traprwill
Member
as title says what dies should I use the FL or neck or ??? and does it matter? would like to hear what you all have to say
thanks for any and all help
Will
thanks for any and all help
Will
as title says what dies should I use the FL or neck or ??? and does it matter? would like to hear what you all have to say
thanks for any and all help
Will
If you are shooting the same casings in the same rifle 100% of the time...you easily get by with neck sizing only with the occasional full length sizeing to control stretch and bump the shoulder back.
If you are attempting to use the same cartridges in 2 or more rifles....nope! You have to full length size every time.
Woods,
The Redding or Forster seating dies you mentioned, do they seat by pushing on the tip of the bullet or push on the ogive?
Thanks
You can "get by" with a lot of things. However, simple facts that are often ignored in this debate is that brass keeps growing dimensionally until the bolt locks. There is a variance case to case in the growth from case to case even. By waiting until it is hard to chamber, you allow the work hardening plus 100%reliability on chambering and bolt lock up is out the window. NS only does nothing for that uniformity variance and reliability. Simple measurements with a qualityblade mike will easily confirm the growth and variance issue.
So if you want your brass to be uniform piece to piece, each and every time, then FL size using a honed die to match your chamber and when sizing you move the brass the least and have less work hardening as compared to the NS.
Jim Carstenson (JLC Precision) can make a custom honed FL bushing die from a Redding body die that fits perfectly with your chamber, eliminates the neck expander ball (another big complaint of the NS only crowd) and cost is $28 for the body die, $80 for Jim and two week turn around. This gives you minimal sizing, perfect chamber fit, all uniform brass and 100 % reliabiliy. NS only cannot do that.
BH
All factory firearms are reamed with SAMMI standard chamber reamers. All factory dies are reamed with SAAMI standard die reamers. There is no automatic need for a special die to load for bolts, autos, slides, single shots or levers. Some loaders use a neck die but all loaders need a FL die; that's not an "either" thing, but both.
Woods,
The Redding or Forster seating dies you mentioned, do they seat by pushing on the tip of the bullet or push on the ogive?
Thanks
IME all seating dies push on the ogive by design but some may have a problem with a particularly pointed bullet. In that case it wouldn't matter who the manufacturer was you would have to take the seating stem out and make some adjustments.
What is good about the Redding or Forster seating dies is that they encapsulate the case body with a floating sleeve and align the bullet and case neck. Personally I prefer the RCBS Competition or Gold Match seaters because they have a window in the side for loading the bullet and a micrometer top so they make life much easier. In my tests they do as well as the Redding Comp seaters but many here do not agree so I left them out to avoid controversy