.308 WIN Dies for FT/R

[Gun Guy]

Hi Everyone,
I am an experienced reloader who is getting set up for FT/R Class. I need to get a set of dies for my RCBS press for .308 WIN. All of the dies I have to date are basic RCBS dies along with a few Lee and Hornady dies (all in calibers other than .308 WIN). What dies do you recommend for .308 WIN for FT/R?
Thank You

 

[gaboon]

I use a redding FL die and a Forrester Comp Seater die.

 

[savageshooter86]

I really like my John Whidden dies. His mic seater is the best I have used

 

[stinnett1981]

I use a Redding normal base body die, Lee collet die and Forster seating die. The Redding body die keeps my brass consistent. I noticed my group sizes got better since I started using the body die.

 

[Shynloco]

I use a Redding normal base body die, ..... The Redding body die keeps my brass consistent. I noticed my group sizes got better since I started using the body die.

Me too!

 

[Bart B.]

Straightest .308 Win cases have been made when full length sizing fired ones in a one-piece die whose neck's a couple thousandths smaller than that of a loaded round and the case shoulder's set back a couple thousandths. Such dies have produced the smallest many-shot test groups I know of; several 10-shot ones in a row all under 1.5 inches at 600 yards, for example. In SAAMI spec chambers, too; no tight chamber necks at all.

 

[jr600yd]

Forster Bench rest Dies and dont look back.

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

Hi Everyone,
I am an experienced reloader who is getting set up for FT/R Class. I need to get a set of dies for my RCBS press for .308 WIN. All of the dies I have to date are basic RCBS dies along with a few Lee and Hornady dies (all in calibers other than .308 WIN). What dies do you recommend for .308 WIN for FT/R?
Thank You

You will get various answers, all valid, with people doing incredible amounts of work and ministrations to their cases. Some of them date their cases, wine and dine them and take them to bed, or so it seems.

I'm much more prosaic in that I use a Redding small base F/L bushing die to decap and resize my cases after I have annealed them, I prime the cases, load the Varget and then I use a Redding competition seating die to seat my bullets and that's it.

I have 500 Lapua cases of the same lot and I use them in a round robin fashion. The five boxes are in different states of preparedness and I just keep them rolling.

I never resize a virgin case; I round out the mouth with a mandrel and then prime, load and seat. I now anneal after every firing, before resizing. I resize using the small base F/L die, pushing the shoulder back about .002 and using a neck tension of .003.

My cases never get dirty as I pull them from the bolt face and place them in the box. I use 0000 steel to remove anything that may be stuck on them before annealing. I tumble clean the cases after resizing to remove the Imperial sizing wax and polish them up a little. It makes inspection easier.

I always wait at least a week after resizing before seating bullets. This is to allow the brass to spring back and settle after resizing. I have no clue if it makes a difference but that's what I do.

I do not touch the primer pockets with anything but a primer; the primer pocket is the determining factor in my cases' lives, no sense hurrying it along.

I trim the cases to length after 3 firings with my WFT device and will then chamfer and deburr them with my RCBS trim mate.

I do not turn necks.

I described my powder loading in another recent thread here; it's a combination of Chargemaster 1500 to a GP-250 trickling Varget with an Omega device. I measure every load to the kernel of Varget.

This regimen has evolved over the years and it certainly worked well for me in Raton, especially for the FCNC; I did not leave any points on the loading table.

 

[Bart B.]

I applaud those who do every trick and treatment known by shooters to their .308 Win. cases and shoot remarkable groups and scores with them.

I also applaud the two people who used two Dillon 1050 progressives with standard seating dies including a Lyman neck uniformer loading a few thousand new, unprepped Winchester cases metering 45.3 gr. of IMR4895 to a 3/10ths spread then seating Sierra 155's to a .004" max bullet runout that put 20 randomly picked into 2.7 inches at 600 yards. And the reports from a couple dozen top ranked folks from around the world stated that ammo shot under 3 inches that far away in all sorts of chamber, bore and groove dimensions.

