longer than minimum length.

“It shot O.K. at 100 yards but not great” sounds just like my experience with Winchester, I wanted a chamber that fit my dies or I wanted them to make a set of dies fit their chamber, their chamber was was the ugliest chamber I have ever seen.

Again, I have a Rock Island 03 built in 1911, I have a Remington 03 built in 1942, I have rifles built after 1911 and before 1942, and I make gages, .012” shorter-.014” longer in thousandths, that is 26 gages, a reloader/shooter/collector neighbor of yours has a set, seems he was on a socially dysfunctional forum trying to get an answer about head space, at the time he had 10 plus 30/06 rifles, I contacted him, I informed him there was a smith/shooter/collector/machinist in North Carolina I was making gages for and making two sets would not require additional time and effort, so, I mailed him a set 6 years ago, I called him last last weak, his collection has moved from military to higher end type rifles, still, today, he uses the gages to check rifles before purchasing.

Point? He was having problems with a M1917 Eddystone, all the answers he got from the form were in lofty, vague and self serving terms, he called me after measuring the chamber, .016 thousands, he decided not to shoot the rifle, I explained to him the reason for sending the gages was about reloading, I explained to him by knowing the length of the chamber I could form cases that fit, he chose not to reload for that M1917, and he said he sold the rifle and made the buyer aware of the long chamber.

And I was purchasing parts, a man with a very fine rifle with an unusual chamber came in to have the head space checked, the smith informed the owner of that very fine rifle he could not check the head space on that rifle because he did not have a gage, the owner of the very fine rifle left, I informed the smith I could check the head space on that rifle with out a gage at least 2 different ways, and the smith with class leaned forward and ask “How?” He was/is a good listener, when finished he said, “I would have never thought of that and never considered it was possible”.

Unclenick should expect better from me, so I ask him to forgive me for my part.

The chamber did not change, the method for deterring the length of the chamber from the bolt face to the shoulder did, when making a comparator as in measuring before firing and after firing I make up datums, to do that is to understand what a datum is.

F. Guffey