Per March 2004 Precision Shooting , Dick Wright writes....





"As the sport of benchrest shooting has matured, many of its competitors, the writer included, have taken to full-length resizing their brass after every shot. Nowdays we are using higher pressure loads and have found that cases which are neck-sized only will expand and refuse to chamber after a very few firings. Since the modern brass does "work harden" after a few shots, full-length resizing after every shot has become a common and necessary practice. Work hardened brass is very springy and can be difficult to re-size...."



"Therefore, most shooters now use full-length dies which use replaceable bushings..."



Has bushing-based full-length sizing dies replaced the debate concerning neck-sizing only ?



Hammer

Bushing dies are now s.o.p. for benchrest, with or without a f.l. sizer die body to go with them. Since they can be had, if you look hard enuff, as dies that do not touch the body (just use the ring), dies that f.l. size (and use the ring, too), and variations of custome dies that size the whole case, but only very slightly.

You can buy custom made dies that will only bump your shoulder back 0.001-0.0015" and not touch the sides or base. You can buy a die that sizes the shoulder and the base of the sides only 0.001-0.0015". The idea here is since they shoot such hot loads to reach an accuracy sweet spot, they only want to size the case barely enuff to get it to feed reliably, but still retain the inherent alignment of a non-sized case. Hope that helps.

Geo.



Thanks for your reply.



What does this say to those of us who use conventional rifles for varmint shooting, big game hunting, etc. ?



Should we use bushing based dies, like Redding ?



Hammer

Geo.



Are you next going to tell me that benchrest shooters no longer reload using plastic mallets to drive their cases into their sizing dies and arbor presses to seat bullets ?



And they don't clean between each relay with Hoppes ?



And then you'll say that sleeved Remingtons don't dominate.



(Sorry, it's been 25+ years since being at a registered benchrest match.)



Hammer

Geo.

Are you next going to say that, not only does the 222 Remington not dominate, but that the ruling cartridge doesn't even have the 222 headsize ?

Hammer