Redding and RCBS Concentricity Guages

[Savage 12BVSS]

Well this topic seems to bring out some varying opinions but here goes anyway. Back a ways in my reloading journey I heard some discussion up at the local shooters hangout about cartridge straightness of factory and of course handloaded ammo. It interested me as to what my dies (hornady at the time) were producing and if it effected accuracy at the level I was at in shooting (stock savage rifles). I bought an RCBS and started checking reloads, they weren't much better than factory ammo and were far from straight. This single factor started me on my way to much better equipment in rifles and reloading gear, I started my first rifle build and gave, yeah gave the dies to my reloading mentor to sell in his shop. You have to have a straight bore line from bolt face to chamber and a gun capable of showing you small differences in improvement.

The first really accurate gun (1/4 moa)started to open my eyes, I moved into better dies (redding and forester) started match prepping my brass, and weight sorting everything. I started to swap seaters and dies from the two brands and chamber forming and neck sizing. Runout was down to 1-3 thousands from a starting point of 2-6 thousands. The RCBS was a great tool to measure runout but no way to change it, I started using pieces of old junk barrel ends from my friends shop and used them to tweak the loaded bullets, what a pain that was, trial and error oh boy. Than I saw the first Hornady concentricity gauges hit the market, they had a thumbscrew to tweak the round while in the gauge. That seemed to be the ticket but the rubber end on the screw was quick to come off, a nylon acorn capscrew was the ticket after some flattening on the end. Now I can go thru a loaded box of 50 in about 1 hour. Easy to bring down under 1 thousands and some of my die combos are producing about half that fall under 1.

Does it make some huge difference in accuracy? No I find it can tighten a group from threes to twos, 1/2 inch to fours. Biggest difference I noticed was those stray fliers went away (unless they were me I hate fliers). Guns now have trued action faces and barrel nuts, match or trued heavy barrels, and of course bedding and floating with crisp light triggers. All this from an experiment in cartridge runout, Oh and the Hornady is a good tool that lets you do it all in one step...think I'm gonna' keep it. Dave

 

[J E Custom]

Well this topic seems to bring out some varying opinions but here goes anyway. Back a ways in my reloading journey I heard some discussion up at the local shooters hangout about cartridge straightness of factory and of course handloaded ammo. It interested me as to what my dies (hornady at the time) were producing and if it effected accuracy at the level I was at in shooting (stock savage rifles). I bought an RCBS and started checking reloads, they weren't much better than factory ammo and were far from straight. This single factor started me on my way to much better equipment in rifles and reloading gear, I started my first rifle build and gave, yeah gave the dies to my reloading mentor to sell in his shop. You have to have a straight bore line from bolt face to chamber and a gun capable of showing you small differences in improvement.

The first really accurate gun (1/4 moa)started to open my eyes, I moved into better dies (redding and forester) started match prepping my brass, and weight sorting everything. I started to swap seaters and dies from the two brands and chamber forming and neck sizing. Runout was down to 1-3 thousands from a starting point of 2-6 thousands. The RCBS was a great tool to measure runout but no way to change it, I started using pieces of old junk barrel ends from my friends shop and used them to tweak the loaded bullets, what a pain that was, trial and error oh boy. Than I saw the first Hornady concentricity gauges hit the market, they had a thumbscrew to tweak the round while in the gauge. That seemed to be the ticket but the rubber end on the screw was quick to come off, a nylon acorn capscrew was the ticket after some flattening on the end. Now I can go thru a loaded box of 50 in about 1 hour. Easy to bring down under 1 thousands and some of my die combos are producing about half that fall under 1.

Does it make some huge difference in accuracy? No I find it can tighten a group from threes to twos, 1/2 inch to fours. Biggest difference I noticed was those stray fliers went away (unless they were me I hate fliers). Guns now have trued action faces and barrel nuts, match or trued heavy barrels, and of course bedding and floating with crisp light triggers. All this from an experiment in cartridge runout, Oh and the Hornady is a good tool that lets you do it all in one step...think I'm gonna' keep it. Dave

A very good post !!!
It mirrors what I had found almost to the letter. At some point i discovered all these little things "DiD" make a difference. The amount was not as important as the fact that I could measure the difference.

I found that I could make good ammo from most bad factory ammo by simply straightening it. I bought the Hornady tool for this ability. Like you I also found that my loaded ammo was not that much better and started on a mission to improve it.

In addition,I also bought a Sinclair concentricity too for checking only, it is a great tool for precision, and discovered that after an extensive case prep the problem was in the bullet seating process. (I check all cases before they are loaded and found them to be very good) with no measurable run out.

https://www.sinclairintl.com/reload...s/sinclair-concentricity-gauge-prod37479.aspx

Don't want to hijack the thread so I will just say, All little things add up to better shooting.

J E CUSTOM

 

[Savage 12BVSS]

Not hijacking at all thanks for the post, I've found that concentricity is a subject that one thinks is a magic cure all for accuracy while another thinks it a waste of time. I'm an old ex drag racer and I learned a dozen small things can result in a bigger single result. Dave

 

[Hatrick]

I'm an old ex drag racer and I learned a dozen small things can result in a bigger single result. Dave

starting straight is faster!

 

[Mikecr]

I don't think you've learned anything