Use a standard seating die for an AI?

[mattri]

If you were going from a standard round, lets say 243 win, to an AI version could you use the standard 243 seater die to seat bullets in formed 243 AI cases?

 

[Erik Cortina]

No. The AI has less taper on the body as well as a different shoulder angle. The fit will be poor even if you get it to fit.

 

[mattri]

What a stupid thing to miss- some Mondays are worse than others.

 

[SBS]

If you use the Hornady seating die, you can seat both std. and AI rounds. Their seating die only has a sliding sleeve that lines up the neck with the bullet before seating and has no taper inside the die body. I use one for both the standard .223 and the AI version for my varmint rounds.

 

[Tim Singleton]

If you use the Hornady seating die, you can seat both std. and AI rounds. Their seating die only has a sliding sleeve that lines up the neck with the bullet before seating and has no taper inside the die body. I use one for both the standard .223 and the AI version for my varmint rounds.

+1
I really like the design for this reason it works well

 

[BoydAllen]

Not be disagreeable, but some time back, I bought a Hornady die set for the one piece FL die (whole other story). Some time later, out of curiosity, I tried the seater, comparing it, with the same custom FB bullets and batch of sized cases to a Wilson seater. The runout was double for rounds where the Hornady was used. If someone wants one, if you pay the postage, and I can find it....

 

[jcampbellsmith]

If you were going from a standard round, lets say 243 win, to an AI version could you use the standard 243 seater die to seat bullets in formed 243 AI cases?

My Redding competition seater for 243 Win would seat bullets in full length resized 243 Ackley cases but not in neck sized 243 Ackley cases. I asked a similar question and got all sorts of opinions.

The answer was it really depends on your dies and your chamber and the route you take. Initially I could only neck size my 243 Ackley cases, but once I got a custom Hornady full length resizing die, that issue was fixed.

Regards

JCS

 

[bsekf]

I have found that MOST of the time you can use a standard seating and even collet dies on AI cases. You do have to measure carefully to make sure the die does not contact the case any place but the neck. You can't use a standard sizing die on a AI. I often bump the shoulder back on a 30x444 with a 30 Alaskan sizing die and use a 444 Marlin sizing die to size any body in the 308 or 30-06 family.