Redding Pro Series Seater Problems

[jschweg]

I picked up a set of Redding Pro Series dies to start loading 40 (Not the competition seater). I normally use the Dillion dies for everything else, but due to not being able to get them due to shortages, etc. I grabbed these when I found them.

 

It seems like the diameter of the seating die is abnormally small. I load coated bullets in .401, so I bell the case a good bit more to prevent scraping, but the edge of my bell hits the wall of the die. If I back the die out so it fits, it isn't enough and I start scraping the coating from the bullet.

 

I know there are handful of folks who use and like these dies, but the seater just seems too small and I'm bewildered.

[Sarge]

I use that die in 9mm. It will accept a pretty large bell with no problem. First thing I would try is loosening the die and try running brass up in it then tightening to see if it self centers.

[jschweg]

It's wierd. Even if I just take the die out of the press and put a belled case into the die with my fingers, it contacts the wall. I know that makes it sound like I'm putting a ridiculous bell on the case, and yes, it's a little bigger to accommodate coated, but it's not that big. If I compare the opening and inside diameter with my Dillon 9mm seater die, the 9mm die is noticeably larger than this 40 seater.

[Farmer]

I run into that with my Redding’s also. They seem to have less taper to the mouth than other dies. Even on my 327 Fed dies they will scrape with lead bullets.  I did have to send a profile crimp die back to them and have it honed out at the top because it was shaving my .358 lead bullets for my 357 mag. 

Edited April 5, 2021 by Farmer
Added

[AHI]

I had to have a pro seating die opened up in 38spl . This was to load 148 wadcutters seated flush .

No matter how the die was adjusted it would start crimping . (this was a seating only die)

[jschweg]

Thanks for the replies and the confirmation that others have had similar problems. I asked Redding about it and they offered to open the die up for me if I sent them some belled cases and sample bullets. I thought that was pretty nice of them.

 

Of course my attention span is about 5 seconds long and I already ordered a Dillon seater, but I'll send it back and see what they can do. I really like the secondary adjustment that you get on these Redding dies.

[jschweg]

20 hours ago, AHI said:

I had to have a pro seating die opened up in 38spl . This was to load 148 wadcutters seated flush .

No matter how the die was adjusted it would start crimping . (this was a seating only die)

 

Yup, I'm having the same experience in addition to what I posted. The round comes out of the seat die crimped to the point where I wouldn't even need to use the crimp die.