Redding Pro Tc Seating Die (45acp) On 550b

[Carolina Shooter]

Greetings,

I am a newbie reloader and have a couple questions for anyone that is familiar with Redding Pro titanium carbide dies installed on a 550B.

With the platform in the up position, I can not turn the seating die far enough to touch the shell plate as described in the Redding directions. The die stops about a half inch away from the shell plate without a case.

However; the Dillon tech informed me that the die should be installed with a bullet placed on a case and then raise the platform. Next, screw the die down until it touches the bullet head with seating stem backed all the way out. Start the adjustments from here until OAL is reached. Lock the die down with a case and bullet seated with the platform in the fully raised position.

I was able to create a dummy round using either method with proper adjustment of the seating stem. However; I do notice that the Redding methods appears to seat and crimp in one motion. According to Dillon and most of the members of this board, you should seat and crimp on separate stations.

Now for the questions:

1. Should the die be able to reach the shellpate with the platform raised?

2. Keep the die and seat the die according to Dillon's instructions?

3. Place a powder checker die in station three and allow station 4 to seat and crimp?

4. How do you install your seater and crimper die?

Thanks In Advance!

[.40AET]

I did some reading on Reddings site. The "Pro Series" dies have separate bullet seating and crimping dies. Please keep in mind that I'm running Lee dies not Redding.

Answers:

1. It doesn't have to touch the shellplate to work. My dies don't and they work fine.

2. Yes. If you meant keep the seating die and the crimping die. That's the best setup.

3. According to Reddings information, you have separate dies for crimp and seating, so you can't add a powder check.

4. The important thing to installing the dies, like the Dillon rep stated, is that there is a case in each station before you lock any of the dies down. This keeps the dies in the center of each hole when they are locked down. My seating and crimping dies are as low as they can go. The crimp die also resizes so it almost touches the shellplate, similar to the decrimping die. The seater die won't go all the way down, so I didn't worry about it.

You have a hot set of dies, the hard part is getting them dialed in just right. It will get easier with practice.

[Carolina Shooter]

I did some reading on Reddings site. The "Pro Series" dies have separate bullet seating and crimping dies. Please keep in mind that I'm running Lee dies not Redding.

Answers:

1. It doesn't have to touch the shellplate to work. My dies don't and they work fine.

2. Yes. If you meant keep the seating die and the crimping die. That's the best setup.

3. According to Reddings information, you have separate dies for crimp and seating, so you can't add a powder check.

4. The important thing to installing the dies, like the Dillon rep stated, is that there is a case in each station before you lock any of the dies down. This keeps the dies in the center of each hole when they are locked down. My seating and crimping dies are as low as they can go. The crimp die also resizes so it almost touches the shellplate, similar to the decrimping die. The seater die won't go all the way down, so I didn't worry about it.

You have a hot set of dies, the hard part is getting them dialed in just right. It will get easier with practice.

Thanks for the response. I guess I'll keep them.