Trouble getting consistent shoulder setback.

[DUSTY NOGGIN]

It's plausible that my headspace on the 300WM is relatively short for the dies, as I installed the Shilen barrel with as little I could get away with. The Shilen leaves the shoulder 0.002" - 0.006" shorter on fired brass compared to the old barrel and a couple of buddies' rifles.

it sounds like your headspace is set to minimum and you are right on the edge of being able to size enough , did you use a gauge to set your barrel ??

First, I'll try going back to the Lyman, and taking a few thousandths off the top of the shell holder.

at least it will put any variations on the shorter side of the chamber

have you had any problems with factory ammo fitting ??

 

[entoptics]

it sounds like your headspace is set to minimum and you are right on the edge of being able to size enough , did you use a gauge to set your barrel ??

have you had any problems with factory ammo fitting ??

Used a go gauge to set the headspace, then put a piece of tape on it to convert to a no-go.

No problems with factory ammo, though I've probably only fired less than 10 rounds of it. I've measured new brass, which I assume would be similar to factory loaded ammo, and the shoulders tend to be about 0.008" shorter than my fired brass.

I'll be trying the tips/tricks everyone's mentioned today on some 270 Win brass. We'll see if I can do better on it. I'll try some 300WM sometime later this week probably.

 

[DUSTY NOGGIN]

Used a go gauge to set the headspace, then put a piece of tape on it to convert to a no-go.

thatll work . was gonna offer one to you

 

[ThrdKllr]

Is the problem with your 300WM? If it is, It headspaces on the belt. My 7mmRM grows between 15 and 20 thousandths from new to fire formed to the shoulder. The belted magnums all headspace from the case head to the forward edge of the belt. It will increase brass life only bumping the shoulder back enough for easy chambering.

 

[Chuckrub]

My RCBS 338 Norma shell holders.