Greetings,
I have a Savage rifle that I had re-barreled and chambered for a 280AI (40 deg shoulder). I have bought Hornady reloading dies and I am in search of a case gage so I can make sure when resize brass the shoulder is the correct height. I've tried Wilson, Pacific, Redding.
Any help on this?
And I am not interested in just neck sizing the brass.
Thanks.

You are pre supposing the case gauge will be the same as your chamber. Are you going to fire form 280 brass or by 280 AI brass from Nosler? Are you going to make cases from 30-06 brass? Case gauges and AI cartridges don't go well together especially the 280 AI as there are two versions of it out there. One closely matches the 280 Remington where you can close the bolt on a regular 280 case and feel some resistance, the other not so much and it is easier to make cases from 30-06 brass. Then there are many 280AI chambers cut a bit deep that require either necking up 280 cases to 30 caliber and necking them back down leaving a bit of unsized neck to headspace the case on or just using 30-06 brass and doing the same thing with your 280AI dies. Hopefully your gunsmith headspaced your rifle to have some resistance when the bolt is closed on a 280 case. This is easily accomplished with the savage lock ring system.

Does Hornady custom make those gauges they sell?
Isn't it all relative anyway? Wouldn't any case gauge that hits the shoulder work?

The best gage is your rifle.

Your rifle will tell you when the shoulder has moved forward enough to need pushing back. Close the bolt on an empty chamber and get a feel for how much pressure that takes, then close the bolt on a fired case and see if that pressure increases.

You want a slight "crush fit". Set your die to give you that.

A Hornady headspace gage will give you relative numbers

http://www.midwayusa.com/produ...cm_vc=ProductFinding

take a measurement on a fired case without the crush fit (first 2 or 3 firings if you neck size)



and take one on a fired case that has a slight crush fit



makes it easy to set your headspace for .001" to .002"

THE MEASUREMENTS ARE RELATIVE TO EACH OTHER AND NOT A SAAMI STANDARD. IOW the measurements reflect the dimensions of your chamber

My thanks to all of you.
Woods sent a link for a Hornady headspace gage that looks like a near perfect solution.
Hornady's dies and Nosler brass (which I will use) are both the 40 deg shoulder.

You can use Nosler 280AI brass as long as you don't have an older rifle or your 280AI headspace is not set for the older dimensions



The Nosler 280AI brass (not the Nosler 280 rem brass) has a shorter headspace measurement and if your rifle is the standard or traditional 280AI chamber dimensions, firing the Nosler 280AI brass will cause flattened primers and possible problems

I can't imagine why Nosler did that.

Yeah, pretty chickenchitt

Nosler is a lot like Remington, think they know what is best for us. Remington was shortening headspace in their custom shop so Nosler collaborated with them for the dimensions to submit to SAAMI with little regard for 40 years of history.

Proprietary may be an apt adjective for their thinking

Still no problem if you use the 280 Remington caliber brass for fireforming which will work in either chambering. IMO so much changes between new and fire formed brass that one should fire form brass for serious loading anyway

If you like the weight sorted no prep brass Nosler makes, then they make the 280 Remington caliber brass anyway

My 280 AI runs on 30-06 brass only, it was originally chambered a bit deep and now I can use brass from many manufacturers, don't have to order 280 brass.

I have never seen the need for a case gage since all chamber vari to some degree, the chamber itself is the only case gage I would use..on ocassion I make chamber casts, mostly because it was fun in the beginning!

I would opt for a light crush fit backed off just a tad to enhance fast feeding.