Which dies are the best?

[Trickymissfit]

I do not have a lathe but I have plenty of drills. I use a drill for the inside piece but not the outside. And a little extra time in at the loading is therapy.

As far as runout, it's interesting. Each one of my dies are a little different. My 7rm will range from .002 -.008 after being completely loaded, 7-08 AI and 300wm is around .002-.004 and the 300 rum is .005 give or take .001.

I have been looking around for an old drill press with an adapter to I can speed up the neck turning process.....

Appreciate the help gents. I race cars and spend a lot of time discussing that topic with my buddies, but I am on this forum much more, absorbing the experiences of guys that have been doing this as long as I have been alive.

if it were me, I'd start out trying to take five tenths to one thousandth of an inch out of my sized brass. It maybe a simple thing, and yet maybe a major issue. A thousandth will often show you close to two thousandths less error loaded. You maybe seeing error in the press or shell holder. Yet maybe it's in the seater. Most people think they understand the way error stacks up, but in reality few do. The press must be checked under a heavy load just like it was sizing a case, and checking a die for being square in the press is another issue. I would buy a couple stones (actually four), and start removing bumps and burrs in the press itself. It's not hard to pick up .0005"/.001" here alone. (hint: start with the area the shell holder seats on). Buy an India slip stone, and a hard Arkansas stone. But also but a couple round ones to remove burrs you can't get with a flat stone. Use your head, and it will all fall in place.
gary

 

[Marble]

I get what you are saying. I will inspect the bottoms of the dies and go from there. I have sharpening stones in semi smooth and really smooth. I also thought maybe the few thousandths difference might be in the way the neck expander goes in and out. Just a thought.

For the body area, every once in a while I take some my JW compound on a cleaning patch with my drill and polish the crap out of the inside. A thorough cleaning follows. Every once in a while I start to get marks on my brass and after I clean the die it goes away.

Secondly, the gauge I use is the hornady concentricity gauge. It has a small screw with a pad on it that presses up against the cartridge if needs to be straightened. I've heard a few people say it's junk and a gimmick, but idk...I can put a cartridge in, see the "lack of straightness" as I see it, then bend it a few thousandths the opposite direction and it's straight.

 

[Unofficial Gun Addict (UGA)]

I do believe that concentric rounds matter, but I personally could not get the hornady concentricity gauge to "produce" tighter groups. I returned it. If I used the gauge to try to straighten or make my rounds more concentric, I found that there was no difference in group sizes between those I got to be within .001-.002 and those that were originally .005-.007.

I do think that more concentric rounds shoot tighter groups, but I ended up deciding that nudging already seated rounds didn't help decrease my groups at all. Producing more concentric rounds initially has been the key to decreasing my group sizes.

 

[MagnumManiac]

There are far easier ways to reduce, but not eliminate , runout caused by a seating die.
As you start seating, only go about a third in, lower the ram enough to rotate the case by hand and rotate it a 1/4 turn, seat another third in, repeat until fully seated. You may only need to rotate the case one 1/2 turn, it depends where the runout is coming from. You can also size only a portion of your neck so that the unsized portion aligns the case to the centre of the chamber more precisely.
Have done this for years without the need of buying expensive benchrest style equipment for my FACTORY CHAMBERED HUNTING RIFLES.
My target/long range comp rifles are a different story, but they have custom chambers with tight necks and minimum chambers, they also need modified shell holders that have been turned true to the press ram.

A Redding Type S bushing die is a good way to help with concentricty, whether you choose to neck size or not, you should get the Redding Deluxe Die set in the Type S bushing style. The reason, you can use the Neck die on new or once fired cases and have the EXACT amount of neck tension you require on the first shot.
Redding is what I use for my hunting rifles and what I recommend.

Cheers.
gun)

 

[Trickymissfit]

I get what you are saying. I will inspect the bottoms of the dies and go from there. I have sharpening stones in semi smooth and really smooth. I also thought maybe the few thousandths difference might be in the way the neck expander goes in and out. Just a thought.

For the body area, every once in a while I take some my JW compound on a cleaning patch with my drill and polish the crap out of the inside. A thorough cleaning follows. Every once in a while I start to get marks on my brass and after I clean the die it goes away.

Secondly, the gauge I use is the hornady concentricity gauge. It has a small screw with a pad on it that presses up against the cartridge if needs to be straightened. I've heard a few people say it's junk and a gimmick, but idk...I can put a cartridge in, see the "lack of straightness" as I see it, then bend it a few thousandths the opposite direction and it's straight.

First of all, you want the very fine india stones. Shaped like a knife and very thin in cross section. The Arkansas stones are white and very hard. You don't use them to remove metal, but to find and get rid of bumps and burrs. Never use the stones dry, and I recommend mineral spirits with about 15% light spindle oil added.

The very idea of bending a loaded round strait is wrong from the start! Get a better case gauge. The Neco is the best, and will do more than most any of the others. I would swap the Gem indicator for something that reads in .0005" increments, and look for a zero backlash indicator. I use Interrapids, but the B&S Best Test is another fine unit. Still as long as you keep the indicator moving in one single direction and as long as it's "wand type" indicator you'll be OK. Those long travel indicators that come with most case gauges have about 10% backlash built into them.

gary