Thread: Playing with some Redding Competition Shell Holders

Greetings again All,
After my post on Tuesday I was back at my bench measuring the length to datum of .308 cases including new and fired cases from my rifles. Yes, yes this sounds OCD to many of you but there are jokes about OCD in our family for good reason. Next I measured the length to datum of some loads that my notes said I had FL sized in 2008. These measured around 0.1mm or 0.004 inches longer than the fired cases. I whipped the firing pin out of the M700 bolt and tried them in the rifle, chambered hard or not at all. Oh well at least this gave me some oversize cases to start with. Clearly I had not adjusted my sizing die for my new press. There is a point when partial FL sizing where the shoulder is moved forward due to the sizing of the case body and I had rediscovered it 30 years after the first time.

I fished the .308 rifles out of the gun cupboard. Sorry about the fuzzy photo, I think the light was a bit dim. A case was sized down progressively and checked in each rifle. Nothing chambered freely with the +.010 shell holder. The Bergara and M700, second and third from the front respectively, chambered freely with the +.008 shell holder. The Omark, rear, with the +.006 and the P14, front, with the +.004 shell holder.
So there you are. I am going to need a comparator plus a Redding Competition shell holder set for the .308. For the .223 I might just borrow my sons set when I need to size cases for my T3. I considered looking for some shims as @zimmer and others use but think I will go with the shell holders.
Regards Grandpamac.