Forster Die Honing Question

S

sawacs

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Hello gents.. First time post so here goes;)

I am reloading brand new Lapua brass for my CBI lite varmint barrel in 260 along with a heavier barreled 6.5-284.

My measurement for the unloaded case necks, for both rounds, are .291 neck OD. My loaded round neck OD is .295 for both rounds.

The plan is to send both my dies, Forster, in and have the dies honed to .290 so the brass isnt worked as hard.

Does math sound about right? Also, both chambers are no-turn chambers.

The only brass processing I will be doing initially is running an expand mandrel from K&M through the necks.

Thanks,

Shawn
 
M.D.Spencer said:
To hone the ID?
Click to expand...

According to Foster, their die necks are set to .285 OD for the 260 and 6.5-284. I would have them hone the neck of the die out to .291 OD or .290 OD so the brass isnt worked as much when sizing. the The Forster rep said you should have a .004 to .005 difference between the sizer and the case neck.

Thanks,

Shawn
 
Buy new DIES it may be cheaper. How do you know,the tighter neck may work better? You need a bushing die then you can try whatever you want.

Joe Salt
 
I agree with Joe, if you go with a bushing type die you'll have the option of playing with neck tension. I like the Redding Type S, FL sizing dies that use bushings to size the neck.

Dick
 
sawacs said:
Hello gents.. First time post so here goes;)

I am reloading brand new Lapua brass for my CBI lite varmint barrel in 260 along with a heavier barreled 6.5-284.

My measurement for the unloaded case necks, for both rounds, are .291 neck OD. My loaded round neck OD is .295 for both rounds.

The plan is to send both my dies, Forster, in and have the dies honed to .290 so the brass isnt worked as hard.

Does math sound about right? Also, both chambers are no-turn chambers.

The only brass processing I will be doing initially is running an expand mandrel from K&M through the necks.

Thanks,

Shawn
Click to expand...

Sounds like a good plan to me. There are some advantages to using full length dies over bushing neck dies, and if you can minimize the amount that the expander needs to open the neck after sizing, you can get really straight cases. It works even better if you expand the necks in a separate operation with a mandrel instead of dragging a button through them. If the price is reasonable I say go for it.
 
$12 plus return shipping, send them three fired cases and your die they will hone to match your chamber for the tension you want.
 
Thanks for the advice..

Believe it or not, I have the Redding competition bushing neck sizing die for the 6.5-284 and the regular Redding type s full bushing die for the 260. After reading about some drawbacks to bushing dies, I decided to stick with regular dies for now. Regarding the send three fired cases to them, I am thinking that might not be a good idea. The chambers are no-turn chambers. If I send them three fired cases per cartridge and have them hone the dies out, there might not be enough for proper neck tension afterwards? One other aspect I need to consider is whether or not I turn the necks just to clean them up. Wouldnt running the cases through the expand mandrel, loading a round and measuring the OD of the case neck be enough to calculate the amount of honing to be done for a no turn chamber?

Thanks fellas,

Shawn
 
You need a FL bushing die. Or hope your next batch of brass measures exactly the same. I have many die sets for a 6.5x284 and use whidden or redding the most
 
Contrary to what you may have read the most accurate guns in the world are loaded with FL bushing dies. 99.99% of the winning list are anyway.
 
Dusty Stevens said:
Contrary to what you may have read the most accurate guns in the world are loaded with FL bushing dies. 99.99% of the winning list are anyway.
Click to expand...

I have to confess that I use bushing dies for almost everything. I know there is a camp out there that advocates for full length dies on the contention that a perfectly straight, concentric one piece die should size cases straighter than anything with 2 pieces and that a bushing die leaves a small portion of the neck unsized which in theory might be detrimental to accuracy. You are absolutely right that the winners of nearly all benchrest competitions still use bushing dies. (I say nearly all, but I know that there are a few winners out there that prefer one piece dies.)

I do have some friends that have done exactly what the OP is considering, had full length dies honed to a size that does not over work the brass. They love them, so I certainly don't see a problem with it. The disadvantage is simply that the honed dies are only good for a narrow range of neck thickness, so if they are perfect for one batch of new cases, they might not work with the next batch. We know that the thickness of Lapua .220 Russian brass is currently less than it was just a few years ago.

If the cost of honing is $12 that is less than a bushing alone, so I don't see a big downside.
 
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