Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Redding vs Forster Micrometer Seating Dies

Mathman is correct. Below is an illustration I made of this process last year.



The difference between the Redding and Forster:

They are not exactly the same. The sliding sleeve was patented by C.E. Purdie. The patent application date was 1967 so it expired in 1987. In that time it was assigned to Gopher Shooters Supply, then Bonanza, and that went to Forster when they bought Bonanza.

The year following the sliding sleeve patent expiration, Richard Beebe applied for and was, in 1989, issued a patent on the marriage of a floating seater stem with a sliding sleeve, and Redding was assignee for that patent. That expired in 2008, but it remains the difference between the two designs.

The 1989 patent claims the floating seating stem addresses one mode of misalignment still possible in the Forster design, but I've not seen an actual side-by-side shootout comparison between the two. This comparison does show the Redding beating some other major brands, but the Forster wasn't included, unfortunately.

Forster's site says their seater stem covers 90% of all bullet nose shapes and they have to make custom ones for best effect with the others. I don't recall Redding's catalog indicating a need for that customization, but I would expect that its possible for some shape extremes. I'd call Redding to ask.

Thanks again for all the great info everyone. I received my Forster dies last night so I sat down and did some load workup for a .243 that I acquired. Before using these dies I was a huge Redding fan but I think that may have changed last night. Not only are the Forster's cheaper, but I like the oversized adjustments on the micrometer and the larger storage box that they come in are far superior to the Redding box. All in all I was impressed.