So, in my opinion, there's a few other things that make most decently assembled hand or reloads outperform all the others. The rifle's and the shooter's quality and technique surely has a lot to do with it.

 

[Concha]

I put a lot of weight in the last two post. I would ad that top shooters often have one or more of cases, bullets, primers and powder from the best lots available.

 

[Gun Guy]

Thanks Everyone for the helpful posts!

 

[broncman]

Redding full length body die, redding bushings set to bump .002". Lee collet die to size neck .002" under. Anneal every firing and clean brass before annealing. Trim on Wilson trimmer. Redding micrometer seating die.

Attention to brass sizing quality and consistency has helped group size and consistency tremendously.

 

[SWThomas]

What do you guys think about using a Redding Type S FLS die with the expander ball removed, and then running the brass over a 0.306 expander mandrel to round out mouths and set tension?

 

[memilanuk]

SWThomas,

Sounds like it'd probably work just fine... though I'm not sure I see the benefit/advantage over using a floating carbide ball (available as an aftermarket part from Redding) in the Type 'S' F/L bushing die in the first place. It's pretty much the same size (0.3060-0.3065") and floats and is self-centering on the stem.

I tend to go back and forth between this and using a body die plus a Lee collet die...

 

[Laurie]

What do you guys think about using a Redding Type S FLS die with the expander ball removed, and then running the brass over a 0.306 expander mandrel to round out mouths and set tension?

Sinclair's expander die plus the E30 mandrel (sold primarily for neck turning) works very well in this role giving very even and light neck-grip. This issue has been discussed previously on the forum and many experienced LR competitors have obtained better results with the bushing die / no expander plus mandrel approach.

If you buy a Forster Bushing-Bump die (my favourite sizer for my F/TR ammo in both 223 and 308), it doesn't include an expander. That's only viable with neck-turned or very consistent dimensioned brass, so a separate expander operation is a very good idea with this model.

 

[SWThomas]

SWThomas,

Sounds like it'd probably work just fine... though I'm not sure I see the benefit/advantage over using a floating carbide ball (available as an aftermarket part from Redding) in the Type 'S' F/L bushing die in the first place. It's pretty much the same size (0.3060-0.3065") and floats and is self-centering on the stem.

I tend to go back and forth between this and using a body die plus a Lee collet die...

That sounds like a cool aftermarket addition. I just have one issue, which I actually addressed to Redding... Bushing dies, to my understanding, are primarily used so you can vary the neck sizing and thus vary the neck tension. Why would someone use a bushing die to squeeze the neck down to a certain size just to drag a ball through and open it back up??? It would make sense if the intent was to sized the neck to 0.002 under bullet diameter, but if that's the case, why go with a bushing die at all???

Maybe someone can enlighten me. I've been scratching my head about this ever since I started reloading rifle rounds.

 

[dsbur]

http://redding-reloading.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=28%3Acarbide-size-button-kits

Here's what he was talking about on the floating button.

My Redding .308 Type S dies with the .336 bushing (no turn Lapua necks) and the Sinclair .3065 expander work great for me, and am currently ordering a proper Acrolap and gage pins to hone a FL Redding die myself as Redding doesn't offer this service so I can bump and neck size in one step (and get rid of the donuts hopefully).

 

[Turbulent Turtle]

Good question. Which is why I don't use an expander ball in my Redding bushing die. I have a bushing for each brand of brass that I use and just go with that.

 

[johnnyi]

I do not touch the primer pockets with anything but a primer; the primer pocket is the determining factor in my cases' lives, no sense hurrying it along.

So you dont clean the primer pocket at all? No primer squaring tool? So did you not see any difference between clean or not?

 

[SWThomas]

Good question. Which is why I don't use an expander ball in my Redding bushing die. I have a bushing for each brand of brass that I use and just go with that.

It just seems odd they would sell a die with interchangeable bushings available but not interchangeable expander balls.