Runout expectations

Hi all
Just been playing with my Sinclair runout gauge and got some interesting results from both factory and reloads. Factory 30-06 ammo from Winchester about 5 thou, Federal 3-4 thou, and my full length re-sized 2-3 thou. I then looked at just the necks of the sized cases and they weren’t any better. My 243 and 284 have runout of about 1 thou and shoot well, but this 30-06 is a shocker. Keen to know what you guys are getting with your reloads and how much tolerance is there before the excessive runout affects accuracy? My 243 is Redding dies, and the 284 is Lee collet dies, I have Lee FL and collet for the 30-06. Look forward to hearing your learned views.

Regards
Ruger

For longer range shooting, 3thou or less and I’m happy, for my normal deer hunting ranges I don’t care. Concentricity = Sleepless nights :D

The Sinclair gauge is VERY susceptible to variation due to pressure differences when you roll the case on the bearings.

Make sure you are getting consistent, repeatable results.

Out of interest, are you sharing the same shell holder for 243 and 30-06 ? And what lock-rings are you using on all your dies ?

Hi EBF
Yes the shell holder is the same, the 243 and 284 have a proper lock ring with a screw, the 30-06 is still the Lee lock ring which I don’t like as I have to reset most loading episodes. I do try and use the same slow gentle rolling action with the runout gauge. Thanks for your thoughts, I might try another lock ring.

Cheers
Ruger

One of the causes of concentricity issues is lockring where the grub screw engages the die thread. It can cause the die to be cocked slightly.

The forster cross-bolt lock rings are good to prevent this. The rubber o-ring on the Lee dies is supposed to mitigate this as well, but you do not get a positive stop.

The 21st Century concentricity gauge uses a large rubber lined wheel to spin the case. When I get a gap from 1000 other projects, I want to see if I can modify my Sinclair gauge to use something similar.

I reckon runout is the least important factor tbh. I only turn my necks to get better consistency in neck tension. That is really only seen once you shoot a cold string across a very good chrony.

I recently tested the a redding die with its std locking rings, and then again using Lee rubber seal rings. Both rings saw 0 to .002" runout across 10 cases each. No difference.