The headspace is the area mid point on the shoulder to the back of the case.

Yes and it would be much greater than .0015?

Yes and it would be much greater than .0015?

Sorry for the confusion.  What I mean is the difference between fired and sized.  Here are some photos of what I mean.  Sorry, trying to explain through type written word is difficult.  My practical written English skills are a product of a Hawaii education. LOL  JKJK


This is a pic of the fired brass.  I have zeroed out the measuring device.  This would be a case fire formed to my particular chamber.




This is the Redding competition die set.  This shell holder will dead on size the shell because it mates hard up against the Redding Body Die.



Notice the shell holder up against the sizing die.




Notice the lube is ONLY on the body of the case.  Too much lube or any lube on the shoulder and neck will cause variations in the amount of shoulder bump.




Here is the end result.  This particular case has a 'shoulder bump'(ed) back -.0005"  The rifle I am running has a match chamber and a single shot three lug action, so this minimal amount of bump is sufficient.  Like I had said earlier, it (in a factory chamber and especially if you wanted to mag feed) will be better to bump the shoulder ~.0015 maybe .002", that way if the load is a little on the warm side, the bolt will not feel like it is hard to open, after firing the round.  With the Competition Shell holders all I would have to do is use the next size down (.006") to get an vurtually dead on -.002" bump.

Mahalo Heavies for the detailed (pictured) explanation!   

A picture is truly worth a 1000 words.  I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to take the pics so more easy for me to get um!

Yes no problem. 

On the note of accuracy, I believe, IMHO, the key to accurate ammo is a combination of consistent neck tension and uniform bullet seating depth.  These two things gets everything started. 

Find the powder charge that the rifle likes, then fine tune the load with minute changes in seating depth.

Keep good notes with relevant information handy.  Good and bad results.  If you make changes, change only one thing at a time.  This will help you when changing components such as different bullets, primers, brass manufacture.  You can extrapolate data and not have to start over from way low and burn a lot of components working up to where you want to be.

Try to keep everything as uniform as you can.  If everything that is under your control is the same, then the end result will be as uniform as you can make it.

Mahalo Heavies for the detailed (pictured) explanation!   

A picture is truly worth a 1000 words.  I sincerely appreciate you taking the time to take the pics so more easy for me to get um!

+1000 for the information Heavies! I have learned a lot from you. I too appreciate the time and effort you put into your posts here.

Mahalo!

Wirecounter,
Let us know how it all works out.  When you get the load worked out then you should come shoot out at Puuloa as well. F-class will give the load a proper test.

On the note of accuracy, I believe, IMHO, the key to accurate ammo is a combination of consistent neck tension and uniform bullet seating depth.  These two things gets everything started.

Heavies, do you think a Lee Factory Crimp die would help with consistent neck tension? Also, how consistent does the bullet seating depth need to be? When I put it through my Redding Comp seating die in the Lee press, some of the seating depths are off by up to .005". How bad is that?

Hnl.fly boy, are you determining your seating depth by measuring your oal?  Or are you using a comparator and measuring off that reference point?

I'm doing everything the same, so shouldn't they all end up as the same OAL?

I don't have time to measure everything.  So what I do is make all the rounds then measure them...group them and the ones out of spec (only slightly) I use for practice rounds.  When I had no life I was anal about it.

But once you set up everything it should all be close.  I do weigh and group my cases and bullets before hand.

Heavies, do you think a Lee Factory Crimp die would help with consistent neck tension? Also, how consistent does the bullet seating depth need to be? When I put it through my Redding Comp seating die in the Lee press, some of the seating depths are off by up to .005". How bad is that?

I like the Lee Factory Crimp die, and I believe that is does help, especially in rounds that go through semi-autos.  For OAL, dmas means to ask are you measuring from the base to the tip of the bullet or from the base to the ogive (the point where the bullets curve becomes the bearing surface)?  If you are measuring to the top of the bullet they will measure all over the place because the tips are very erratic.  Even when measuring to the ogive some brands may be .005" off.  Like SpeedTek recommended group the likes together.  On bullets like the Sierra Match Kings, the bullet is more forgiving on seat depth and some off spec hear and there may not matter, however  If it is way out of spec a flier may result. All this depends on the goal of the shooter.  One hole five shot groups need a lot of attention.  MOA not so much.

Wirecounter,
Let us know how it all works out.  When you get the load worked out then you should come shoot out at Puuloa as well. F-class will give the load a proper test.

Heavies,

Mahalo!  It may be a while as I have not been able to go to the range in almost 2 months.

Most of the items I ordered has come in with the realization that I need to order more, LOL.  Although, what remains is relatively inexpensive (Lee universal decapper, Lee trimmer for 308, and Lee chamfer & deburring tool).