[375Carp]

Same here on the press. I was at Fin. Feather and Fur in Canton on Sunday. They had a Hornady classic kit for under $400 I think and a few Hornady presses. Didn't notice any others, but was not looking.

I did pick up an 8lb jug of of Staball which was pretty exciting.

They were low on stuff, but not picked clean by any stretch of the imagination.

 

[dalek2.0]

The 308 and 44 Mag are used for hunting and may require longer range shooting, at least long range for those calibers anyway. That is why I want as accurate a round as I can get. After all, not many shoot long range with a pistol. Yea, I've read some can but likely not many. The one that needs it the most is likely the 44 Mag. The 308 is suited for longer ranges than the 44 anyway.

I mostly want to get a die set that will serve my needs without a doubt. I don't want to buy a die set only to discover that I have to buy another set that is better later on. That goes back to my post about waste just that it is time and money in this situation.

From what I've read, most any die set will fit in the Forster. The only issue I've read or seen on videos is the lock rings. I prefer not to use the one with the set screw that according to some videos can damage threads if tightened to much. It reminds me of when I put a fan or a pulley on a motor of some kind. It always leaves a mark on the shaft. I'm assuming the those set type locking rings do something similar. I just see it mentioned on videos that some don't like those type of rings and that the type that squeezes the die threads is better than the ones that push into the threads.

As to the delay, mostly I'm having to buy what I like and can find. I just checked again and it still shows: Expected to be shipped on 03/17/2021. So, it is still on backorder. I might add, most sites have die sets and such on backorder as well. I don't have any stores that sell this sort of thing around here. I'd have to drive a good long ways and likely pay more for the same thing if they even have it. I have a store that carries powders and such but only the cheaper presses when they have them.

My question on the die is still out there. Is the part on a non micro adjusting die to adjust the seating depth of the bullet or is it just to disasseble the die for cleaning? On some videos, it appears to be a adjustment but I'm not sure. If it is a adjustment, I may can use that to do the same thing as the micro part, even tho it may require more trial and error adjustment.

 

[JBelk]

I want as accurate a round as I can get.

You don't use a reloading press or dies to make the most accurate ammunition. That's what I mean by 'basics'.
You want good HUNTING ammo and have no need for the most accurate because you don't have guns good enough to use it. Extreme accuracy uses different dimensions that hunting ammo. IN fact, Bench Rest shooters load with tools very much like the original hammer-style Lee Loaders.

The lock ring is a non-issue. Order a double handful of any type lock ring you want from Carr or Grainger. Or, don't overtighten the screw which has lead behind it anyway. It's NOT the same as a pully!
ALL DIES are adjustable for everything needed to make ammo. Seater stems on RCBS and Redding and maybe others are 32TPI. .032" per revolution. If you need a scale to see that, they cost extra but they seat bullets EXACTLY like all others.
BTW-- Ebay is FULL of Rockchuckers. I sold my spare way too cheap.

 

[recoil junky]

I have a set of Whiddon custom micrometer dies, way over priced for the quality. No, I wouldn't buy another set. I have more Lee dies than any other brand and they are as good as the best and better than the rest.

Yes, I keep all my dies in their original boxes. I've seen a guy make fancy racks to keep them in and while the workmanship was amazing IMO the time could have been better spent reloading 😁

Powder and primers should be stored in a cool, dry place where the temperature doesnt fluctuate much. I keep mine in my gunroom in the basement where the temperature is between 60-70° year round, but that's in Colorado so it might be harder where you live.

You wanted a picture of our benches and ideas on how high to build them.



The area should be well lit and organized. I nailed the well lit part 😁. My benches are 30" tall, 24" wide with 3 /4 CDX plywood over 2X12's (ripped to fit inside the outer frame) to provide stiffness and weight for mounting presses etc on 4X4 legs and anchored to the wall with provisions to anchor to the concrete floor if needed, haven't needed to yet. All wood is screwed and glued (Titebond Ultimate waterproof) The legs are all shimmed so each section is the exact same height due to irregularities in the concrete.

As you can probably see all the wood is "repurposed" so nothing fancy, just practical and serviceable.

In the upper left corner you can see the "hood" for the exhaust fan (1100 cfm bathroom exhaust fan) that I run when bullet casting. The large fan changes the room air every every 3 minutes and keeps 't missus very happy. She can and does sneak down and scare the crap out of me when it's on 😵😱

What else . . . .

Oh, I got the 7000 grain hopper and baffle kit for my #55 powder measure.



A great addition which keeps the powder column pressure even over the drum to make dispensing more accurate and the larger volume makes big runs of cases, large or small, much easier to keep accurate.

Coffee "plastics" ( can call them cans anymore) make great storage containers for organizing brass in the various stages of reloadedness especially when you have multiple rifles in the same caliber.

I'm sure I'll think of more.

