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Redding Competition Seating Die


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Heck, yeah! I love those dies! I have them for all the calibers I reload. I really like the micrometer bullet adjustment. Makes it so easy to try different bullets or switch between different bullet types for major/minor loads. I have a list of the mic' settings for each bullet and can change seating depth in a flash. B)

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I got one a few weeks ago. It's so easy to adjust seating depth, previously it's all guess work and when the dies got tightened up afterwards it always changed the seating depth.

They are worth the money in my opinion.

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I bought one for my AR. About 5 years ago I was seriously thinking about getting into high power shooting after attending the clinic at Camp Perry. I lived about an hour from there at the time while the nearest USPSA club was north of Detroit. Fortunately, the Toledo guys got a range and were up and running the next year.

Anyway, the Redding die worked great. Very fine adjustments. I was loading heavy low drag long bullets with a critical OAL.

However, I do not change seating depth often enough in my pistol rounds to warrant the added expense of additional seating dies.

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The biggest advantage in pistol calibers is that it seats the bullets STRAIGHT, EVERY time. That alone is worth the price of the die.

I use them in every caliber I can afford to buy them for, meaning I have a few and intend to buy a few more as finances permit.

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The biggest advantage in pistol calibers is that it seats the bullets STRAIGHT, EVERY time. That alone is worth the price of the die.

I use them in every caliber I can afford to buy them for, meaning I have a few and intend to buy a few more as finances permit.

+1 on pistol calibers. Between Lee undersized dies and Redding seating dies, my chamber checker rejects have shrunken to very nearly zero - maybe 2 rounds/1K these days, and those almost invariably turn out to be split case mouths or a really awful ejector divot...

The other nice thing is the ability to quickly adjust for the variation in seating depth that occurs when single-loading/setting up a progressive press, and the "spring" in the setup inherent to a rotating shell plate and resistance in the sizing and crimping dies later. First round with a full shellplate a bit long? Not to worry, just dial that puppy down 0.003-0.005 (usually) and it's off to the races...

Only way to fly - you'll never be sorry...

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Even if you don't have a bunch of different, say 38 super loads, it's still very nice to have as I always seem to get just a slight variation when I change back and forth between calibers on the same machine.

Just run a few through, mic them and twist the adjustment if needed. Simple.

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Have any of you found the spring to change the seating over time. I have found my lengths to be ~0.005 longer as of late. I have wondered if the spring in the seating die is getting looser?

Ira

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Ira, it isn't the spring. The seating stem bottoms out against the top adjustment knob setting seating depth rather than the spring. The spring just pushes the stem down so that it can engage the bullet as it is aligned with the case.

Did you open a new box of bullets? The CSD seats off the ogive, not the end of the bullet. A new lot of bullets with a slightly different ogive profile will make a 5 thou change in OAL easily.

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Ira, it isn't the spring. The seating stem bottoms out against the top adjustment knob setting seating depth rather than the spring. The spring just pushes the stem down so that it can engage the bullet as it is aligned with the case.

Did you open a new box of bullets? The CSD seats off the ogive, not the end of the bullet. A new lot of bullets with a slightly different ogive profile will make a 5 thou change in OAL easily.

I was surprised at the difference in ogive (from box to box) on my SRA 69 223. This die makes it much easier to tweak the oal back to specs.

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Did you open a new box of bullets? The CSD seats off the ogive, not the end of the bullet. A new lot of bullets with a slightly different ogive profile will make a 5 thou change in OAL easily.

I check OAL periodically while reloading just to make sure nothing has moved on me. I have noticed a slight change before when changing to a new box of bullets, all other things remaining the same. I suppose bullets formed on one machine vs. another at the manufacturer might just produce such variances. Easy to fix with that Redding die though! :wub:

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Just to be clear Lorrie and I LOVE the Redding Competition Seating die. We have one on both her 650 and my 550. I was just kind of worried that something might be going wrong. It probably is the ogive. I did not know that the seating stem bottoms out. That is good to know.

The Zero's I was loading were a new box. But the Montana Gold were not... Personally I don't think the 5 thousands will be a big deal. I just saw a trend with 2 different bullet types and thought something might be wrong. (Yea it was about 5 thousands on both types.)

Anyway, you are right a quick adjustment is all I will need. :D

Thanks again,

Ira

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Thank's everyone! Got my die last week and it's as good as everyone said it is. Seems to be holding within .002" OAL. Truly amazing and well worth the money. Got it from Wideners and it was $64.00 to my door.

Mark

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  • 1 month later...

Suggest you might switch to an adapter for your caliper that measures off the ogive. Sinclair precision sells three different dillon one, midway. costs less than $10,. The first rounds on a progressive press may vary as the shell plate loads up with a cartridge in each slot. Pursuing it further you can get hellicoils from uniqietek.com to remove tool head wobble even further

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