Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Best reloading dies?

Sort of like the scope?

I really like Forster but most of mine are RCBS. You can't beat the price and they do a reasonably good job. I also have one Redding and one Lyman die. But I can't tell the difference in any of them except the Forster. Especially the seating die. It's hard to beat. It's for my .280 Remington which I have some really long VLD bullets for and it seats them with absolutely no issues and the rounds turn out very accurate if I do my part.

I agree completely with all the above. The only difference is I use Motor Mica as a dry lube as I always heard graphite can attract moisture. Not really a problem and many older powders at least are coated with graphite to keep it from clumping. The Forster seater cut with the chamber reamer would be a top choice. I never bothered to get sizer reamers as usually a honing can get the die to where they should be. Many factory dies have SAAMI minimum neck diameters and over work the brass depending on how it matches the chamber. I neck size a twice fired case and cover it with valve grinding compound and chuck it in a drill to hone the sizer die. If you don't get carried away the base usually does not need to be squared off or shortened. Motor mica can be found a Ballistics Research or Amazon.

Wash, rinse, repeat for me, at least when my goal is to make decent ammo at some semblance of speed. For fun reloading I tend to grab the old Lee "whump" dies. Making ammo with a rubber mallet serves to amuse me.[/quote]

They also can produce excellent accuracy. Not the same as Wilson arbor dies but the same in line process with the case captured at each step so it stays straighter if it started out that way or may even straighten the case out during the wack a mole process.
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Some of the best ammo I've ever made was with the Lee "Whump dies" as you call them. My old Post 63 Model 70 .270 Winchester ( made in 1966 the year I bought it new) would shoot 1 1/2 to 2 inch groups with factory Remington Core Lokt 130 grain ammo 1"-1 1/2" with a 130 grain SGK and 56.7 grains IMR 4831. When I bought a Lee Zero Error "Whump Die" and I perfected the loading (This was before I bought an RCBS press and started reloading seriously) it brought the group size down to 5/8s" to 3/4" at 100 yards. Of course that was the Lee Zero Error Die which had a micrometer on the body to adjust seating depth. But I had A couple other regular "Whump Dies" in other chamberings that gave similar results. They were all more serious reloading tools than I had thought when I bought them. I won several local Bench Rest shoots with rounds loaded in them.

Remember this was a totally factory post 63 Model 70 with a stock 22" pencil thin sporter barrel. The only things done to it to accurize it were to bed it and lighten the trigger to 2 pounds. The stock was and still is the wooden Monte Carlo stock that came on it. Composite stocks were yet available.

x2 .... I use the Lee Collet and Forster BR Seating dies.

Only have the Redding body die in 243 but no 243. Should buy a few more for my other rifles and try them.

If you got a die and no rifle for it, you need a new rifle just for that die.

DF

On this we can agree.

As well as the dies, I have an action, stock, and brass so bbl is incoming as we speak. Can't leave all that kit unused.

Thanks for that idea. Have a few unused Lee FL dies here that will get that treatment.

Those dies are pretty hard, and it will take some grinding to relieve the neck.

This one is .22-250. I had to find a worn grinding bit to fit in the small .22 cal neck.

Sometimes improvising works out really well...

DF

I like Forster. They build in some float/flex in the decapping/expander-ball spindle. Their bushing bump dies are fantastic as well. I like the full-length sleeve in their seating dies too.

If I can't get a Forster sizer I want I'll often opt for a Redding FL Bushing die. Run the FL die in shallow to neck size and re-set for full-length sizing when required.

PM sent

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.

Clark, that is some great advise.

Few will understand the depth of the advise on the Lee Collet sizer, with the ability to get .0005 mandrels for cheap money. Run out with the collet sizer is remarkable.

I will add that the standard forster neck sizer will bump shoulders and often eliminate the need for full length sizing(over working the case).

Clark,

Were you using the Redding bushing dies with the expander ball, as their directions suggest?

The reason I ask is my experience is they work great--as long as you don't use the expander ball.

Very interesting!

Have had 7 Lee collet dies, I always prep my brass by a bump die or a FL bushing die with an over sized bushing. Never have seen any more than great run out and very consistent tension

Why bushing dies even come with an expander ball is beyond me.

I would like to know in what way the Redding bushing die came in last place as that was a bit surprising to me, though I am open minded enouph to listen


Trystan

Very Interesting.

I’ve had RCBS, Lyman, C & H, Redding, & Lee.
All of them worked very well. For NO particular reason or design — ALL my dies NOW are RCBS & 1 set of Lee.


? Maybe ? I don’t understand the Lee sizing die.....
It has some “wiggle” or “wobble” that I don’t like.

*** Keith & Clark M ***. I don’t know y’all personally so
don’t take this as a personal attack nor insult.

If I had to do ALL y’all have described, I would
16bore—> OUT of handloading. and go factory.

Jerry

No, no expander balls were used in the experiment, as professor Toby Bradshaw said in 1994 (no expander ball used, *ever*).
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en#!topic/rec.guns/y0e-GlQPkR4

I can remember some later experiments with bushings, and the less they reduced the neck, the less error they introduced.

jwall, you can make this stuff as complicated as you want, it is a hobby.

The lee dies has fingers that crimp the case neck against a mandrel. Change the mandrel size this replaces bushings in S Redding dies. ON the S dies, often, the expander ball will help or hurt neck sized alignment...trial and error.'

Best money spent is on a good gunsmtih and a high quality barrel, does away with a lot of the drama in keeping and finding a load.