RJ

 

[375Carp]

Everything you really need to know about RCBS dies. I am sure others have their instructions posted as well.
RCBS Instructions

 

[dalek2.0]

OK. This makes me rethink things. It seems the accuracy I'm thinking about requires more expensive guns than we have anyway. That doesn't mention the inaccuracy of a shooter. My neighbor admits that when he sees a deer, he gets all excited and has trouble aiming anyway. I just thought it would remove one bad part which would hopefully help with the rest. Me, I see a deer, I just aim and shoot. It doesn't excite me the way it does him. Then again, I don't get excited about a whole lot anyway.

@recoil junky Thanks much for the pictures. Those say more than text can say quickly. You do have good lighting which is needed. I've seen people talk about that in videos a lot. It's one reason I mentioned I'm going to try to put LEDs on my press. Seeing inside the case to check the powder is a good thing. It's not a accurate measure but it can let you see if one is empty or slam full and running over from a double charge. Each of those is a bad thing. I plan to have shelving on mine as well but attached to the bench most likely. Yours appears to be attached to the wall but not sure. It seems you have accumilated quite a bit of reloading stuff as well. I'm not going to say I won't ever have anything that size because, well, you know how it is. ROFL

At this point, I'm going to go find a set of decent dies and let her rip. I may get dies before I get the press it seems. One thing, I'm not brand loyal. I just want a good set which I think most all of them are anyway. Just subtle differences and personal preferences for the most part make them different.

Now to go dig. Thanks much.

 

[recoil junky]

Of course you should make as accurate of ammunition as you can no matter if it's for hunting or just plinking and no matter the caliber, cartridge or means of firing said ammo ( AR, bolt gun, revolver or pistol) As much as I hate load development all of my rifles, whether for hunting big game or ground dwelling rodents are all capable of shooting under 1/2 moa (or much smaller) groups due, for the the most part, to load development with out of the box rifles and "standard" dies, inexpensive brass ( RP, WW, Federal and Starline) and run of the mill "hunting" or "varmint" type bullets.

A 500 yard group from my 300RUM elk rifle, RP brass, loaded on my CoAx press with Lee dies

dies

A 100 yard load development group.



My Marine showing off his reloading and shooting skills with his .308 at 100 yards.



Just because a press "R" is indestructible doesn't mean it's more accurate or better than press "C" or any other combination of the alphabet just like Fords and Chevys.

You might have noticed threads started by novice reloaders or folks that want the gravy without first cooking the meat that go something like;

"Hey, new guy here and i want an accurate ( translated as one hole at 1 mile) load for my 440ought40 with "X" bullet, "X" powder. TIA"

And that's all we get. Well, it doesnt work that way and how you are going about gleaning and processing information is pretty dang impressive to say the least.

Am I an expert reloader? Weeeellll, yes and no. Yes in that I know what MY rifles will or won't shoot using my equipment. No in that my crystal ball doesn't work for pulling the magic load out of thin air.

I have taken the money of some of the local benchrest boys, not by out shooting them and their rifles, but by proving what I say my rifles will do.

Annyways

RJ

 

[WinMike]

Really, all you have to know about reloading is
Lee. Although I like my Hornady press and scale.

 

[dalek2.0]

I found these, both on backorder at the moment.

Lyman Deluxe 3-Die Set Carbide Expander Button 307 308 Winchester

The Lyman Deluxe 3-Die Rifle Sets most unique feature is a Carbide Sizing Button Assembly that is super hard and slick, eliminating the need for inside...

www.midwayusa.com

Redding Deluxe 3-Die Set 307 308 Winchester

Redding 3-Die Sets are available for rifle and pistol cartridges. The pistol sets contain a full length sizing die, expander die, and bullet seating...

www.midwayusa.com

Does one have any advantage over the other? The first link, Lyman, seems to have a carbide expander which I assume is better. It's a cheaper die set but that doesn't mean much. Thoughts? Should I also get a neck only since this will likely be fired in the same rifle? I've seen on videos that neck only makes the brass last a little longer.

I keep forgetting to mention that the Lyman book I ordered is supposed to be here today. They are running late today for some reason. I ordered it the other day, after the Modern Reloading book, but it made its way here pretty fast. No idea on the Modern Reloading book. It gets here when it gets here I guess. I was kinda wanting it first really. Oh well.

 

[MikeG]

Dale,

You're gonna run out of trajectory with the .44 mag, long before you run out of accuracy.... just sayin'

Dies are the LAST problem to worry about with a straight walled pistol cartridge.

 

[recoil junky]

Get some Lee collet dies for neck sizing, they flat work. Also I did a tutoriel on how to "tailor" your collet specifically for your ammo preferences. Takes a lot of undue strain out of any brand of press's linkage too.

