Advise on Bushing Dies Please

[MontanaRifleman]

I am about to order some Redding Type S Bushing dyes. I'll be calling the Redding tech support Monday morning but I thought I would get some opinions here also.

The Dies are for a 300 RUM and I would like to know which sizes I should order and are the Titanium Nitride bushings any better then the Stell bushings?

Thanks,

-MR

[BountyHunter]

Go to the sinclair intl site and read how to tell what bushing size you need. Generally look for .002-.003 under the loaded round diameter.

Definitely go with the titanium nitride.

BH

[phorwath]

BH,

How come the TN coated bushings? I've been too miserly to put out the extra cash so I've got about a dozen of the uncoated bushings. I use Imperial Sizing Die Wax on my case necks prior to sizing anyhow.

Just curious what I've been missing out on...?

I agree that ~ 2 thou under the outside case neck diameter with a bullet loaded in your case necks is about right. Redding's instructions have always confused me because some of their printed directions say go 0.001" under and then some of the neck bushing packaged instructions state 0.002"-0.003" under.

I don't know if their 0.001" advice is for competition shooters or what. But for hunting plan on 2-3 thousanths under, like BH already stated.

[BountyHunter]

I think that the TN bushings are smoother and just slide up and down the neck easier. I do not like anything pulling too much on the neck. But that is just me. $20 bushings are cheap in this game.

.001 for comp guns shot single shot and if you dump powder in the bore, you have time to work it out. Hunting guns especially in a mag you will need .002-.003 to ensure the bullet does not move during recoil. Not fun trying to get a second shot and a bullet is now too long to come out of the top of the mag.

[phorwath]

Thanks for that explanation. $20 is cheap, but not as cheap as I am.

[MontanaRifleman]

Thanks for the input guys. I have never used a bushing die and I am still trying to wrap my head around the concept. It obviously allows you to adjust neck tension. The way I understood the mechanics of a neck sizer before was that the expander button went down through the ncek, and the the neck die squeezed the neck the a slight less diameter than the expander button which would open it up to the correct "inside" diameter to seat the bullet. With the bushing style sizer it seems that the expander button plays no role?

Measuring my Rem factory ammo, the neck OD measures ~ .3375. I plan on turning the necks just enough to remove the high spots. Right now their thickness measures ~ .017-.018, so hopefully I wont be removing more than .001 of material.

When I measure my 300 WSM before seating and after seating 180 E-Tips. It measures .336 before and .338 after, so .002 tension? This seems to work very well with these bullets as far as grip. They seat smoothly and hold well.

Soooo... I'm guessing I need a .335 bushing??? Any comments?

[woods]

IMO the bushing dies are not as useful unless you outside neck turn. If you leave the expander ball in then you might as well be using a cheaper full length die. The bushing will size the neck smaller just like a full length die and then the expander will expand the neck back out to the size of the expander ball. It wouldn't matter what size bushing you got because the expander is going to determine the inside dimensions of the neck.

Now you can take the expander out and that will mean the outside dimension of the neck will be the size of the bushing and that is preferable to using the expander. However if you have neck brass that has an inconsistant thickness then all the hills and valleys will be transferred to the inside of the neck. If you have very consistant neck thickness then this will not matter.

If you neck turn your brass to a consistant thickness and use the bushing die without the expander then you are in control.

An alternative method is to take the expander out of your full length die or neck die and outside neck turn the brass thickness to a consistant thickness and one that will give you the bullet grip you want.