Seater die for 285gr eldm

[Wide Glide]

I'm looking for the pros and cons of each. I would prefer to spend less than $120 and not have to wait on anything custom. My main worry is that I keep reading of the stems getting messed up and only being consistent for a couple hundred rounds especially when using compressed loads. The main to I was considering were the Hornady custom and the Forester benchrest

338lm shooting hornady 285 eldm and nosler 300 gr custom competition

 

[woolecox]

Forster

 

[North Idaho Hunter]

Over the past couple months I've loaded close to 600 rounds of 338 lapua ai rounds out of Hornady seaters. No problems here - using the 285's as well.

not sure how a copper jacket can ruin a steel seater? I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[P7M13]

Forster

 

[Wide Glide]

Do any of these besides hornady come with the proper stem for eld-m/vld

 

[nikonNUT]

No experience with Hornady but I have used Forster and I will be honest and say that I like my Widden dies better. Personal preference to be sure but I think "I" get better results from the Widden dies. Another perk is all you have to do is send Glen a bullet and $40.00 and two weeks later you'll have a custom seater stem for your die.

 

[Frank Kalisz]

I use custom honed full sizing die from Forster factory, without the expander spindle. I then use a separate mandrel die to fine tune neck tension. And I think my Forster seater die is awesome because it supports brass in alignment during seating, and Forster stem fits rifle spitzer bullets like a glove. End result is very little runout

 

[Axl]

I use the Forster with the 285 in 338 LM. No issues

 

[MTbackwoods]

I use Hornady Custom grade for 338 RUM and 285's. Works very well and is consistent with over 200 bullets seated. But I plan to step up to better dies eventually

 

[Wide Glide]

I use Hornady Custom grade for 338 RUM and 285's. Works very well and is consistent with over 200 bullets seated. But I plan to step up to better dies eventually

Are you using the seating stem that came with the dies or did you order the one for the 225 eld's? When you say they are consistent in what way do you mean? Are you talking consistent groups? consistent COAL? Consistent CBTO?

I was honestly thinking earlier today that although I will probably go with the Forster seater for this rifle, it may be worthwhile to upgrade from my lee seating dies to the Hornady custom grade seating dies for my other rifles if I could get away with using the seating stem that comes with them.

 

[MTbackwoods]

The custom grade dies come with the ELD seating stem. But you cannot seat 300 gr Bergers with it if that matters. I don't measure COAL because I single feed any way. And the dies are very consistent. I bought the micrometer for the seating die and I highly recommend it. I measure every single cartridge for CBTO and rarely have to make adjustments. But I always back it off a few thousandths, run it, measure, and adjust as necessary. Rifle shoots .5 and has an ES of 6 with a muzzle velocity of 2876 with 87.6 gr of RL26 and CCI 200 primers

 

[Wide Glide]

I like the sounds of that buying 10 sizing dies at $30 each sounds a lot better then buying 10 new match die sets at $80 each. The seating dies are the only Lee dies I haven't been happy with I have just never got around to upgrading them

 

[MTbackwoods]

I've been very happy with my for set. But YMMV

 

[Wide Glide]

Would i be incorrect to assume that the fl die could be used in place of a redding body die by simply removing the bushing and expander/decapper rod? That would be a big bonus for me incase i end up not liking the fl bushing route and decide to go back to sizing in 2 steps using lee collet neck die and seperate body die.