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- Thread starter milboltnut
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And you have spares!milboltnut
Well-Known Member
come again ?
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You know over the years I've used about all the reloading dies out there, and even had a few wildcats custom dies made up for my cartridges, like my... .22 GTO with that said; my standby's, like many others here, is... RCBS, Redding, and so on. A while back (quite a while back)
a shooting buddy and friend talked me into picking up some LEE dies for my F-class .308 Win, darn, they have turned out to be my goto dies for that cartridge these days. So I'd say perhaps you might go with LEE's Ultimate Rifle 4-Die Set and call it a day, plus they're priced pretty right most of the time good luck... Cheer'sLead shot for the lock rings/set screws you put the bullet tips in (Lymann)
milboltnut
Well-Known Member
I would have used shot gun ammo shot but I don't have any that small, just #4 buck.
What really sucks is I destroyed the FL die by trying to turn it into a body die. BTW I bought Lee after Lyman.
well they do advertise "guaranteed to load the most accurate ammunition or your money back" although too many variables to blame dies unless you indicate the ammo first and it being out more than 4 thou.You know over the years I've used about all the reloading dies out there, and even had a few wildcats custom dies made up for my cartridges, like my... .22 GTO with that said; my standby's, like many others here, is... RCBS, Redding, and so on. A while back (quite a while back)
What really sucks is I destroyed the FL die by trying to turn it into a body die. BTW I bought Lee after Lyman.
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milboltnut
Well-Known Member
this sight is really good about listing threads after a title for a new thread is written... no other forum does that that I saw. Redding two die set shipped tommarrow. Guy making money for college. Good deal. FL and standard seater. I wish Forster would sell micrometer heads instead of buying the whole die, Redding sells them that way only it's for thier standard seater and not thier comp seater die
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milboltnut
Well-Known Member
went round and round with the collet die verses 21st's mandrels. Granted the collet takes care of runout but what about neck tension?You know over the years I've used about all the reloading dies out there, and even had a few wildcats custom dies made up for my cartridges, like my... .22 GTO with that said; my standby's, like many others here, is... RCBS, Redding, and so on. A while back (quite a while back)
Another member said this..
and another this...
You didn't mention LEE in the OP so I didn't mention them but I use a bunch of LEE dies and IMHO they are as good or better than anything you mentioned, the collet die is a great piece and yes you can control your neck interference with the collet die, don't let price affect you. LEE dies are not cheap, they are inexpensive, there's a big difference
milboltnut
Well-Known Member
I guess getting on a bullet concentricity kick isn't really good idea below .005. I had accuuracy problems and went to the accurateshooter forum, that's when I rolled some RCBS loaded ammo and saw the bullet wobble. I would blame it on the seater die. I have a RCBS seater for my 300 weatherby and the seater stem is a VLD stem, and seat bullets straight. Coulda call it a day and bought a better stem, but I got a Forster chamber seater and learned that they sell VLD stems, later found out RCBS sells them. Who knew ? My accuracy improved quite a bit, bedding the rifle and concentricity improvements. My next die is a micro seater, but even with that, how can you really seat a bullet when you don't know where the bullet ogive is making contact with the lands? Every 100 rounds or so creates erosion.
I have a collet die... but am was convinced that you can't control neck tension as much as a different diameter mandrels. I found out Lee can make a custom collet die for you, however I measured the mandrel sleeve where the mandrel slips into to be .312 and the mandrel rod to be .306. You have plenty of room to make a mandrel larger and max out the die adjustment completely instead of guessing.
A honed neck cuts out 3 steps, FL, neck expansion mandreling, and turning, down to 1. But then this with honing....
I have a collet die... but am was convinced that you can't control neck tension as much as a different diameter mandrels. I found out Lee can make a custom collet die for you, however I measured the mandrel sleeve where the mandrel slips into to be .312 and the mandrel rod to be .306. You have plenty of room to make a mandrel larger and max out the die adjustment completely instead of guessing.
A honed neck cuts out 3 steps, FL, neck expansion mandreling, and turning, down to 1. But then this with honing....
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You are correct, the concentricity rabbit hole can be stepped over IMO, I have a gage and checked a few but unless you get a bad set of die you'll never be able to shoot the difference
milboltnut
Well-Known Member
Yes Sir it does
Years ago, I did quite a bit of testing/comparing runout with my bench-rest competition rifles. I had a hard time seeing differences between near zero-.003", about the widest variation I have seen with my hand loads. It's seems to be more of a quality test of the particular seating plug/dye, and/or brass preparation. While I have found run-out is not so critical within reason, there is a psychological satisfaction and feeling of comfort when my runouts are .0015 or less and I will usually strive for this. As a side note, having checked the runout factory ammo, in particular Federal GM Match(308) in particular, I always amazed that they have almost always shown runouts less the 001". At least as of 10-20 years ago.
cornshank
Well-Known Member
RCBS ,due to the fact that they are what I started out with and they haven't given me any problems other than breaking a few decapping pins.
