Originally Posted by deerstalker
Originally Posted by Blacktailer
Been reloading about 50 years. Don't own a gauge. Always set the die by feel.

this.
and where can a guy "buy" a feel? grin

Indeed, and nobody needs to buy it since we were all born with it.
In response to the OP question, here's what I do. When I start out with some new brass in a rifle for which I have not ALREADY optimized my FL sizer, I set the die a bit off the shellholder, "sharpie" the neck/shoulder of a case, and make sure that I am just sizing the neck a few thou short of the shoulder. I find it typically takes two firings with the brass sized like this until I start to get noticeable "crush fit" resistance to closing the bolt (sorry but this technique is bolt-centric). Then, I begin to advance the die into the press about a sixteenth of a turn at a time (or less), resizing the same case and chambering it. The chambering force should feel about the same with each advance until you get "there." "There" is a noticeable reduction in chambering force, but still just a hint of resistance at the end of the stroke - smile and lock down the ring on that die. If the sixteenth turn results in going from stiff resistance to no resistance, back it off a 32nd (i.e. a hair) and get another of your hard chambering cases, and size it. You should be "there" now, and can set the lock ring. As long as I am shooting the same rifle, I lust leave it right there for the future. I take a sharpie and put the point of it right on the juncture of the lock ring and the die body and give it a push to put a dot that lies half on each. That way if I need to reset the die for another rifle, it's easy to put it back right for the first. And I can use a different color sharpie to put a mark for the other rifle.

Now I might not be right in doing it this way, as I read a lot of references to "bumping back" the shoulder to around .002 SHORT of a perfect fit. But I prefer to set my dies like the above for the long term, let the brass form to fully fill the chamber for a firing or so, then have every subsequent pass through the die keep it right there.

Any thoughts from the sages?

Thanks
Rex