Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats Where do you guys get your .243AI dies from?

I'm going to need a set soon, and I've never had to look for them before. Any leads? Do I have to get them custom made, or does RCBS/Redding offer them as a standard product? Should I just post a WTB ad on the classifieds?

Any help would be great.

Can't imagine Redding doesn't make them. Check Sinclair Intl for em


http://www.midwayusa.com/product/17...ester-ackley-improved-40-degree-shoulder

http://www.midwayusa.com/product/26...ester-ackley-improved-40-degree-shoulder

I just checked Midway and they have several sets including Redding and RCBS.

243 AI Dies

Beat me to it.

Do yourself a favor and get the 3 die set too.

I haven't bought any custom dies in several years, because I already have a backlog of wildcats that I haven't had time to work with properly. But Fred Huntington has always been very good to me. Down load his catalogue for a complete list of what's possible.

This guy always has good prices.


http://www.brunoshooters.com/Mercha...mp;Store_Code=BSS&Product_Code=84420

sinclairintl.com

Good prices and they ship to Canada. This is where I get most of my dies Jordan.

Thanks, fellas.

Punching out the Montana? That'd be one heck of a rig. Thought about doing that with a MT 25/06, but the 243 is better!

A real cheap way to size the .243AI is to buy the regular .243W Lee Collet Die.
Add that into your mix of FL dies and you might find yourself reaching for the LCD more than any other.

Just a thunk.

Yessir

It should send the 80gr TTSX and 105gr A-Max out the spout at warp 9!

Thanks, Ken. I'll have to look into that option. Seems pretty straight forward and affordable, which just seems wrong when dealing with AI cartridges

And no damn lube either!

That's what she said....

Seriously though... I use the parent LCDs all the time on AI cartridges.... I never even had a set of dies for the .280AI, I just used 7mm Rem. Collet Dies and that rifle shot like a champ. Love the LCDs!

The LCD I use on the 243 is sweet... No lube, no messing around with anything like that. Just run the ram and get back to priming and charging!

I've got a whole bunch of 87 VMAXES. Let me know if you wanna' try some, I'll send some out there.

I use the LCD's a ton, simply because they work so damn well.
I really don't know if it makes a difference but I always run my case into the LCD once and then spin it 1/3rd of a turn and run it again. Makes no sense to spin it a 1/4 turn or a 1/2 turn since the LCD has four fingers and what I'm trying to achieve is to eliminate the small gaps between fingers.

Another thing I like about the LCD's is that, unlike bushing type neck sizers, the LCD establishes the size of the neck and therefore the neck tension from the inside of the neck making neck wall thickness variations irrelevant.
With bushing type dies, neck wall thickness variations are translated into differing neck tension.

One thing I have been noticing lately is that when I use brass that has been fired about 6-7 times, and stuff that's been fired 3-5 times, there is a big difference in neck tension during seating. I'm not sure if it's due to neck wall thickness or what...

With the LCD it wouldn't be differing neck wall thickness but instead differing hardness of the brass due to work hardening. Maybe an anneal is required after 5-6 loadings.