In my redding dies I get a dent in the shoulder of the case in 6mm CM .I never get a dent with my forester or even RCBS dies . Anyone think forester dies are better ?
What's better Redding dies or Forester Dies
- Thread starter Ironworker
- Start date
I like forster full length sizing dies.. For hunting or average guns all I use. Their bench rest seater makes as straight a rounds as my wilson in line dies
I do like the redding universal decapping die for small flash holes
I like the whidden full length sizing die with the expander ball kit
They all work. Some just better than others. Depends on purpose.
Harrell's if they make the die.
Wildcats whidden custom.
The list goes on
I do like the redding universal decapping die for small flash holes
I like the whidden full length sizing die with the expander ball kit
They all work. Some just better than others. Depends on purpose.
Harrell's if they make the die.
Wildcats whidden custom.
The list goes on
Does your Redding die have a vent hole and did you clean the vent hole out?
Dusty Stevens
Shiner
Dont lube the shoulder or neck and keep the redding til you upgrade to a whidden
NZ_Fclass
Silver $$ Contributor
I use both. Forster for 308 F class and Redding for 223 F class. Both excellent. Forster are their Benchrest dies,ie no bushing. The 223s are bushed,.247. Ialso have Reddng for Grendel, 17 Hornet and 6 BR. For a few other calibres, mainy hunting loadss, a mix of RCBS, Hornady and Lee collet dies. Just starting to play with a Whidden FL for 6mm SLR with excellent results so far. May look to Whidden again in the future. Great service from them. I guess that the maker is not so important as the quality f the ammo produced, and that I have the confidence of the ammo. Lifes too short fot inacurate ammo or rifles for that matter.
Both are good. I've used a bunch of different dies, especially for seating. The Forster F/L benchrest sizer dies make very straight cases, used with or without the ball. Whidden F/L non bushing sizers make straight cases too. I have Whidden bushing dies as well. They work great. I have Redding dies too. All work well if properly set up. I will also say that, in a co-ax press, all my dies ( Forster, Redding and whidden) work well for sizing. The seaters are just ok. I have recently switched to an arbor press with LE Wilson in-line seaters. They are the best, IMO.
I have tried Lee collet dies ( custom made 6mmbr and 6.5x47L) and a Vickerman seater. Neither worked well for me.
PopCharlie
I have tried Lee collet dies ( custom made 6mmbr and 6.5x47L) and a Vickerman seater. Neither worked well for me.
PopCharlie
That’s one thing I was disappointed with as soon as I took it out of the box was the finish compared to other dies like rcbs or Redding it was very rough Although it worked OK shortly afterward bullets started sticking and I discovered a cracked stem
The surface finish is only an issue because of what I feel is a design flaw. Because they want so badly to grab the bullet as close to the bearing surface as possible, they made the stem incredibly thin. So not only is it thin and weak, but because it's so thin, it will actually yield outward with normal neck tension, permanently "flaring" the end of the stem. The design has too much hoop stress on that thin stem wall.
The stem *needs* the support of the tight clearance in that bore. Combine that with less-than-great finish on the stem OD and the bore ID and you have a recipe for sticking, galling, and wear.
If they just made the stem walls thicker and grabbed the bullet more on the ogive, the flaw would be fixed. It's nice to want to have maximum bullet straightness, but the straightness is achieved by the tight clearance in the stem bore, so grabbing lower on the bullet is unnecessary.
Wilson seaters can make excellently straight ammo without a fragile thinwall stem; it's disappointing that Forster hasn't figured this out yet.
I could have a local machine shop whip up some "fixed" stems to sell, but I doubt people would want to pay $40 or so just to have stem problem fixed; it's cheaper to just keep buying or begging replacements from Forster.
jelenko
Gold $$ Contributor
Just my experience. I've seated ~ 70,000 223 rounds in the past 13 years [mixture of H68/75's, S69/77's and some Berger 73/80.5's with a couple Forster dies, including a couple thousand of pretty compressed loads when I was trying Vihtavuori powders. The rounds do all come out less than 1.5 thousandths run out [the vast majority barely move the needle] but with no broken stems. These were all bought at least 10 years ago.
I don’t think the non-bushing full length dies have the vent hole.
jepp2
Gold $$ Contributor
And thin. I quite using them when lightly compressed loads made the wall swell and start hanging up in the die. Look for yourself and compare.
Me too - I've loaded many thousands of rounds with this make in getting on for double-figure cartridge models with good results and without ever suffering any seating stem issues, so other people's reported experiences surprised me. These days, much of what I load seems to use a compressed charge too, and again no stem issues.
On Redding, note that somewhere in the company's small print on its 'Competition' dies, there is a warning that the Comp seater must not be used with compressed charges. It took me a long time to become aware of this, but I found it out the hard way in 223 Rem loading 69s and 77s at magazine length.
Although I mostly use Forster these days and have bought Whidden too (very good), I'd reckon both Forster and Redding make very good dies and to a large extent choice comes down to personal preference, availability, price and suchlike.
My understanding is that Forster used to harden and heat treat the stems, but no longer does.
http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/foster-die-problem.3916931/
I thought this also since I get the same problem with my 250ai but I dont lube the shoulder. Possibly trapped air? I notice that RCBS dies have a hole in the side of the die to release trapped air but my Reddings do not. I pulled the stem out and I can hear a distinct pop when removing the case as if a vacuum or pressure was released.
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I live about 40miles from Forster and would deal with them in a minute but as time went on and I went to bushings their bushings only work in their dies . Redding’s work in theirs and Wilson’s and are more universal. Forster’s are very good and less expensive and I would use them except for that.
Don't take this the wrong way but the reloading manuals tell you to wipe any lube off the neck and shoulder before sizing. And any excess lube on the case body will flow upward into the shoulder area.
And Hornady One Shot is a dry film lube that does not flow upward into the shoulder area.
Don't feel bad, the last time I resized some 30-30 cases I got carried away with my homemade alcohol and lanolin spray lube. I didn't wipe the shoulders and necks off and had dented shoulders.
And dented shoulder can happen with any brand of resizing die if they are over lubed.
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