Roughly in order of appearance:
1) Yes, I should get a case gauge. right now, I'm just using a caliper for oal brass and oal cartridge lengths. Seemed adequate, but in retrospect, gives me no information about the shoulder or rim of the cartridge.
2) Yes, I should get a case remover. Ask me why I say that. I managed to futz and hack until I got the brass out, but I also bent the spindle on the FL die, so that was stupid. Lesson learned.
3) Yes, I like the Hornady camlock design. Ask me why I say that! I bought an RCBS inertia "hammer type" puller. After a few dozen light hits with no bullet movement, I moved up to medium sized whacks. Nothing. About 10 minutes later, I was bringing it down, from overhead, in a two-handed, "Hammer of Thor" type motion. In the end, it moved the bullet about .04" before I stopped. Didn't want to break the plastic hammer. or my bench. Returned it today. hornady puller and terribly-hard-to-locate .20 collet on the way from Midway.
4) Good advice on turning the dies in. I reset both the sizer and seater dies yesterday, and the resulting shells slid through the chamber like a taco johns meat & potato burrito. Honestly, I'm a little frustrated that I never actually could see any change in procedure or adjustment here...chalk it up to inexperience I guess. Many lessons learned.
So many, in fact, that I need a couple days to cool off, and slow down. Oh, and I have to wait for some brass and that bullet puller to ship anyway
5) Thanks for the load info, Rick
You guys have been pro's about all this...I appreciate the advice without being batted around the head and neck with a newspaper for my inexperience/idiocy.
To make myself feel better, I fitted some flip-up scope caps (not as easy as it sounds, considering tight ring/bolt clearance) and free-floated the barrel channel on the CZ527 Varmint. Happy with the results...read a tip somewhere to wrap appropriate-sized sockets in sandpaper, worked like a charm.
Cheers and thanks again fellas...I'll have a few dozen more questions by this time tomorrow