boomtube
Well-Known Member
"I'm leaning towards Forester BR as I've heard great reviews and the price seems right."
Redding copied the Forster BR (origianally Bonanza) seater when the patent protection expired so they are equal in performance and no other threaded so-called "competition" dies come close to the average performance of either. Micrometer heads are extra cost Forster option that's sorta fun to play with but doesn't add any "accuracy" to the ammo it produces.
243 WIN: Lee Collet, Redding FL, Redding Seater (thinking of adding redding body)
280 REM: Lee Collet, RCBS FL, RCBS Seater (thinking of adding redding body)
300WSM: Redding FL and Seater (thinking of adding Lee Collet and redding body)
Your choices are quite good but you need to understand that with dies we aren't dealing with things that normally make for massive accuracy differences, we are dealing with small tweeks in groups. No properly made die is going to make a 1.5 moa rifle into a .5 moa rifle unless the first dies are massively out of tolerance. And that's highly unlikely!
The Lee Collet neck sizer is perhaps the best neck die available for factory chambers but the value of neck sizing for accuracy is often greatly over stated. Neck sizing must be tested in YOUR rifle with YOUR load to see if it helps or not.
Conventional dies actually tend to be quite good, on average. "Good" actually means a good sizer match to a specific rifle and the seater tends to load concentric ammo. That fit varies between dies of the same brand as widely as between brands. Getting any "good" individual die to match your chamber well is a matter of pure luck, not how much you pay for the brand.
Unless your accuracy is less than perhaps 3/4", consistantly, a good conventional seater will do about as well as the more costly types.
Ditto body dies, few factory rifles will ever know the difference in performance from a good conventional FL sizer. Nevertheless, sizing with a body die and the Lee collet will produce better than average straight necks and no seater can load bullets straight into a bent neck!
Redding copied the Forster BR (origianally Bonanza) seater when the patent protection expired so they are equal in performance and no other threaded so-called "competition" dies come close to the average performance of either. Micrometer heads are extra cost Forster option that's sorta fun to play with but doesn't add any "accuracy" to the ammo it produces.
243 WIN: Lee Collet, Redding FL, Redding Seater (thinking of adding redding body)
280 REM: Lee Collet, RCBS FL, RCBS Seater (thinking of adding redding body)
300WSM: Redding FL and Seater (thinking of adding Lee Collet and redding body)
Your choices are quite good but you need to understand that with dies we aren't dealing with things that normally make for massive accuracy differences, we are dealing with small tweeks in groups. No properly made die is going to make a 1.5 moa rifle into a .5 moa rifle unless the first dies are massively out of tolerance. And that's highly unlikely!
The Lee Collet neck sizer is perhaps the best neck die available for factory chambers but the value of neck sizing for accuracy is often greatly over stated. Neck sizing must be tested in YOUR rifle with YOUR load to see if it helps or not.
Conventional dies actually tend to be quite good, on average. "Good" actually means a good sizer match to a specific rifle and the seater tends to load concentric ammo. That fit varies between dies of the same brand as widely as between brands. Getting any "good" individual die to match your chamber well is a matter of pure luck, not how much you pay for the brand.
Unless your accuracy is less than perhaps 3/4", consistantly, a good conventional seater will do about as well as the more costly types.
Ditto body dies, few factory rifles will ever know the difference in performance from a good conventional FL sizer. Nevertheless, sizing with a body die and the Lee collet will produce better than average straight necks and no seater can load bullets straight into a bent neck!