What is everyone using for reloading tools?

[dhtp]

want to know what tools people are using and what they like and dont like. what is best for loading for long range precision shooting?

 

[Dave King]

I use Wilson type dies and get them from Sinclair. It's an easy system to use and they're the most consistent I've ever made.

 

[Mysticplayer]

Due to economics, I started my loading career on a Lee Anniversay kit. Surprisingly, I have found the press to be excellent and see no reason to change.

I use dies from Lee, RCBS, Hornady and Redding. The best neck die I have used are the Lee Collet dies. The Hornady and RCBS are about the same. The best seating dies I have used are the Redding Competition and Hornady Dimension II dies. Again, I have nothing against the Lee, or RCBS, just like the moving sleeve.

Cases are trimmed and neck turned on a Forster case trimmer and necks chamfered using a RCBS neck tool. Primers are all hand primed using a Lee hand tool-like the tray. Scale is a lee scale and I even use the Lee powder measure. With ball or fine grain powders, it will be consistent to a tenth of a grain.

Although, I don't own one yet, a concentricity guage is a good investment. If you ammo is not straight, you will not shoot accurately.

With all this, my ammo for my hunting and varmint rifles shoots consistently under MOA. I have never found the ammo to be the weak link in my rifles accuracy.

Good luck...

Jerry

 

[dhtp]

i have one lee collet die for my 220 swift it works good. would like to know how the redding s bushing dies work or rcds x dies for resizeing.

 

[milanuk]

dhtp,

short version: Unless you neck turn, I'd consider staying w/ the Lee Collet die.

long version: I have several sets of Redding Competition dies, one in .220 Swift, and one in .223 Remington. I also have a Redding Type 'S' Match set (Competition Seater, Type 'S' neck dies, body die) in .308 Winchester. I have RCBS full-length 2-die sets in .223 Remington, .260 Remington, and .243 Winchester (bought this one used for $10), as well as a Lee Collet die set (screwed up here, just wanted the collet die but inadvertently ordered the whole set) in .308 Winchester.

From what I've seen, the Redding Competition series dies work, really, really well, *if* you neck turn. Pretty much the same for the Type 'S' bushing dies. My theory here is that when you neck size w/ the bushing dies, unless they are neck-turned, you basically 'iron' all the inconsistencies in neck thickness to the inside wall of the neck. Later, these show up as runout when you seat the bullet. On the other hand, if you neck turn first, you run it over a neck mandrel (K&M even calls it an 'Expandiron') to push the irregularities to the outside surface of the case neck. Then you neck turn, and get rid of the variations in thickness. Subsequently, when you neck size, you get awesome runout (I can usually keep TIR under 0.0001" on loaded .220 Swift rounds, never more that 0.0002").

The Collet die forms the neck around a sort of mandrel, thus forcing the neck thickness variations more to the outside, which leaves the inside neck more consistent, which shows up as less runout in loaded rounds.

Like I said, this is mostly just a theory, cooked up to explain what I see when loading: Neck turned rounds have no problem w/ either case runout, or loaded round runout. Cases that were not neck-turned, but were neck-sized w/ Redding bushing dies, have minimal case runout, but some times *ugly* loaded round runout (where is it coming from?). Also, cases that were sized w/ the Lee Collet dies, and not neck-turned, had only so-so case runout, but excellent overall loaded round runout.

YMMV,

Monte