223/5.56 die set, small base or regular

[skeeterboud]

what's the difference between the rcbs small base set and the regular die set? which should i go with for ar-15 loading?

 

[backwoods83]

The small base circle die goes all the way to the bottom of the case, extra piece of mind when loading for a AR or any semi or auto rifle. I reccomend the RCBS small base circle X die 2 die set for your AR.

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

I'd rather be using sb dies in my ar(and you probably ought to). That said, when I bought my ar 4 years ago I couldn't find sb dies so I went with rcbs fl dies and they work just fine with my rifle.

 

[lloydsmale]

small base dies dont nessisarily size to the bottom of the case. Youd need a push through die to do that. Ive taken brass fired in sloppy chambers and running them though a small base die doesnt guarantee that they will chamber in your gun. What they do do is take the case down to a smaller dimention in most of the body. they do help chambering in guns like ars. I small base size all my ar15 and ar10 brass. Reliability is the most important thing for me when reloading ammo for them. they may be used to defend my family and small base sizing and trimming brass after every shooting is a small price to pay for reliability. Some ars work fine with a standard set of dies but if your like me and have a number of ars your going to want to make sure that every round you load fits ALL of your guns and continues to fit even when your chamber gets dirty. Theres very little disadvantage to small base sizing. Maybe a bit less brass life but i havent really seen it and brass for 223 and 308 isnt hard to find anyway. there may be some accuracy disadvantage to using them but again i havent seen it. Ive shot 3/4 inch 5 shot groups with ammo loaded with small base dies on a progressive press and thats good enough for this guy.

 

[MudRunner2005]

I use the RCBS .223/5.56 Small-Base dies.