Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters Body Die (?)

If you set the collet die up properly, use only that, and use that brass only in the one rifle, you may not need a body die at all. I'd be inclined to leave it until you find you need it. The day may in fact never come.

As I've said before, I have brass which has gone over 30 loadings, without ever being FL sized or "shoulder bumped". If it came out of your rifle's chamber it will go right back in again, unless you do something to it in the loading process to change that, or something is wrong (such as brass which was fireformed out of round, for example, in an oversized chamber). In fact given the recovery of elastic strain ("springback"), unless there's something wrong your brass will always come out of the chamber with a small amount of clearance.

This is the answer I like the best!!!

Actually, I'm one of those folks that never intentionally gets anywhere near MAX, so maybe you're right.

I'm not a gunwriter, but:

You aren't doing anything to the primer at all nor are you striking the cartridge violently. It's safer than using an inertia bullet puller.

After rebarreling a 22-250, I used a body die to slightly squeeze several hundred well-lubed rounds to fit the new, slightly tighter chamber. No problems at all--but I wore gloves, heavy shirt, and goggles just to be extra cautious.

Speaking of machine shop work.
I just read an article about hand dies and using a arbor press to do seating at the range when refining loads.

Anyone ever had a "socket made up so a seating die (or body die) could be used in the above manner?

Do you mean a sleeve which fits over a threaded die so you can use it in an arbore press? If so, sure; I've done it from time to time but am happier just using a Lyman hand press or my RCBS press attached to a box. I've been using that set-up for about fifty years. GD

Thanks Greydog.
I will look up the Lyman hand press.
It seems a good way to space out shots and keep the barrel cool for best accuracy.

When I'm feeling anal I drag my small arbor press and a set of LE Wilson straightline dies along to the range, and use one cartridge case to fire a five or ten shot group. Not very handy or fast but eliminates a couple variables. Makes firing a couple targets a slow-paced all afternoon exercise. Dependent upon having worked out the load in advance so dealing with scales- analog or digital- outdoors can be avoided and simple throwing of charges from a good measure an easy workaround. I shoot a lot of .30-06 and have "normal" Wilson dies for shooting jacketed stuff, and a custom set designed for loading .310 diameter cast bullets in same- and "Ne'er the Twain Shall Meet" (except when I screw up and take the wrong set along, which I'm saddened to say has happened. More than once. )

Body dies are nice but for a hunting rifle a standard FL die used just to bump the shoulder works pretty well, remove the expander and it is less likely to add much run out. You can run it through the collet die afterwards and it will be as concentric as that particular brass will allow. Many die makers will customize a die to your chamber usually for a very reasonable price. You could specify a "no size" neck and have the equivalent of a body die. The older reloading books had instructions on honing dies for your chamber. Sometimes it can be as simple as running a drill through the die like using a quarter inch carbide bit on a 6mm die to turn it into a body die.

Forrester makes a distinction between Body dies and Bump dies. The Body die sizes everything but the neck and a Bump die only the shoulder and immediate juncture of shoulder and body. Not sure if other makers use the same terminology.

This is a good piece of info on modifying dies: https://rickaverill.com/projects-past-and-present/lapping-reloading-dies/

He gets away with using a hand drill I assume because of his lap tolerances. On a bump/body die this is less critical.

When I was BR shooting, I always loaded at the range and when I am developing loads I may load at the range. The Lyman hand press is OK but the Lee is at least as good. I use Wilson hand dies, or homemade copies, for some rifles but use threaded dies (some factory, some custom) for everthing else. To keep barrels cool, I take more than one rifle. GD

More often than not it'll be sizing down the neck more than necessary which defeats the purpose of sizing with a collet die.

[/quote]

More often than not it'll be sizing down the neck more than necessary which defeats the purpose of sizing with a collet die.[/quote]

Agree but it doesn't seem to shorten brass life that much as primer pockets usually get loose about the time the necks start to split, if I anneal frequently enough I don't get neck splits at all. I added some info on the neck customization to my previous post that is good for FL or body die.

Forster's bump only die is the their bushing die, correct?

Arbor presses have very little leverage compared to a normal bench mounted press, regardless of the socket contraption, you may be able to get a seating die to work but it's not going to push a case into a body die and you'd still need leverage to pull it back out as well. A simpler solution I think is a combo press. Works with both hand and threaded dies. Doesn't have the muscle of a larger press like a Rockchucker but they're handy for light duty range loading when you don't have hand dies.

I have a few Wilson seating dies, some cut with the same reamer that chambered the rifle. Seats them pretty straight. I still check runout. Those use an arbor press. I’ve never sized with an arbor press. Why do that when there’s a Big Boss II Redding and Rockchucker on my bench.

DF

Now that's funny. If you have hair, a hat would have helped as well.

An arbor press is easier for loading at the range than a large bench mounted press.

I use a Lee hand press for loading at the range. It has more leverage than an arbor press. Works well.

DF

A Lee hand press is a good choice. I use them myself. I also use Lee Loaders.

You don't have to completely resize and load your cases. If all you do is de-prime, or de-prime and resize the case/necks, that helps a lot. You can finish at home.
I used an arbor press with my lee loaders at home, but at the range, it's easier to take a nylon or wooden hammer with you.

My portable arbor press has a handle 8" from tip to center of the pinion shaft. Although I don't full length size with hand dies in it anymore, I did for a long time. Properly lubed, the cases go in slick and easy, and ejection is with a push rod in the same press. (Essentially just flip the die over, drop the rod in, and push the case out.) I never felt handicapped by using it (except by its slowness, of course- and even then once I got used to it and built up a rhythm work goes surprisingly fast). The little beastie is rated at one ton- if a cartridge is so nasty that a ton of energy won't push it into the die there's something rotten in Denmark. (Full disclosure: I never FL sized anything bigger than .30-06.) Would I use it to radically alter a big case into something else, requiring a sh*t ton of force? Nope, it's not why I have it. The Big Mambo arbor press I have in my shop that generates multiple sh*t tons of force will though. (24" handle, 2" ram, 14" stroke,- plus ungodly extra force with its optional four foot iron pipe cheater bar. But the thing weighs hundreds of pounds and doesn't make the trip to the range very often...)

Anecdotally, some of my most accurate handloads in my life I assembled with Lee Whack-a-Mole dies, but I pushed with the little arbor press instead of whacked with a mallet.

All this talk about hand dies and arbor presses is all well and good, but 95%+ of my loading is with conventional presses at my loading bench in the middle of my living room floor. And no, I'm not married.)