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Go- No Go (correction) case gauge
bigoutside
Member Posts: 19,443 ✭
Worth the cash??
Comments
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The Wilson bottleneck case gauges are useful for adjusting a sizing die.
The various pistol cartridge gauges are very useful for QC on reloads, although a "plunk test" in the barrel, clean and put of the gun, works, too.
Yes you can do everything by hand and fit in the firearm, but why, for a few bucks it's easy. I use mine in many various ways and it has saved me a lot of pain over the years. (they do not work well if you are neck sizing only)
To me it's like the factory crimp dies, sure you can do without them, but they are so easy and good why not spend a few bucks. (I am as "cheap" as anyone on this board, so if I say they are worth it you can count on it)
For instance: Let's say you have a rifle chambered in 30-06. You fire the gun, save the brass. A common problem many reloaders make is to push the shoulders back too far, leading to shortened brass life, case head separations, and lesser accuracy. This gauge will show when you have just pushed the shoulder back far enough to reach factory spec headspace. And I suppose for semi auto rifles it might make some sense. But for a bolt action, like I say- neck size only, either with neck dies or with a FL die backed out to only work the neck, and who cares what the die says? I have a number of old military rifles with slightly excessive headspace; once the brass is fireformed (i.e., the shoulder is blown out and moved forward) I neck size only, and FL sizing of any sort would be detrimental- yet the gauge here would still say 'yup, size that down more!'
I suppose that if you want to run one standard ammo in all guns of a same caliber, and all of those guns have chambers within SAAMI spec, it is a good check to make sure your dies in your press are set up right- but honestly, I can do that already in 30 seconds. I see case gauges as a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.
Now as to no-go headspace gauges for chambers (as opposed to cartridges), they are well worth investigating. Not that you can't shoot a gun with excessive headspace, but you should know if it does, and why; if a sloppy chamber, that can be taken care of with fireforming. If lug set back or something similar, you have an issue. So yeah, chamber gauges are worth it if you have several guns to check.