Ian
Notorious member
Of all the handloading tools I own, the bullet seating die has been one of the most critical for accuracy in my rifles. Cast bullets like to try and go every which way but straight into the case, and a die that supports the case neck and aligns and holds the bullet straight during the entire operation is quite handy. I tried several different brands of these dies and have found two which actually work for me: The Forster benchrest seating die (available with or without the micrometer thimble) and the Wilson dies used in conjunction with an arbor press. Not being one who participates in sanctioned competitions much, I had to more or less figure this out on my own. If I had attended a CBA match at some point and taken the opportunity to observe some of those gentlemen working their craft I'm sure my learning curve would have been much less steep. Anyway, these two tools WORK.
One caveat about the Forster. You will likely have to modify it if you are using bullets much more than .001" over nominal jacketed diameter. A simple lap job of the neck area of the internal sliding sleeve with a dowel and oiled emery paper to fit your necks closely with the bullet diameter and case neck diameter of your choosing makes for a very solid setup. If the other steps of the case preparation process such as resizing and neck expansion/bellmouthing are done correctly, a guided bullet seating die will typically yield cartridge runout less than .002", and this has a very significant effect on accuracy.
One tool that I consider a waste of money for loading cast bullets is the Hornady New Dimension rifle seating die with the neck/shoulder support collar. These may work on a self-aligning press such as a Forster Co-Ax, but in typical presses there is enough mis-alignment between shellholder and die to overcome the limited support of the neck/shoulder insert and cause the entire neck to be slightly bent as the bullet is seated. Perhaps I'm simply not using the dies correctly, but I have much better luck with the Forster seating die and have purchased one for each of my bottle-neck rifle calibers. For me, at least, he results shown on my targets fully justify the expense of these specialty seating tools.
One caveat about the Forster. You will likely have to modify it if you are using bullets much more than .001" over nominal jacketed diameter. A simple lap job of the neck area of the internal sliding sleeve with a dowel and oiled emery paper to fit your necks closely with the bullet diameter and case neck diameter of your choosing makes for a very solid setup. If the other steps of the case preparation process such as resizing and neck expansion/bellmouthing are done correctly, a guided bullet seating die will typically yield cartridge runout less than .002", and this has a very significant effect on accuracy.
One tool that I consider a waste of money for loading cast bullets is the Hornady New Dimension rifle seating die with the neck/shoulder support collar. These may work on a self-aligning press such as a Forster Co-Ax, but in typical presses there is enough mis-alignment between shellholder and die to overcome the limited support of the neck/shoulder insert and cause the entire neck to be slightly bent as the bullet is seated. Perhaps I'm simply not using the dies correctly, but I have much better luck with the Forster seating die and have purchased one for each of my bottle-neck rifle calibers. For me, at least, he results shown on my targets fully justify the expense of these specialty seating tools.
