308 shoulder bump.

[lead slead]

Howdy, I need some advise on reloading for my savage 308. I have some once fired win brass that I was starting to resize. I don't have a neck die yet so I was using a FL Die. I resized so the neck was totally resized and most of the body. I can put the resized case in my rifle and close the bolt. When I close it it closes harder. I don't think that is much of an issue. however when looking at the base of the case I can see where the brass has shined up. So the brass is dragging on the bolt face when it closes making it shiny. I know that if I bump the shoulder back it would take care of this. My question is if it is necessary? By having the case shoulder squished into the chamber there would be no headspace room...ie shoulder is already touching chamber walls. Would this be ok...safe...or should I bump the shoulder .002? I have not ran into this issue with my 30-06, 25-06, or 223 so I am hoping a more experienced loader can chime in to help a loader out.

Thanks

[redneckdan]

The way the sizing die works it actually bumps the shoulder forward just a touch before it makes contact and then pushes it back down. If you want more info on the mechanical causes of this read Reloading For Competition by Glen Zediker. This book goes in depth on the proper way to set up a rifle and hand loads for across the course type shooting both in semi autos and bolt guns. Long story short, you either need to full length size to get .000-.001 bump on the shoulder or use the full length die to only size 2/3rds of the neck to avoid getting to close to the case body and bumping the neck forward.

[Doc Highwall]

This is what happens when a case gets sized with a full length die. As the case is almost all the way into the die it starts to size the bottom first near the head and it causes the case shoulder to move forward increasing the case length at the shoulder, then as it goes into the die more it starts to push the shoulder back.

I use the Stony Point head-space gage now owned by Hornady to measure the fired case head-space and set the die to push the shoulder back just enough to allow the bolt to close.

[lead slead]

Thanks for the input guys. I will look into that book as well. It looks like I either need to just FL size it to bump it back .001-.002 or just resize 2/3 of neck so it doesn't pull the shoulder forward, which sounds like my issue. I really just need to get a neck die. I have heard hornady has one that will neck size and if wanted do a shoulder bump if you adjust it down further. I will have to pick one of them up or a redding. I normally just FL size...making hunting loads. I only ran into this because I started shooting at my local range more so I thought about making target type loads.
Thanks again.