Forster 223 Micrometer seater for 223AI?
- Thread starter BoilerUP
- Start date
I don't have any experience in this, but I would think that you would have poor results because the AI case would not go high enough in the die causing the seater stem to be extremely low, not allowing the case to be supported during seating.
you can't.....sadly. I have an AI and a forster micrometer sitting here in front of me that's not only used for my AR's... :-/
they CAN be reamed with the same reamer as your chamber, but a smith would have to handle that for you....when I rebarrel, that's what I'm going to do.
they CAN be reamed with the same reamer as your chamber, but a smith would have to handle that for you....when I rebarrel, that's what I'm going to do.
You can call Forster to see if they have a 223AI reamer that they could make you a sleeve with. I have called them about it before and they act like they had done it before but they didn't have what I wanted. I had a gunsmith take a 243 sleeve and he reamed it to 6-284 for me and it works perfect.
how do you pull the seater apart....i pulled the top off at one point, but never really spent MUCH time trying to pull it apart to get the sleeve to my smith to ream
Ackman
Gold $$ Contributor
An AI case won't even come close to fitting into a std. 233 die. Don't know about Forster but Redding sliders aren't hardened and can be reamed to something larger. But Redding makes 223AI micrometer dies anyway. Forster is good but I prefer the Redding comp seater because markings are brighter and easier to read, and the die is small enough to fit a std. die box.
CatShooter
Ackman said:
The Forster sleeves aren't hardened either...
And I recently bought a new Ultra seater, and they are now making the micrometer heads out of black anodized aluminum instead of steel, and the numbers are larger and easy to read.
LRPV said:
wow, so yeah, that was easier than I was thinking, haha. At before, I thought I had to screw the top, marked part, off.....but, yeah, mines apart and going to the smith!
Spent about 30min this morning trimming the die chamber on a Forster floating chamber seater in 6.5/284 so that a .260rem neck would sit within the neck recess. Parted-off about .25" from the bottom of the die chamber. Thseater, a Forster Benchrest, now does Exactly what I want.
Bullet seating ain't rocket science. What matters is that the case's neck is supported and the seating stem stays in perfect alignment. The .284 case has a .500 +/- bore while the .260 is .473ish. My die body will still work fine with a 6.5/284, should I ever go there, but in meantime, the die chamber seats .260 rem just fine.
I used to buy Redding micro top "quality sets", then bought some Forster Ultras. Never bought another Redding micro top. Bought a Benchrest Forster when couldn''t find an Ultra and decided they are really better...
The trouble I see with the mic-top gizmos, except the new jobs Redding sells to retrofit their standard dies, is that the seater stem is Not Permanently affixed to the mic-head. So... the mic adjustment only stays in known relationship to the depth dial as long as the stem isn't moved.
The Benchrest Seater of Forster's uses all the same parts as the Ultra except seating stem. The Benchrest has a more coarse thread pitch, and uses a different stop screw.... Dunno about you, but I tend to set the seater using a dummy or previously loaded round if seating same bullet. Mostly I use one bullet per cartridge. The Mic-Head seaters take longer to setup. Since I own a digital caliper and bullet comparator gage, I don't need the dial.
Forster is great for offering all the die chamber seater benefits w/o having to pay another $50 for the useless mic-head gizmo.
Forster will also sell die chambers and other parts which Redding will not.
The .223AI could be loaded with another Forster die chamber that has enough body bore to accept the case and fully seat the case neck.
Sending the die chamber to "my gunsmith" is a bad move; unless your guy does custom die work. Most guys don't own the special reamers needed to make dies. Of course, as I mentioned above, don't really matter for a bullet seater unless you are unable to accept that the case held at neck and base (in shellholder) is not moving or shifting and sure isn't deforming when the bullet is pressed into the neck. Using a boattail bullet most of the time aren't you? They start very easily and orient very cleanly...
If you have enough bore to accept your case and if the die chamber's length allows the neck to be fully supported, the rest of the die chamber doesn't matter...
Bullet seating ain't rocket science. What matters is that the case's neck is supported and the seating stem stays in perfect alignment. The .284 case has a .500 +/- bore while the .260 is .473ish. My die body will still work fine with a 6.5/284, should I ever go there, but in meantime, the die chamber seats .260 rem just fine.
I used to buy Redding micro top "quality sets", then bought some Forster Ultras. Never bought another Redding micro top. Bought a Benchrest Forster when couldn''t find an Ultra and decided they are really better...
The trouble I see with the mic-top gizmos, except the new jobs Redding sells to retrofit their standard dies, is that the seater stem is Not Permanently affixed to the mic-head. So... the mic adjustment only stays in known relationship to the depth dial as long as the stem isn't moved.
The Benchrest Seater of Forster's uses all the same parts as the Ultra except seating stem. The Benchrest has a more coarse thread pitch, and uses a different stop screw.... Dunno about you, but I tend to set the seater using a dummy or previously loaded round if seating same bullet. Mostly I use one bullet per cartridge. The Mic-Head seaters take longer to setup. Since I own a digital caliper and bullet comparator gage, I don't need the dial.
Forster is great for offering all the die chamber seater benefits w/o having to pay another $50 for the useless mic-head gizmo.
Forster will also sell die chambers and other parts which Redding will not.
The .223AI could be loaded with another Forster die chamber that has enough body bore to accept the case and fully seat the case neck.
Sending the die chamber to "my gunsmith" is a bad move; unless your guy does custom die work. Most guys don't own the special reamers needed to make dies. Of course, as I mentioned above, don't really matter for a bullet seater unless you are unable to accept that the case held at neck and base (in shellholder) is not moving or shifting and sure isn't deforming when the bullet is pressed into the neck. Using a boattail bullet most of the time aren't you? They start very easily and orient very cleanly...
If you have enough bore to accept your case and if the die chamber's length allows the neck to be fully supported, the rest of the die chamber doesn't matter...
so for a 223ai die...what body would you suggest, or what WOULD you suggest to do? Right now I have the a lee seater, and as good as it works....it's difficult making seating adjustments with any regularity or consistency due to a lack of fine adjustment and graduations.
On the mic seaters, I do agree that the graduations aren't really necessary....but the course and fine adjustment properties of the die are greatly missed.
On the mic seaters, I do agree that the graduations aren't really necessary....but the course and fine adjustment properties of the die are greatly missed.
GSRswapandslow said:
Call Forster and buy a new sleeve and have it reamed to 223AI and then just swap the sleeves in your current die when you need to. Or buy another 223 seater and have the sleeve reamed and not bother switching the sleeves back and forth. It might be cheaper in the long run to just buy another brand of seater that is already a 223AI, I don't know what the cost is though. I like the Forster Ultra micrometer dies and have them for everything I load for except the calibers I have Wilson seaters for. For me the ease of use of the micrometer top is well worth the extra money.
CatShooter
Nomad47 said:
Yes... they have the parts in a whole kit, ready to go - about $35-$40.
LRPV said:
i have 4 or 5 sets of 223 dies and only 1 set of AI dies...so, I'm not out anything by reaming one
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