Concentricity-- who is measuring/adjusting it?

Tulsa Reiner said:
Is anyone measuring concentricity (alignment of the bullet axis with the case axis), and adjusting it? Or is it unnecessary with top quality bullet seating dies?
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Measuring runout is really the only way to know if you are loading good ammo.

My procedure it to fire form turned cases and first check them to verify that they don't have any run out. Then check them in the beginning as I load them. If they appear to be within .000 to .001 I continue to load and will check them when finished.

By checking them before loading, I can make changes in the loading procedure to improve there concentricity.

I have found that straightening them helps to save the worst ones but once you straighten them they wont shoot as well as if they were loaded with little or no runout. To make some factory ammo shoot reasonably well I will straighten them as well as I can.

It is best to load them concentric and straighten only the ones that are more than .002 out of concentricity.

Accurate rifles need accurate ammo to perform, and both need accurate shooters.

J E CUSTOM
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I will check runout with bullets prepared for LRH and competition. Generally, I'll find one or two per 50 rounds that exceed my .002' spec. ill use them for foulers or short range zero check. On occasion, I have adjusted those out of spec with the Hornady run-out guage and found them to meet accuracy and ES specs.
 
I tried the Hornaday runout tool, and was truly anal about the results.
It made ZERO difference in my 600 yard groups.
I took the dial indicator off and put it on a neck turner. I don't worry about concentricity anymore; I worry more about uniform neck tension. Seems to pay off better. (But I have the hydraulic Century 21 arbor press with gauge; like I said, anal...)
 
A few years back I purchased a run-out gauge and found my #'s were avg .005 on a loaded round. Done some reading and after using the gauge to determine where the run-out was coming from and a few other tricks like case rotation etc I was able to get it down to avg .0035-.004. What really cut my run-out was using a Redding body to size my case body and set shoulder bump, a Lee collet die to size the neck and set intereference fit and a Forster benchrest seating die to seat the bullet. Now my run-out rarely exceeds .002 and 90% of my loader rounds are between .000 and .0015. As others have posted I don't use my run-out tool much anymore other than to do a random check now and then. JME
 
I check mine here and there, sometimes I just feel like ......crap what the ****, I'm using forester dies and a forester Co-Ax press even. I still have some come out with .001"-.006". Out of 50rds probably half are <.003"-.004. I'm anal on getting this just right but sometimes I'm like, screw it, tired of dicking with it lol.

In my Valkyrie I have been practicing with this for a long time with it, I got a Redding type-s bushing die and I was worse. So I played around and researched the subject and what I found out is I need to size with the forester die first and because it's neck turned brass it won't size far enough down, I have to come back and put the bushing that I want and then size it down where I want and then set neck tension with a Kenny Porter pin gage die. What I found was that I was sizing too much in one go around and it really screwed things up.

I have a feeling I'll have to do similar stuff with my 6.5prc too, shooting virgin brass, it may not be straight to begin with.

I really like Cape Cove's way....only thing is I'll have to get Lee to custom make the dies.
 
IHFarmer07 said:
I really like Cape Cove's way....only thing is I'll have to get Lee to custom make the dies.
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Just hit this myself, gotta send them brass and bullets and they custom make them and make you buy a two die set and pay shipping both ways. Don't want to seem cheap but maybe I am, I couldn't see $100. with tax and shipping for a pair of dies when all I wanted was a neck collet die that sells for about $20. at natchez. I was lucky the other 3 calibers I needed was available so got them. I believe sinclair expander die with mandrel will do the same job for 1/2 the cost. We'll see, got the idea for lee collet's from Cape Cove on another thread. Dave
 
Savage 12BVSS said:
Just hit this myself, gotta send them brass and bullets and they custom make them and make you buy a two die set and pay shipping both ways. Don't want to seem cheap but maybe I am, I couldn't see $100. with tax and shipping for a pair of dies when all I wanted was a neck collet die that sells for about $20. at natchez. I was lucky the other 3 calibers I needed was available so got them. I believe sinclair expander die with mandrel will do the same job for 1/2 the cost. We'll see, got the idea for lee collet's from Cape Cove on another thread. Dave
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I emailed them and they quoted like $70 or something for just the collet die.
 
How are some of you straightening the ammo.....hole in a piece of wood, steel? Seen where someone used a piece of aluminum here in this thread. Your just straightening on the neck and not touching the bullet right?
 
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