The right dies…

[TennJed]

Great read, and explains why the SAC neck/shoulder bushings work so well.

Thank you! Great info

 

[robert rex]

If you're going to touch each piece of brass anyway, you might as well seat bullets with 21 Century Hydro Press and LE Wilson in line seating die. It will effortlessly seat each bullet to .0005 every time. You'll also find by using it who makes uniform bullets and who doesn't. The 21 Century press will let you know how much neck tension your bushings and mandrels are providing, and make tuning neck tension way easier.

 

[Deputy819]

Your best approach to making selections on dies is to understand exactly how a particular die sizes and what it's control points are that it sizes to. Do not make the mistake of assuming that spending more money is going to produce better results.....as that is not universally true.

^^^^This^^^^….VERY MUCH!!!

What say you, wise ones? Just how OCD/aka "detailed" should I get?

Brother, you can get as "hairy" as you want and spend as much money as you want on dies/components THAT'S for sure! If you're just wanting to try something different then I say Go For It!!! However, don't get discouraged if you can't quantify the differences in equipment on paper. As @Bang4theBuck alluded to you'd need a bunch of specialized equipment to test the differences/results. For example, setting "NECK TENSION"…..there's no way to know what your actual "neck tension" is without knowing the state of hardness of your case mouth. Dies (bushing & non-bushing) are merely setting a "mechanical interference fit" between the bullet and the case mouth. Bushing dies/mandrels simply allow you to have more "control" over that particular variable. So, just keep that in mind when looking at all the "razzle-dazzle" reloading stuff available to you and most of all Have Fun!

 

[mtbullet1]

LEE collet dies

 

[std7mag]

Depends on how far down the rabbit hole you want to go.

Some call it OCD, some call it an**.

Starts with fixing things that were not broken to begin with.
Next thing you know, you're sitting there weight sorting primers.