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I am learning that about Hornaday Dies, will stick with Lee from now on. Just learned of the Higgson in Hawksbury today, feel a trip and pocket book getting lighter already. Like the electric ovens and 6 position bullet casters in .50 for Hawkin's 50 cal BP. Currently melt lead on turkey fryer stand and spoon out lead to 1 oz slug caster die as shown in Lee cataloge. Have about 300 lead slugs now, lot of work to trim and finish, but nothing like quality control and making your own.
Mark,
I have RCBS, Lee and Hornady dies. I find that each have their strengths and weaknesses. I suspect that much of the discussion comes from what each person is used to. I have mostly Hornady dies and I like them best. I find they are a little more versatile for adjusting on the press and setting seating depth.
rf2 is absolutely right about Neck Sizing Dies. I have Neck Size dies for just about all my sets. I really like the Lee factory crimp dies but they need to be set carefully. I already crimpe a number of 22-250 case too much. My reward was cracked necks and 5 more pieces of brass for my 'Dead Brass' bucket.
The RCBS dies set up nicely but I find that adjusting them with a wrench is a pain.
The Forster's would be nice but they are pricey.
For the Hornady dies you can buy a micro adjust seating stem (it fits all the dies) if you want to get some of the same performance as a Forster.
I use the Hornady cartridge compare tool with a modified case to measure the seating depth for all my rifles. This allows me to set and control the distance from the ogive to the lands when I am reloading. I find control of this really improves accuracy along with Neck Sizing. Note: Once you have Neck Sized that cartridge can only be chambered in the same rifle that originally fired it. If you want to use the cartridge in another rifle them the case has to be full sized.
I have the crimping die set with my new LEE .223 set. But I am questioning the need to do it, most info I found said if not originally crimped - no need.. I want to crimp the 55gr Hornadays, but not the 50gr varmit grenades. What the best course. P.S. never crimped before with all rds. Don't shoot more than 400M, so not really sure if needed, however have the urge to make the best bullets....frack..perfection can drive you mad....
Crimping does a number of things. It helps the cartridge chamber smoothly. Provides a little more pressure to yield more speed and normally assists in making all seating depths the same. Consistent seating depth equals tighter groups. Careful not to crimp too much. With 22cal cases it should be a light crimp.
Yup understand that part, I will crimp half of the batch of 223 I just loaded, Impact and I might go this weekend. Should be interesting to see the difference in shooting the two differnet types of settings. Crimping today.... Here a picture of loading room during construction..the trade off was wife demanded cabinets and shelving units in Laundry room for "stuff" I was displacing in furnace room.
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LOL. I always have something on my "Honey Do' list. I am fortunate in that I have a 24 x 30 shop out back. I am going to build a reloading room inside the shop (5 x 10). Do you have a chronograph? I have been clocking speeds and taking data for over a year now. The biggest difference I see is temperature. The down range results are apparent but it is always interesting to see the speed changes with crimping. I normally shoot a minimum of 10 rounds to ensure at least some statistical validity. I haven't toyed with using magnum primers yet for standard long rifle. The general theory being the using a magnum primer in winter helps reduce the impact of cold temperatures by yielding a greater flash to the powder. It is on my 'to do' list but not a priority. Faster is not always better
No chronograph yet, just seen them recently on some posted links here. Just starting out with whole reloading thing, only about 1 year now on my own. Chris my old buddy got me into it when I got back into guns. His reloading "shop" was relegated to boxes when I met up with him, the wife turned it into a bathroom...lol
I welded together my own rest for shooting. With the rest and the chrony I get some pretty reliable data on what the bullets are doing. The chrony is key to understanding the whole story. I bought mine at Lebaron (about $139). I had a bullet delaminate after leaving the barrel last year - it destroyed my first one. Just joined the EOSC and I am heading there this weekend to test more loads. I just put together some 22-250 loads with CFE 223 and Superformance. Going to do a side by side compare. Then I will test some new 30-06 loads using IMR 4895 with 100 Gr V-Max. I expect somewhere close to 3500 fps (probably something less given the air temp)
Do you find the CFE actually does what it is advertised to do - "Copper Fouling Eraser". I've heard that it is a really good powder, but I wonder if it really gets rid of copper fouling.
rf... I don't have enough experience with this powder yet to tell if it is working as advertised. I do know that it is like rocket fuel for my 22-250 loads. The Hodgdon load data for a 55 gr bullet with a max load of 39.3 Gr CFE 223 is 3855 fps. Two weeks ago I clocked 5 rounds at +3950 fps on at -6 C