Resizing dies are made to make handloads fit in the very smallest chamber designed for a particular cartridge. This means hand loaded rounds will always be smaller than your rifle’s chamber. What’s more, rifle chambers are usually sized to accommodate the largest factory loads produced by commercial ammunition manufacturers. Machinists call this “acceptable tolerances”. Loose-fitting cartridges can have a detrimental effect on accuracy. They also allow extra stretching and expansion when the cartridge is fired, potentially reducing case life.
You may wish to take a look at the new Digital Headspace Gauge from Larry Willis at Innovative Technologies. It does the job of several different reloading tools, and it’s incredibly easy to operate.
Willis has found that most shooters need to keep a much closer eye on their chamber clearance (at the shoulder). This clearance should be kept to a minimum, like -.002″ or less. This requires going beyond the instructions that come with reloading dies. He designed the Digital Headspace Gauge to show how YOUR hand loads fit in YOUR particular chamber. It displays this information after comparing one of your resized cases to one of your fired cases. This allows you to adjust your die height to make your hand loads fit perfectly – without guessing about chamber clearance.
This gauge can also measure the bullet “jump” to your rifling, and it works on ALL different calibers without needing expensive bushings or special adapters.
If you are interested in learning more about Innovative Technologies Digital Headspace Gauge, visit http://www.larrywillis.com.
