Partial Resizing advice.

[Obadiah]

Any benefit with partial resizing for .223 Wylde chamber AR platform? Brass has been fired, sized and trimmed and fired again. Note, using RCBS small base dies.

[versifier]

Welcome to The Guide.

Why are you using small base dies? Were you having any feeding issues using regular FL sizing? If you were having no feeding issues, then you do not need SB dies nor will you have to put up with the much shorter case life from overworking your brass down smaller than necessary each time you load them. IME very few semiautos with factory chambers need them, even those with "custom" chambers like the Wylde.
Partial FL sizing is generally used only when loading for bolts and single shots when neck sizing is not enough, and it is done with regular FL sizers. How far the case is run into the die varies among those who do it, some using just enough to get the minimum of neck tension to grip the bullet. A lot of shooters swear by the method, but in all honesty I remain unconvinced after giving it a fair trial in several rifles of different chamberings. My problem with the method is that minimal neck tension sometimes really hurts accuracy. I think that if the rifle can feed necksized cases, that is the best, but if not, a regular FL sizer that is properly adjusted to the rifle does the job nicely with equal effort to PFL since you have to lube the cases anyway.

[Obadiah]

Thank you for your detailed response Versifier. To answer your question, I have experienced zero feeding malfunctions. When I first started loading .223 I read that a SB die should be used for semiautos and I just stayed with it. Loading .223 for 2 ARs, 2 Mini-14s and a 1st generation TC, I feel that the TC is the only rifle that requires the SB. I believe you may have answered my latent question in that I should acquire a regular FL die.

[runfiverun]

i use a regular die in my semi auto's and they do fine [feed and fire every time]
i hate to overwork brass any more than necessary.
even if it only means one more firing from the brass,and i have 1,000-3,000 pieces of brass...
the auto's are hard enough on brass anyway's and overworking it more than necessary could lead to problems like case separations or worse having a bullet come out of the case and jam the rifle or block the bbl.
it can also lead to needing to trim and if missed then higher or over pressures can result.

[versifier]

To be honest, I have met more lever actions that have needed SB dies than I have semiautos. I am thinking in particular of a pair of Sav99's chambered for .300Sav. If you really want to choke, look up what that custom SB die costs. Both owners decided to simply use factory ammo. An acquaintance owns a rebarreled M1A with a match chamber, and that rifle just won't feed without SB sizing. I have met several others, but all of them have custom match chambers.

I have never run into any AR (I'm sure there are some out there) that needed them. Mil chambers tend to be a bit oversized, and that is the fly in the ointment. If the chamber is like that, then the brass expands even more, and then SB sizing it way down works the brass twice as much, needs trimming more often, and sometimes annealing to keep it from splitting. Semiautos are hard enough on brass as it is without adding insult to injury.

There are quite a few commonly held beliefs in shooting and loading that when you actually test them yourself it becomes clear they are nothing more than a load of fertilizer. By far, the big three are:
"All semiautos need SB dies"
"All mil rifles need special thicker mil primers so they won't slam fire"
and "You can't shoot cast in a Marlin MicroGroove barrel"
All three have been written about, quoted, and requoted ad infinitum until they have become "common knowledge". None of them are true.

"History repeats itself; historians repeat each other." Gun writers are very like historians, being largely historians themselves (when they aren't giving new, largely useless, and mostly unnecessary products free advertising just to earn a buck). As a writer myself, I will not repeat others' untested opinions. That is probably why I sell so few gun related articles. :razz: When I write fiction, that's what I call it. It is also why at least 75% of published "info" in the gun rags is only fit to line bird cages. When "everybody knows" something, that's the best time to do some experimenting yourself to find out what the real truth is, not to mention the real fun, too. ;)

[Paul B]

"History repeats itself; historians repeat each other." Gun writers are very like historians, being largely historians themselves (when they aren't giving new, largely useless, and mostly unnecessary products free advertising just to earn a buck)."

You don't just how true that is. How many times have you read or heard that a 30-06 with a 1 in 12" twist WILL NOT stabilize 220 gr. bullets? How many times have you heard that bullets heavier than 180 gr. are totally useless in the .308 Win.?
Both statements are totally FALSE! I can say this because I've tried it and have proven to myself that the statements are false.
Rifle #1 is an FN Mauser in 30-06 with a custom Douglas 1 in 12" barrel. I shoot a lot of cast lead bullets so went with the slower twist. One day, after reasing that 220's wouldn't work I decided to find out for myself. They worked.
A while back a well known "egsprt" wrote in a gun rag that 220 gr. bullets in a 1 in 12"/30-06 wouldn't work BS and I wrote and politely called him on it. I even sent targets shot with the rifle and load and invited him to stop by if he was in the area and check out me loading the bullets in question, measure the twist of the barrel and we'll hit the 200 yard line at my club's range. He decline and about months later called me a liar in print. Needless to say, anything he writes now I consider fiction. Sad thing is he was gonna be in the general area bird hunting.
On the .308, again curiosity got the better of me so I did a little digging as data for 200 and 220 gr. bullets is about as scarce as hen's teeth. I found some in an earlier copy of one of those ONE BOOK/ONE CALIBER books for the .308. It showed W760 as reaching 2295 FPS with W760 so I used the starting load and worked up to the max in a Winchester M70 with
22" barrel and (GASP!) a 1 in 12" twist. Recipe for disaster right? Wrong! At the max load I got 2310 FPS and .375 to .50" groups. Oh my! Another oft repeated legend down the crapper.
I posted that info on a couple of sites and got flamed so badly that it was unbeliveable. FWIW, a 220 gr. bullet at 2310 FPS is only 90 FPS slower than a 30-06 shooting the same bullet at the advertised speed of 2400 FPS. That is if it actually does 2400 FPS. I recently chronographed some 180 gr. Winchester 30-06 ammo and it only did 2610 FPS. GUn writer John Barsness (Mule Deer on 24 Hour Campfire) did virtually the same and put it in print. He got 2610 FPS from some factory 180 gr. load, brand name not mentioned naturally. That's almost exactly the same velocity my 22" .308 gives with 180 gr. factory ammo.

I apologize for getting so far OT. The following is just a suggestion on how I would set up my dies. You might have to tweak them a tad for a semi-auto but it works just fine in my bolt actions, single shots and a lever action Browning 1895 in 30-06.

This is how I set up my sizing die for bottleneck cartridges.

1. Take a once fired factory round and blacken the neck and shoulders with a Magic Marker or Sharpee pen. Some people like to smoke the neck and shoulder, but I find the Magic Marker/Sharpee pen a bit better.

2. Carefully lubricate the case.

3. Loosen the lock ring on the sizing die and back off about two turns from when the die is set to touch the shell holder.

4. Size the case. Note where the marks are on the case and turn the die down about a half a turn and size again. Turn down some more, and resize again. What you are looking for is the marks on the blackening just touching the shoulder.

5. Clean the lube from the case and try it in the rifle. It may chamber just a bit on the snug side. If so, turn the die down ever so slightly, lube and size again. Wipe off the lube and try in the rifle. If it slides in as easily as a factory round, you should be good to go. If not, usually one more very slight adjustment should fix the problem.

6. Tighten the locking ring for the die and you're done. You have just set your sizing die up for a custom fit to your specific rifle, rather than a generic one size fits all guns.

Paul B.