Whidden Custom Dies

[Tom3006]

I have had a different experience with my Whidden (6.5 Creedmoor) dies. They shipped me the wrong FL sizer die to begin with (see http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/no-neck-tension-with-whidden-non-bushing-resizing-dies.3914011/) and didn't reimburse me for return shipping despite the fact that it was their mistake. Also out of all the seating dies I own (Hornady, Forster, Redding and Lee) my Whidden produces the most inconsistent seating depths of all of them. On a side note I bought a set of Lee collet dies since they're pretty inexpensive and I was just curious how they compared to my super expensive Whidden dies and I get just as good if not better groups with the Lee dies.

 

[Badbob]

Thanks Tom! I have the Whidden set for 6x47 and have been impressed with using them to resize the brass but I have not gotten to seating yet. I'll keep an eye on consistency. BB

 

[TikkaSporter]

Appreciate this info. I've been considering getting a Forster FL Sizer with the neck custom honed to a specific diameter, but will now look into these custom Whidden dies. I'm assuming you have to buy dies of some sort in order to be able to load the dummy rounds you're sending to Whidden. What's the recommended process for that?

Good question... I'll be going down this road soon. The first question is do you need three 1x fired cases (fired from virgin brass)? or do you need a case (or three) that have been fired multiple times (3x?), neck sized only, in the same chamber to ensure that they are fully formed to the chamber?

1X fired from virgin brass is pretty easy. All you would need is a seating die. To some extent you can use a seating die from another similar caliber to seat a different caliber. For example seating 6.5x47 in a 6.5 Creedmoor die. I seated 6.5x47 in a 260 die once. It wasn't smooth and the COAL wasn't real consistent, but for this purpose, it would be fine. Wondering if I could seat for a 6.5 x 55 ackley with a 260 Redding Micrometer seating die? Maybe a better way to go about it is to order the seating die first from the reamer print specs and use it with virgin brass to get your 3 fired cases for the sizing die.

Now if more than 1x fired, neck sized, brass is needed to ensure that it is fully formed to the chamber, things could get slightly more difficlut. One customer die manufacturer suggested that I use lots of lube, an appropriate sized neck bushing, and a small mallet to size the neck enough on a fired case to seat a bullet to fire it again. Also wondering if I could insert the appropriate neck bushing in my Redding 308 cal micrometer neck sizing die to size a 6.5x55 ackley case?