For those of you that have custom set-ups, how much expansion do you see in your once fired brass? For example just in front of the belt, at the neck, and in overall case lenght.
Thanks in advance.

In a true "tight chamber" you don't see any expansion or lengthening after the first fire forming. Clearances in the neck are such that they accommodate the springback of the brass so that there is little effort required to seat the bullet with no sizing at all. You're talking benchrest type shooting and that's a whole lot different than most here on the board do.

If your loads are well within SAAMI maximums there is little expansion at the pressure ring or head. Any lengthening or "growing" of the brass is usually as the result of full sizing. That is subject to the marriage of the die and chamber, and the reloader, in how he sets up the die. A bit of lengthening can occur with neck sizing but that is minimal. If you full size, the brass is squeezed so that it has to go somewhere and that is to the front of the case.

I don't believe the answer to your question can be quantified as there are too many variables involved.

[ 06-03-2003, 06:34: Message edited by: Bob338 ]

Winmagman,

Some shooters go the length of using the same reamer for reaming their custom dies and rifle chamber, so you can tell it's real tight, identical even.

Like Bob said, in the benchrest chamber, the case neck hit the walls and bounce back, that's about 0.001" clearance on each side.

Thanks gentelmen. I was kind of curious as to how my Savage 112 bvss stacked up. It expanded .003 in front of the belt, .006 at the end of the neck, and .003 to .008 in overall length. I didn't know if that was tight, piece of sh__, or somewhere in between.