Headspacing Trouble

[David S]

Hi Hiders,

Okay, I'm at my wits' end here. I just got a new 260 Ackley build along with a custom Redding competition die set for it, and for the life of me I cannot figure out a way to bump back the shoulders on my fireformed cases. I have the Redding competition shell holders, which worked great with my 308, but they just don't do anything when I'm trying to bump the Ackleys. No matter how far down I push the resizing die and no matter which shell holder I use, I never seem to get die-to-cartridge shoulder contact, so they always come out with the exact same headspace with which they went in. Surely I'm making some kind of basic, rookie mistake with all this, but I can't see what it is.

Have the knowledgeable fellows in here got any advice?

Yours,

David

 

[HarryCallahan]

Sounds like your chamber is shorter than the minimum headspace that your dies will size to. You can take a standard shell holder and grind/machine down the die contact surface until you get shoulder contact or you can shorten your sizing die slightly. I would go with the shell holder first because it's cheaper.

 

[David S]

Hi Harry,

That certainly sounds plausible. Thanks for the advice--I'll try it out on one of the shell holders.

Yours,

David