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Reloading rifle cartridges?
I wanted to get started with reloading my own rifle cartridges. I was talking with Customer Service at Lee Precision and was told all of the things I will be needing. One of them was a gauge holder for a .223 Remington. What exactly is a guage holder? Does it just hold the cartridge in place on the press? Also, what does a chamfer tool and pacesetter dies do in the reloading process? Thanks for all the help.
I'm not familiar with Lee's products, but I'd have to assume by "gauge holder" they do indeed mean the shell holder that snaps into the ram on your press...this holds the shell in place and extracts it from the die on the upstroke.
Chamfer and deburring tool (usually all in one), preps the mouth of the case. Chamferring cuts a slight angle into the inside of the case mouth to allow the bullet to seat into the case without damage. Deburring is the process of removing burrs from the outside of the case mouth. A couple quick turns with each on the case mouth and you're in business.
Again not being familiar with Lee, I'd have to assume "Pace Setter" is their brand name for their dies. For bottleneck rifle cartridges there are two dies - the first resizes the case by essentially "squeezing" it back down to its pre-firing external dimensions. The case mouth is also squeezed back down so a bullet can be seated firmly. Depriming is also usually accomplished with this step. Resizing also usually causes cases to grow, so after resizing, measuring case length with a caliper is a must. The second die in a two-die rifle set is to seat the bullet...an adjustable "plunger" in the die allows you to seat the bullet to a certain depth (resulting in the proper cartidge overall length or COL) and lock it in place. I never crimped my rifle cartridges, but I believe rifle dies are the same as pistol in that by lowering the die you can crimp the case into a bullet with a cannelure with this step as well.
The bullet seating die is never set up from the factory, so the best thing to do after you lock the die in the press (following the instructions, which usually say put an empty case in the ram, raise it, and screw the die down until it contacts the case mouth, then lower the ram and lock the die in place) is raise the plunger as high as you can and work your way down, measuring the COL as you go along until the bullet is seated to the right depth.
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