This article is a part of Sinclair Int’l Step by Step Reloading series. This article is primarily sold by Brownells.com. Roy Hill, Brownells/Sinclair CopywriterMaking your own handloads for precision is a tedious process that involves many steps, important factors to consider, and multiple measurements to calculate. The rewards are more than worth the effort for those who strive to achieve the perfect group, highest score, or the longest accurate shot. The familiar and crucial steps of selecting the right cases, deburring flash holes, making primer pockets uniform, lubricating the cases and trimming them are all part of the journey. Now that you have finished your brass preparation, it is time to run the cases through your press, fill them with primers and powder, and fire your bullets. The first die that the brass will encounter is the sizing siege. You insert the case and use the lever on the press to return it to its pre-fired dimensions. The journey continues. There are three different types of sizing dummies to consider: neck, full length, and small base. You should carefully consider the type of shooting you intend to do with handloads before choosing a die. The decapper assembly, which uses a hardened rod, is used by most sizing tools to remove the spent primer. Many types of sizing dens have an expander ball in the die to ensure that the neck of the casing can accommodate a bullet once it has been sized. Some size dies have expanders that are easily removable and can be interchanged, allowing you to get the exact neck tension you desire. Rifle cases need to be lubricated when sizing (neck or full-length). Neck-Sizing Dies
Neck-sizing dies only resize the neck of the case. The advantage of sizing the neck only is that the brass will be “worked” less, reducing the amount changes to the brss. [We recommend that all brass be sized to full length after the first few firings. Semi-auto brass is sized to full length every time!] Sinclair recommends not using neck-sized cartridges in any other rifle than the one from which they were fired [unless they’re also FL-sized], nor in any other action than a bolt action. Full-Length Sizing Dies
Full-length sizing tools resize the entire length of the case and not just the neck. Full-length sizing allows handloads to be created that can be used in any rifle and not just the rifle from which they were fired. Full-length sizing may reduce case life as it uses the brass more than neck-sizing. As this article by Sinclair Reloading Tech Ron Dague demonstrates, it is possible to “tune’ today’s full length sizing dies to barely work the brass. Illustration Shows How a Full-Length Sizing Die Works
Redding’s full length bushing dies are another way to get the benefits of full length sizing. They size the entire case, but use a system with interchangeable bushings to allow you to give the neck of the case the minimum amount of resizing required. Click HERE to watch a video that shows how bushing dies can be finely adjusted and how they resize a case while still being fully supported. The neck bushing allows you to precisely control the neck tension, which will help improve the consistency and accuracy in your handloads. Small Base Dies
A Small Base Die is a full-length sizing tool that is used to reload semi-automatic weapons, such as the AR-15, M14 or AR-style rifles in.308 caliber. It may also be useful for bolt guns with a lower section that needs extra sizing. A small base die is the same as a full-length die, but it compresses brass a little bit more. It usually does so by about.001″ and may even move the case shoulder a little. Small base dies compress the brass a bit more to ensure that the case can be properly extracted from a semiautomatic firearm. You get handloads which should work perfectly in your semi-automatic. Brass used in more bolt-action rifles may have a shorter case life. Shoulder Bump gauges
The shoulder bump gauge is a handy tool to set up your full-length dies as near as possible to the rifle’s chamber. The bump gauge allows you to resize cases as little as possible in order to prolong case life and fit your handloads almost like a neck-sized die. You can use bump gauge inserts and deprimed cases to set up your die so that it only resizes about.001″ to.004″ depending on the type of rifle you are shooting. This video shows how to set up full-length dies using a shoulder bump gauge.
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