There's lots of variation between base to shoulder measurements out there. I once headspaced a Savage with a new 7mm SAUM barrel off of unfired brass using the "tried and true" scotch tape method. I had measured about 10 virgin cases base to shoulder and used the LONG one.
Well, after firing my break in rounds, I found I could not bump the shoulders back at all with my Redding dies. Why? Well the unfired factory brass was so short that I basically created a short headspace gun. I turned the barrel out a bit. Proper headspace gauges would have been better.
This is an anecdote, not attempt at a new controversy. It is fact. Factory unfired brass is often REALLY short.
Usually base to shoulder gets "fixed" in a given gun on first or second firing (not all loads finish the process on first firing, especially if starting some new load work up with new brass etc) As long as you don't resize the shoulder too far back, web separation, and excessive neck growth should not occur.
Belted magnums headspace off the belt only ONCE, if you want it that way. If you are careful and do not over re-size, keeping the shoulder only 1-2 thou under then the cartridge will headspace off of the shoulder like a regular non-belted bottle nose cartridge. There are guns with VERY generous belt cuts. They will destroy brass, if you FL resize. Think about it. If the firing pin drives a "loose: belted case forward, and then it stretches back on firing, you will get eventual separation. But in a gun with a loose belt, if you switch to headspacing off the shoulder, the location of the belt becomes moot.
Several other posters understand this as well. I just wanted to re-iterate it in different words, I guess.