Case Maintenance

[KeithB]

+1 on having small hole gauges and a good mike around.

 

[Intheshop]

Folks need to do a little reading on how to use them.They have advantages over gage pins,in certain applications...... which you should find out with your research. Just saying, it's not,crank them up and stuff them in hole. There's a little trick to how they get presented.

 

[Ian]

I can usually get to +/- half a thousandth with my Chineseium hole gauges, plenty close for most of what I do. I have been knowed to turn and polish a pin to size on the lathe when the measuring is more critical. Pound casts have been the easy way to get neck dimensions, make sure the case neck/shoulder is good and annealed and the hard lead is only up to the neck/shoulder junction so the neck expands to the full dimension.

Let's see..... .253" ballpark neck diameter (there's some taper involved with the chamber neck, another advantage of the pound cast because you can find out exactly what it is, so your hole gauge measurement isn't exact). Brass is what....011" per side? Throat entrance somewhere around .225" unless cut with a 5.56 reamer, so that adds up to .247" and you get the typical six thousandths loaded slop. Cram .227" bullets in there and make it four thousandths, still loosey goosey by precision cast standards. You can still make them shoot, though, it just requires a little different approach from stuff it to jam length and pray.

 

[Eutectic]

Yes...... Small hole gauges, telescoping gauges are good tools to have. Using them accurately is learned like a micrometer with a consistent 'feel'..... These tools won't give you a precision what I call "end of chamber length" however. I suppose a machined gauge that you close in the gun that faces the end of the chamber length at the end of the neck would suffice for your maximum case length for trimming?? But I've seen this area of the chamber neck not square here or ending in an angle in other words... So I vote pound cast along with Ian. You can learn things you can't see, feel, or measure without difficulty. This is the only way I know of we in our little shops can learn everything in there. I suppose some sort of internal optics could work? To ritzy for me though!

Pete

 

[Brad]

A pound cast is also a permanent record. Put it someplace safe and it is always there for reference.

 

[fiver]

it's the lowest tech way to accomplish the goal with the highest return in information.
it's also something we can do with the tools we pretty much already have on hand [maybe with buying a decent rod from the ACE store]

 

[Brad]

Wouldn't want to buy an indecent rod........

 

[Ian]

You don't buy indecent rods at the Ace store anyway.....

 

[fiver]

if you know the right people you'd be surprised what you can get at an ACE.

 

[Brad]

I don't want, or need, to know THOSE people.
We had a good old fashioned hardware store in South Omaha for a long time. Creaky wood floors, floor to ceiling wood bins with various hardware all sole by the piece. They had a bit of everything. Then they had a fire. Store just isn't the same anymore.

 

[KeithB]

I love ACE hardware. Too bad they seem to be in decline, our city had three of them 20 yrs ago, then two, and just this Spring one of those closed and now we're down to one. Each time one closed it was always the one closest to where I live!

 

[Brad]

We have one a couple miles from home. Where else can you get the parts you need and have change left from a $5?

 

[Rick]

This is a town of 12,000 and we have two Ace stores, within about a half hours drive at least three more.

 

[RBHarter]

My last Hamlet had an Ace the new one still has a Coast to Coast and a Sears and 4-5 hardware stores . 5700 people in this one they tell me the last one had 4000 but I'm pretty sure it was closer to 26-2800 .

 

[Rick]

I don't use or go to either of the Ace stores here. The oldest one is a lumber yard, when ya go in the store they treat ya like, what are you doing here and why are you bothering me? Been in there a couple of times and never went back. The new Ace store just opened a couple of years ago. They have weekly sales flyers in the local paper, when they first opened I went in there for an item in their sales flyer, was told they don't carry that. WTF, then why put it in the paper? About a year later and another sales flyer, go in for it and same deal, they don't carry that. Have never seen any reason to go back except for maybe the highest prices on most everything they do carry.

 

[Eutectic]

Salmon, ID is about 12 miles from my place. It is a place that exists 25 or 30 years in the past. When I came here there were two hardwares. One was Havemann's, a family owned store that was here in the late 1800's. Sadly to me, it has been an 'ACE' for 5 years or so. I liked the old store!!!

They still had .22 shells when I went in there but years' past had most everything for reloading. I got a Remington Model 700 'Classic' .375 H&H for a retirement gift. I shot with a good friend here named Ralph Graham. Quite a shot he was too! I learned a lot of stuff about Elmer Keith from ol' Ralph as they were best of buddies. I take the .375 out one day..... Ralph says, "I had a Ruger #1 in .375 H&H..... Good accurate gun too!" I asked him where it was? "Sold it and bought a Gold Cup!"
Ralph shot the Model 700 a couple of times and told me he could do without how hard the light thing kicked! As we loaded up to leave Ralph said: "Elmer gave me some .375 stuff when I got mine...... I'll dig it out for you." Later I got about a hundred + cases, some loaded by Elmer.... Also some bullets. I have a real collectors item of some Sierra .375 experimental bullets before the brought out their 300gr boattail. Box is plain cardboard and the bullets are flat base. Elmer wrote on the box top they were too thick a jacket!

Some Speer bullets were in there too. Saw this picture and attached it. Elmer got them at Havemann's and look at that price!

Pete