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I own over 300 store bought dies that I track with a spread sheet with this data field

bullet diameter, cartridge, Brand, function, embossment, neck, die material, orifice, taper length, opening, expander 1, expander 2,

I have made a lot of homemade dies.

I have been designing tests since I a little kid, but first got paid by Boeing for writing a test for the public address amplifier for the 767 in 1979.

1) A few years ago I designed a die test. I bought every brand of 223 dies and randomly selected populations of brass to stay with a die over many firings.

I was measuring concentricity of ammo and case length growth.

I went into it thinking my most expensive and fancy to look at die was the best. The one I had previously used the most.... Redding FL with neck bushing.

That die finished in last place.
First place went to an ugly old die on my junk pile... The Lee collet neck die.

2) I have tested seater dies for concentricity starting ~ 2001.
The best was Forster sliding sleeve dies, still on patent in 2001.
But the difference at the range between shooting ammo from a generic RCBS seater and Forster sliding sleeve in terms of accuracy was down in the noise compared to how a) bent necks get when being sized and b) neck thickness run out.

Looking forward, what do I do with each new cartridge?
1) Rifle
a) Get a Forser FL die honed out neck to my specification at the factory.
b) Get a Forster seater die and I deburr the deburr on the seater stem mouth
c) Get a Lee Collet die and if needed with the mandrel cut to my specification at the factory
d) Remove decaping pin / sizer ball stem from sizer die and use Lee decapping die instead

2) Pistol
a) Get a Lee carbide set with factory crimp die

What is that picture all about?
Making a big game gun BB gun silent without a silencer involved me making a high expansion ratio 50 caliber wildcat that seals the gas with less than one atmosphere above ambient of escapement gas pressure at the muzzle. The bullet is formed in the case over powder with a homemade die. Made you look.










There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow man; true nobility is being superior to your former self. -Ernest Hemingway
The man who makes no mistakes does not usually make anything.-- Edward John Phelps