I am interesting in your views on resizing cases like the .243 win or the .243 Ackley Improved. For best accuracy, do you full length size cases or just neck size? If you do full length resize, how much do you set the shoulder back?

Hello Chris,

The type of resizing you do is usually directly dependent on the type of action you have. In general, autoloaders, lever actions and pumps are full length resized so they will reliably function through the action.

Bolt actions can benefit from neck sizing only because after the brass is fired, it forms itself to the exact chamber demensions of that particular rifle. Neck sizing distorts the brass only slightly and therefore one can reload them more times. Usually, depending on the rifle, one needs to full length resize these form fitted neck sized rounds every 3 to 6 shots because they start to stick in the chamber. Hunting rounds,even from a bolt gun, should be full length resized for reliability.

There is also what is called partial-full length resizing. This sizes the neck and "bumps" the shoulder back while somewhat sizing the body of the case. You should look to "bump" the shoulder back from 2-4 / 1000ths. An RCBS mic guage is good for exact measurements but you can do get real close by extending the ram of your press all the way and screwing down your full length resizer til it makes contact with your shell. Then screw in the die 1/8 turn and lock it down.

If I made any mistakes or omissions I'm sure
any following posts will correct or amend my post. There are a lot of smart guys at this site and many varied opinions. Don G, Mats, Bigbores, Dutch, Alex, Ray Atkinson, and many others have helped me tremendously.

Hope I helped answer your question and welcome.

thanks for the comments...I use a Stoney Point headspace guage most of the time to check shoulder set back...I should have mentioned that all of my actions are 700 Rem.