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Arbor press and lee dies.

Home bench.


Kit goes to range.

Lots of good info appeared over the past few days thanks to Greydog, Gnoahhh, etc (I am being lazy and don't want to page back for names mid post).

I was assuming for load development any FL resizing and priming would be done at home.
Figured that w/ set of QCd cases one could then select/adjust powder, seating depth and even projectile based upon observed results.
One could even get bunch of those little glass vials that laboratories use to hold pre measured powder charges.
But I suppose what you need depends on what you have available to you for a range, and who else uses it.

Thanks for sharing all this great info.

Correct the above is in regard to Redding dies not Forster.

You're not going to be able to use a collet die on the case if it's been ran through a FL die with the expander removed, the neck will be too small to accept the collet die mandrel. You can expand the neck with a separate expander mandrel then use the collet die, but that sounds like a lot of work.

Crow hunter,

Exactly--and also a lot more working of the neck.

I Am a late comer to this post, so I may have missed mention of this in the previous post, but why wouldn’t a Redding “Form & Trim” die not work as well for bumping the shoulder back?
As I understand it, the Form & Trim die sizes to outside SAAMI chamber specs. If this is true, then it wouldn’t affect the neck at all.
Comments?

Yep, and overworking the neck needlessly is a great way to introduce more runout to the end product even when useing a Lee collet neck die.

I would go with your idea of finding a local machine shop and see what they would charge to open up the neck of an existing die; or I would order a 9X57 full length die and pull the expander ball out as you also mentioned.

I use the Lee hand press at the range as well and its a wonderful tool. In fact I liked mine so much I bought one for my younger brother as a gift and he loves his as well

The form and trim die will usually work well depending on the dimensions. Most are meant to be used with a full length sizer so they do not size down to minimum dimensions. They do size the neck some but less than a FL die does. Redding are minimal sizing, RCBS FL size but less than their regular FL sizer.

When I use the FL sizer I do what used to be called partial sizing. But most of my dies have honed neck sizer portions. On my Lee Collet die mandrels I polish them down slightly and reduce the angled portion so it is more like an expand-er die. After this they will neck size a FL sized case. I only use the FL sizer on the 3-5th loading so cases get re-sized only 4-6 times depending on how long I keep the brass. I have not gotten donuts or split necks if I anneal at least as often as I FL size at every 3rd-5th loading. This works for me until I get a body die or a custom die for that rifle.