Boyd – solid idea on solving case head sizing with odd cartridges. If I’d had that information, it would have saved me the cost of a carbide drill. Thank you.

Some time back, a friend who does his own work, and who tends to be a bit thrifty, chambered a barrel in .243 AI. His plan was to neck size with a Lee collet die, and bump with a die that he made with the chambering reamer. I told him that since he wanted top velocity, that eventually he would have to size the back ends of his cases. It happened just the way that I predicted. To save him the cost of a FL die, in an oddball caliber (more expensive) I picked up a non carbide, RCBS .45 ACP die set for $10 at a gun show. With its internals removed, the FL die became in effect a ring die, that solved his problem. Since then, others whose reamers turned out to be just a little too small for their FL dies have successfully use the same trick. It is all about how hard the case is, and the pressure level.

NOTE: This assumes that your die is a good match to your chamber. If your sizing or body die is too big at the base you could push the shoulder back .003″ and still have “sticky case” syndrome.