Absolutely get Redding over Hornady..they are.And do yourself a favor and get Bushings too.You will be glad you did.The Fit and Finish and Tolerance are superior
Hornady Versus Redding dies
- Thread starter Coldfinger
- Start date
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This may be cartridge specific, but Forster absolutely sizes the necks down way too far for me. IIRC they take the neck down to .257" on my 6BR. My 6 Creedmoor is brought way down too. I bought a Hornady bushing set to alleviate that. I asked Forster about about honing my die but the cost of shipping and honing wasn't much less than the Hornady FLB die. I could have the new die in my hands way faster than getting mine honed so that's the route I went. I certainly didn't feel I was shooting sub par ammunition after switching brands. I was happy it wasn't over working my necks. My bullet seating pressures became much more consistent as a result of the switch. That's not to say the same thing wouldn't have happened if I had Forster hone the die I have, I'm sure it would have.
I'm not dogging Forster because I have more of their dies than anyone else's. I like their Ultra seating die the best and really don't like the Hornady micro seating die for one reason only. The numbers are hard to read being laser etched on chrome. I much prefer Forster and others method of white numbers and lines on a black background.
I think a great part of the this die is better than that die is largely personal preference and Ford vs Chevy vs Dodge vs Toyota.
I've upgraded from some Hornady to Redding,RCBS Match,LE Wison,Whidden and the best to me is Warner. They are expensive but worth it to me.Good Luck in your Decision
SSG Graybush
Well-Known Member
If Redding makes the Premium Deluxe set for a caliber I buy it for my hunting rifles. But you still need to buy the vld seating stem to load vld's. If you dont your loaded rounds will have a cbto with a unacceptable variance, like 5 thou or more with steep ogive bullets. Even with the vld seating stem you may need to short seat the bullets, and separate by cbto, and then seat the rest of the way to your cbto to get a 1 or 2 thou variance in cbto. This trick will stop flyers and shink your groups, it keeps you in the node, which according to EC is 6 thou across max, and I am inclined to believe this as well. I am having to do this with 112 gr Match Burners that have a 5 thou variance in bbto. Even after lapping a vld seater die to a bullet I continuously still get a 5 thou spead in cbto, its inconsistency in the dies the bullets are pressed in am guessing. But the 112s shoot great, .3 moa, if you do the above and are 1/3 cheaper then Berger's and have the highest bc of all the 6mm bullets at the moment.
I did just get a ****** 6XC sizer die from Redding though which consistently produced 4 to 5 thou runout, the mandrel wasn't straight and wouldnt stay tight to hold the decapper. Got the David Tubbs/ Specialty Shooting System sizer and my runout is now less then 1 thou, closer to half thou. Best Ive seen. And the Redding sizer only gave 1 thou neck tension, the SSS bushing die gives 5 thou.
And a bushing sizer die is nothing to be scared of. In certain cases a big plus. Like if you want to jam you can increase your neck tension so the bullets can be extracted from the chamber. I dont jam but.... if I was going to start over with my newest rifle, the 6XC I would do as David Tubbs suggested, 10 jam to 10 thou jump, at 39.5 grs of H4350. I wasted a ton of rounds to only come back to that exact load, but tuned in with a barrel tuner and at 37 thou jump. It was .6ish without the tuner. My Criterion barrel will only allow 45 thou jump before the bearing surface boat tail junction is at the neck shoulder junction and I dont want to worry about dealing with any donuts that may form. So I had to try jam cuz I was not happy with the results yet. But I then realized it was not one but two bad scopes not holding zero and went to a know good one. Another good tip, only develop loads with a known good scope!
But Redding dies are worth the extra $$ but in a match rifle I would go higher like SSS or Whidden or Foster, etc and get a bushing sizer die as well.
Hope my rambling about my recent comedy of errors helps.
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Old Infantry Guy
Well-Known Member
You get what you pay for. The Redding dies are worth every penny of the extra cost.
waspocrew
Well-Known Member
For the money, the Hornady dies do a great job. I've been impressed with the standard seating die and find it do be very consistent.
Redding dies are excellent- I have a few sets, but they are the FL bushing dies with micrometer seaters, so a little different comparison.
Redding dies are excellent- I have a few sets, but they are the FL bushing dies with micrometer seaters, so a little different comparison.
john k
Well-Known Member
I have RCBS, Hornady, and Redding. Redding by far the best. I have master hunter FL sizer and micrometer seating die. Redding is worth the money. Good luck finding what you need.
I would get Whidden dies, I found them to be superior to either Redding or Hornady. Just my 2 cents
Wrenches
Well-Known Member
100% Redding dies in my load room. They are worth the extra money and I use bushing dies for all my loading. I also use large and small Redding deprime dies. fit and finish is far superior to all other brands. JMHO.
Paulstarr
Well-Known Member
Absolutely Redding,no contest.
Rflshootr
Well-Known Member
If I was going to buy a set of less expensive standard dies, I'd pick RCBS over Hornady any day. I've had 5 sets of Hornady dies and I had to polish every one of the FL sizers because the finish was terrible. So terrible that I had an extreme amount of pressure to get the case in the die in some instances. Redding or Forster is the "go to" in the next price bracket. I even tempted fate and bought a Hornady super dooper Match Grade bushing dies for my 6BR. Not only did it need the same polishing, but the spent primers would stick to the decapping pin once they were out of the case. Then when you pulled the case from the die, the primer would slightly re-seat itself just enough that you couldn't get the case out of the shellholder. Talk about a pain! They replaced the decapping rod and pin and still the same problem. The design is poor in that the decapping rod floats between two snap rings that hold it in place. I finally had to make a new decapping rod ala RCBS style and a new cap that it threads into, and waaallaaaa.....problem went away immediately. Just saying. 
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Yes, all of my old hornady dies are in a box under my reloading bench.
