VII. Reloading Information 
     E. Miscellaneous
        3. "Some words on adjusting dies"

                      Henry E. Schaffer
                 Some words on adjusting dies.

  Your die set may or may not have good instructions on
adjusting the dies.  Some dies can be adjusted once and then be
removed and replaced many times without losing the adjustment.  How
this is done depends on the type of lock ring which locks the die
into place.  Some of the lock rings have a lockscrew which locks the
ring into the desired place on the die body - therefore once the die
is set properly and the ring locked into place the die can be repeatedly
removed and replaced to exactly the desired position.

  I'll discuss some methods of adjusting these dies - your dies may
or may not differ somewhat from the types I've used, so adapt my
discussion to your situation.

  For the resizing die this usually makes little difference, since
for straight wall cases it is normally screwed in to barely touch the
shell-holder.  This is so fast and easy that having a locked in place
lock ring gives little benefit.  For bottleneck cases (the usual rifle
type) this adjustment may move the shoulder back too much, which creates
too much headspace which can severely decrease case life.  There are a
number of methods to judge the headspace on your own rifle and to set
the resizing die so as to produce the correct size - which usually
involves moving the shoulder back just a small amount (perhaps as
little as 0.001".)  The RCBS Precision Mic can be a big help in
checking this. Smoking the shoulder and moving the die down to
rub off the soot is another way of doing this.  For straight wall
cases (the usual handgun type) there is no comparable problem.

  Dies such as the Lee case-mouth-flare (plus powder-through) are
fussy to adjust - since you really have to use trial and
error on a case to get the flare just right.  A lock ring therefore
can be a very big timesaver, *if* the cases you use are always close
to the same length.  Hornady makes a nice lock ring which doesn't
hurt the threads on the die body.  However it costs a couple of bucks.

  The Lee lock rings don't have any way to keep them from turning
on the die body, and therefore don't seem to preserve the adjustment.
However there is a trick which seems to work just about as well as
replacing the Lee lock ring with a Hornady (or other set-screw
incorporating lock ring.)  Turn the die body to the correct position,
then hold it still and tighten the lock ring.  When the die is to be
removed, turn the lock ring (only the lock ring - don't touch the die
body) counterclockwise for 1/2 turn or a bit more.  It will carry the
die body with it.  Then hold the die body and unscrew it.  (Note that
the lock ring will not turn at all relative to the die body.)  When it
is out the lock ring will be at exactly the same position as when the
die was inserted the the correct position and locked in place.  To return
to that, screw in the die, holding only the die body, until the rubber
O-ring on the bottom of the lock ring touches the top of the press
(you'll feel the drag.)  Then hold the lock ring only and screw it
further clockwise until tight - and you'll be back in the same place.
It takes much longer to describe than to do

  For the die which seats bullets and crimps, the Lee lock ring works
very well because sometimes you want to return to the same setting,
but sometimes you may have to set up for a new case length, bullet
shape, or OAL (cartridge OverAll Length.)  Here's a method to set up
this die which is *much* better than iterative adjust/measure
trial-and-error.  Take a case and put in a bullet and push it in to
the desired OAL - with no crimp.  (It may be easiest to use the
seating die with the die body not screwed all the way into the press
so there is no crimp and then screw in the seater further than
normal so that it bears on the bullet end.  If you start by seating
it too long, measure it and after you measure the turn-per-inch of the
thread on the seating die determine how many turns will