Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Custom Rifles & Wildcats .219 Donaldson Wasp short die set

I have a .219 Donaldson Wasp short chamber bench gun my grandfather built. I am looking for dies, forming and loading. I have both 3030 and .219 Zipper brass for forming brass for the .219 DW short. I also have an old Pacific .219 DW long dieset and was told that you could mill off .0635 thousands to make a short dieset. But I am not sure of that. Any and all help would be appreciated I am new to reloading and can use all the help given. Thanks for looking

Redding make dies for the .219 Donaldson Wasp Short as well as for the long version - go to the Redding site and you will see both listed on their die chart "D" series from memory. Hodgdon lists powder for 50 and 55 grain bullets online. You can try milling the dies you have and see if it works. If it doesn't work, you can buy the Redding dies. .219 Donaldson Wasp is a superb cartridge, I was thinking of doing a rimless version.

Today I called Redding and spoke with a tech person, he told me that milling .0635 off the bottom of the dies should work. Looking for information between the long and the short dies the difference is the thickness of the base(rim) of the schell.0635.

Today I called Redding and spoke with a tech person, he told me that milling .0635 off the bottom of the dies should work. Looking for information between the long and the short dies the difference is the thickness of the base(rim) of the schell.0635.

The "long" version was a mistake in reading the dimensions on a print and then incorrectly adding the base thickness, and it is repeated on the internet and in some reloading manuals. The correct dimensions are the "short" version from what I can determine.

As an aside (since some here seem to know), I have some long brass - acquired from EABCO - but running it into my short dies - I'm crushing almost all.
Any solutions out there?

The cases may need length trimming before putting in the die. If this isn't the problem, then rather than run the cases through the die in one movement, try a little pressure, then backing off, then a little more pressure then backing off until the case is sized. These alternatives may work or may not, but worth trying.

I tried the pressure/release thing, but forgot the OAL check.
I always trim after sizing, but it couldn't hurt to trim twice.
I'll give it a try - but will be a while (recovering from a broken arm & handicapped, dammit!)

Thanks!

I purchased 20 test brass from EA Brownco with the same result, to long for my chamber. I am waiting on some forming dies I purchased and will run them thru these dies then trim to proper length. You can get forming dies from Redding for the short Wasp #1 die is 90402 and #2 die is 94402. The short form trim die is #83402