SmallCaliberCentral

I have had my .204 for about 7months now and with the help of many on this forum I have found many a good load and a lot of savy. But even with all the good advice and a couple hundred bucks in reloading gear, I still am having issues with runout. Measuring at the ogive I get as much as .010" of runout as measured with a sinclair test jig and dial guage.

I am currently using the Redding competition dies. I find that if there is runout on the neck before sizing then it is still there after sizing and there will be runout on the bullet after seating.

I find that I have considerable runout on brass that has been fired (presizing). But not always.

So far the only thing that reduces runout is to full length size (my FLS is a Hornady) which I would rather not do.

Last thing: Should I give a rats behind? I get very consistant .5" groups and I have hit some very long shots in dogtown, I just wonder how I'd do if I could get the runout monkey off my back.

Sorry, I should have posted this in the reloading section.

I've never bothered checking for runout or buying the gear to do so. Still using the standard Redding seater I first bought in 2004. I did upgrade to a Redding bushing neck sizer.
To solve your problem, sell me your concentricity equipment dirt cheap. Then I'll have to worry about runout and you can eventually forget about it.
Is accuracy improved by FL sizing?

I get excellent groups with Hornady brass which is short but use winchester brass for dog town shooting because it is cheaper by the thousand. I have the Ruger MKII Standard rifle. At the alfalfa fields I had no problem with misses in close or at long range with my loads using the Winchester brass but I have saved the Hornady brass and loaded it with the 40gr Vmax for special occasions because they shoot the tightest groups. I have toyed with the idea of buying Nosler brass or Norma but it is expensive. The best thing I have done for the Standard rifle is to glass bed it this really helped the rifle to tighten up the groups when using the 32gr rounds.

I was haveing the same trouble with run out. After they were fired the case's were pretty straight. then i was useing a full lenght die to neck size them and that was were my run out was comeing from. So what i've done is to take the sizeing ball right out of the full lenght sizer and use it that way and the run out stoped. I also have a rcbs decapping die that does nothing but push out the primer witch you can use on alot of other cases to. You are right about the setting die if the run out is there befor you set the bullet the setting die isn't going to help any to straighten it out. I have the rcbs case master gauging tool and was checkin the case for run out on the case's after each step to fine out were the run out was comeing from. And found it was comeing from the full lenght die. I hope this will help you out some. Once you get the run out gone you'l see some pretty nice groupes. every little thing will only make thing's better and it's up to you how much time you wan't to put in it.

About a month ago I was loading some big honkin cartridges (30-40 Krag/30-06) I noticed (not for the first time) that the cases were entering my dies at an angle. By spinning the shellholder I found some improvement.
I finally decided to investigate further. By removing the die and shellholder and carefull measuring I determined the top of my ram was .003 higher on one side than the other. Went at it with a fine file. Now my brass runs up into the dies without hitting the sides of the dies on the way. As I said I never bought the equipment to measure for runout so I have no idea if this helped or hurt.
This will not help runout in fired cases but I thought I'd mention it. Has anyone else squared thier ram with the die threads?

Lee C
I noticed some of the decapping rods in my dies could be tightened off center possibly causing run out. I've installed rubber O rings on all my dies essentially making the decapping rods free floating. Makes me feel better anyway.

jo191145, My accuracy is at least as good with full length sizing as with just neck sizing. I average .5" 5 shot groups which IOH opinion is pretty darn good. I would love to average .25" but I wonder if that is realistic for my rifle/abilities.

Ryan S Albright I am using Rem and Norma brass; rem for my critter gitters and norma for serious target/make my buddy jealous shooting. I have also pillar and glass bedded my Rem XR100.

Lee C., I just measured some cases that I fired last friday, I have not sized,deprimed or cleaned them yet. I measured 5 cases and the best was .003" worst was .005". Makes me think that there is something off center in my rifles chamber.(my wife has already determined that I am off center) [/url]

Half inch groups and lotsa dead prairie dogs? Forget about it unless you start competing in bench rest matches. Sometimes we can get too wrapped up in all the bench rest hype for reloading that seems to keep circling our sport of varmint hunting. There is a big difference between having 20 perfect pet cases and trying to shoot them all into one hole and loading up 500 rounds with 1/2 moa for dispatching a bunch of rodents.

Hotshot is right on. When I miss Skippy by an kittens wisker I usually get a good laugh watching the dumb rodent either stay put waiting for my follow-up shot or running like mad trying to figure out why he just got dusted. Sounds like you've got good enough accuracy to get the job done. I'm using factory ammo now but plan to reload soon, I'm sure that either way I'll still miss a few but I love the reaction either way. Life is good, but the season around my neck of the woods is too short. Gary

Hotshot, your right on about the accuracy thing you can get wrapped up in it. And you don't have to be shooting a one hole gun to shoot rodent's for sure. About the only thing i kill around here in the summer is paper as we don't have alot of rodents to shoot at . jo191145, I have seen guy's use o-rings on there die's befor like you said but i just never tryed it my self. hozz57, With new brass i check run out the first thing, the real bad one's i through out. rem. brass, Then i full lenght them with out the decapping rod in the die. Check to make sure none are way to long. load and shoot them up. From that point on every step i do i check for run out as i go. And if i do have some i know were it came from. But i got it down to pretty much no run out on my round's any more. I have 7 reloading books and read alot about reloading on 6mmbr web pages and what ever easl i find. I'm always trying some thing new or reading some one's post about reloading. I've learnd alot from some of the guy's right here on the forum. For me i like the reloading part the most, the small groupes one can get is just the iceing on the cake for me. Any ways i hope this has help you some. Lee