RJ

 

[375Carp]

I used to buy neck sizing dies, but have learned that they are kind of a waste of money. You can set up a full length sizing die to do practically the same thing a neck sizing die will by turning the full length sizing die CCW (up) until it just touches the should during sizing. Not moving the shoulder back is what helps the brass life by neck sizing. By setting up the die as I mentioned, that is what you are doing. There are several threads on here about neck sizing, and using the FL sizing die set up this way normally comes up in the discussion.

 

[Blackhawk355]

You're gonna run out of trajectory with the .44 mag, long before you run out of accuracy.... just sayin'

When shooting silhouette, I launched 255's out of my .44 mag going about as fast as one could possibly get them. The spotter could see the bullet come into the spotting scope and hit the ram at 200 meters. My guess is that by the time the bullet got 200 meters out, it may have been doing something like 400fps. Used to know the formula that could figure how many pounds of energy 255 grains would generate at 400fps....................................... Anyway, I really don't think the .44 mag out of a pistol would be much use even out to 200 meters let alone much farther.

 

[dalek2.0]

Dale,

You're gonna run out of trajectory with the .44 mag, long before you run out of accuracy.... just sayin'

Dies are the LAST problem to worry about with a straight walled pistol cartridge.

That was my thinking earlier. After all, it is a pistol type round that is used in some rifles. While it is a pretty powerful round for a pistol, for a rifle, not so much. Long range for the 44 Mag is nothing to a 308 either. Still, I was hoping to get some additional accuracy out of it if needed since I hunt with it and all. I shoot 240 grain hollow points in it. I think the bullet part is Hornady. My friend with a 45-70 shoots a similar bullet but heavier.

Don't forget my links above. I'm thinking the Lyman may be a better die set. Just wanting confirmation from someone who knows more than me, which is a lot of people right now. Also, my Lyman book came in. USPS ran really late today. They usually here before noon but didn't make it until after 2 today.

 

[MikeG]

I've got dies sets from Lee, RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, Redding, and uh, maybe a Dillon set around the place somewhere.

They all work about as good as each other, honestly.

 

[Blackhawk355]

I've got dies sets from Lee, RCBS, Hornady, Lyman, Redding, and uh, maybe a Dillon set around the place somewhere.

I also have dies from just about every maker there is. Really can't tell a bit of difference at the range. I do like the way some work or look over others (Ford V.S. Chevy debate again) My favorites are Redding and R.C.B.S. but there is nothing wrong with the other brands either. They all adjust fine, hold their settings well and produce quality ammo.

 

[dalek2.0]

Well, no one is saying the Lyman is bad or not what I need so I'm adding it to the cart. I've now found this die set for 223, which is actually my 5.56MM AR round.

Redding Deluxe 3-Die Set 223 Remington

Redding 3-Die Sets are available for rifle and pistol cartridges. The pistol sets contain a full length sizing die, expander die, and bullet seating...

www.midwayusa.com

I also found a set that has a crimping die, it's a 4 die set. Does one need a crimping die for a 223/5.56MM?

I been looking at the Lyman book. It's a lot of reading but I'm getting there. What I've looked at so far is pretty close to what I been understanding. Of course, it has a lot, LOT, of yellow background parts that say "CAUTION" in it. The primer section has more than its share. Did anyone realize by law there is a limit on the number of primers a person can have? Some sort of fire code thing. I bet some serious preppers have to hide a lot of theirs. ROFL I've seen videos that I'd be like, that's a lot of primers. I mean, they stacked pretty high. I think they come 50 to a package but still, I've seen a few videos with a sizable stack of primers. I've seen powders that would maybe make Remington blush.

I got supper down so back to reading. See what y'all think about that 223 die set.

 

[Blackhawk355]

My .45-70 dies are Lyman. I recently added a .223 sizing die that is redding. Got both off e-bay at a good price. Both are great quality.

 

[misterc11]

Unless you devote a considerable amount of time learning first about the reloading process, then move to what is involved in the Precision reloading process, it would be difficult to go out an "only buy what I need once." I started with a Rockchucker Supreme, and I don't "need" another press, but I would like a Forster co-ax. I have a L.E Wilson Case trimmer. but I got great service from an RCBS trimmer. And until I got more into precision reloading, I did not know what I would need for MY precision reloading and added as I went. everything I have purchased on the journey is still serviceable and I use it for "other' reloading, such as pistol reloading, and for that I added Lee Turret press. I guess the bottom line is that most likely everyone here can give you a list of what they use, and it would do the job, but YOU have to decide what wil work for you, your firearm(s) your shooting style and goals.

 

[Darkker]

I also found a set that has a crimping die, it's a 4 die set. Does one need a crimping die for a 223/5.56MM?

If you have your dies set-up properly, no. I've had lots of jammed-up misfeeds from various AR's. Never set the bullet back any amount that caused quivering in the knees.