Reloading equipment

308 · #22 01-07-2002, 07:46 AM

As to diffs between arbor presses and good 7/8x 14 dies I have seen no benefit with my rifles. If you have a rifle that will consistantly shoot less than 3/8 @ 100 yds the straitline dies and arbor presses may have some merit. Of course a better shooter might see some diff with my guns but I haven't.
For a jam up 1st rate high quality case trimmer, the wilson is the best I've found.
It's like a mini lathe and cuts perfectly square and will hold tolerances to less than .001.
I have Reddings Ultra Mag single stage press and it is a brute but is a precision piece of equipment.
If I had it to do again I probably wouldn't have bought the Arbor press and strait line dies and just stayed with competiton quality 7/8 x 14 dies. They are handy for bullet seating though. 308

Lostsheep · #23 01-07-2002, 10:15 AM

sr90,
The sinclair setup is very nice.
What you have to realize though is that it will not absolutely replace a conventional reloading press. As the press will only handle neck sizing(what you want). You will need to run your brass through a shoulder bump or even a full length die every so often, as the case becomes difficult to chamber. Because everything in this setup is inline, accuracy is outstanding. I shoot a 30X44 in a HBR gun that shoots in the high .3's.
Also the main benifit of this system other than accuracy is that you can load at the range. Go to the range load 5 and try them. then try 5 more.
its all good!

Nicholas · #24 01-07-2002, 01:31 PM

Ian, sounds like chronographs get shot up alot? LOL I make sure and get some extra parts then.

Coyoter, could you elaborate on how to tweak the dies so I get .0000 runout? What do you do the the dies to change the runout?

What neck turner to you guys use? Do you turn your necks?

Lostsheep · #25 01-07-2002, 04:32 PM

I have been using the sinclair Phase I neck turning tool.
This is very simple for the beginner, and works well. It is not designed for a high volume though.
When I get another it will probably go with a sinclair again, but either a Phase II or III
I don't like to turn necks under power, I do them all by hand, less chance of getting things out of wack that way!

Ian M · #26 01-07-2002, 05:07 PM

SR90,
I suggest getting spares just in case it does happen. In reality that is not likely since you have a nice large fan-shaped area to shoot throught, BUT, if you do make a mistake it is nice to fix things that evening rather than having to call Texas for parts. Skyscreens are very easy to assemble, parts are cheap.

Only real nasty that can happen is damaging the little "eye" sitting in the bottom of the screen body, or snipping a wire were it goes into the body - done both.

Most abuse on my screens comes from muzzleloader sabots - they chew up the plastic a lot. Not hard to dream up a protective baffle or shield tho.

Nicholas · #27 01-07-2002, 09:53 PM

Does anyone have some tips to reduce runout, coyoter said something about tweaking the dies?

Coyoter · #28 01-07-2002, 11:58 PM

I guess I'll add that with proper setup, you can get .001" bullet runout (or less) with the Redding Comp. dies, and that's what the whole hand die and arbor press thing boils down to. You'll have to sit and tweak the dies and/or shell holder to find the sweet spot, but it can be done and far more easily than with a set of factory dies. The biggest factor is setting up your neck die to .000" runout to the best of your ability. Any runout in the neck will be magnified by the bullet. This is where the RCBS Casemaster is so invaluable. You set the neck die, measure a case for neck runout, size it, meaure it again and adjust. Idealy, the brass is "perfect" before you size it, but sometimes (especially with virgin brass) its not. Get another piece of brass and repeat untill you have no runout. If you're using the Redding Comps, you should be able to achieve it. If your gun is taking .0005" neck runout and turning it into .002" brass, ditch the barrel (or at least a few inches of it!).
A quick note about the case trimmers, and I've never used the Wilson. What I like about the Forster with the power adaptor is that you hold the power on and only have to concentrate on how much pressure you apply to the trimmer. For me, it's a challenge to turn a crank and maintain consistant pressure on the cutter. Mostly, I tend to "gorilla" things to make them go faster and that's not what's best in most handloading situations. With the neck turning attachment, there's a ramped insert for your trimmer that will gradually walk the turner down the case neck. Again, I find it easier to be consistant if one hand simply holds the power on, while the other feeds the turner down the neck.
Coyoter