It is my understanding that when loading for your own bolt gun that you can neck size only and just bump the shoulder back .001 to .002. I measured my once fired Federal and Hornady with a stoney piont headspace guage. The Fed is a bit longer than the Horn. It seems the Fed stretched to fit the chamber more or better than the other. Would you bump the shoulder on the Fed only and neck size the Horn or just bump the shoulders on both the same amount. I have loaded pistol for awhile but not rifle yet.

If your bumping the shoulders, just set the dies to bump the longest ones, and it will bump them all to the same point. once the dies are set leave them set don't chsnge them from one brand of brass to the next.

I try to use just one type of brass for each rig myself, but if using both, I would set the die up to bump the longer case (the Fed for you)to fit like I wanted, and then run the other brass throught the same set up die, and fire them til you needed to bump 'em back again. There is a very knowledgeable poster here, who's AR name is Woods, and he likes 4 or 5 times fired brass for best consistency--I happen to agree with him btw, so bear in mind that your cases may get closer to each other after they have beem fired more times.

Good Luck!

quote:

I measured my once fired Federal and Hornady with a stoney piont headspace guage. The Fed is a bit longer than the Horn.

You just started learning a little understood fact of case sizind and firing; Things vary!

Fact is, brass alloys differ in how easily they stretch AND in the amount they spring back after stretching. And the alloys vary from batch to batch so there is no promise that Fed and Horn and Win brass will always be the same as you find it today, now and forever, amen. Our only way to react is to measure each batch, or lot number, and take the average, then work from that as we nedd to.

Bottom line, if your once, or three or five times fired brass chambers easily, just neck size it and go on. If not, FL size until it does, keeping the shoulder set back as small as possible to extenten case life.

There simply is no set rule that can tell you exactly what to do when for any specific results. It's all "cut and try" stuff!