Vickerman Seating Die 6.5X55 mm

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
I have several seating dies that I've accumulated through the years for the 6.5X55 mm cartridge.
One of them is a Vickerman Seating die.
I don't know if you're very familiar with one or not ?
I made a little " mini-video " of me seating a cast bullet with one of them.
BTW, the OAL of my loaded round may look excessively long, but with this OAL, the nose lightly engraves on the rifling in both of my 6.5 X 55 mm rifles .

See below : ( Turn up your volume on your speakers )

 

Ian

Notorious member
Cool video. Hadn't seen one in action before. How well does the sleeve fit the brass? How well does your brass fit your chamber (insert resized case, wiggle case head with the end of your pinkie finger)?
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
As best I can tell, it is a pretty precision fit.
I guess when I send these down range, I can seat a few with 2 of my other 6.5X55 seating dies and see if there is any appreciable difference in the size of the groups.

Ben
 

Ian

Notorious member
It's a beautiful day here in Texas, hope it's the same there and you get to have some fun with that fine rifle here in a bit!
 

Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
The very first 6.5x55 rounds I ever loaded were with a set of original Vickerman made dies. IIRC they were cut for the traditional 156 and 160 gr RN.
 

yodogsandman

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the vid Ben! I'd never seen or heard of one!

That's a fine looking bullet, too! Lee group buy?
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
The very first 6.5x55 rounds I ever loaded were with a set of original Vickerman made dies. IIRC they were cut for the traditional 156 and 160 gr RN.


Probably been a few Christmas's gone by for you since those days, UUhhh ?
 
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Bret4207

At the casting bench in the sky. RIP Bret.
Seems like just yesterday. 1983-4. Just back from the USMC and loading for my late fathers 6.5 he built on a 98 action. I have a Turk I'd like to turn into a "Tweed". I wonder if they still have those small ring 6.5x55 barrels for cheap like they did 10 years back? Time passes.
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
That was an easy re barrel 10-15 yrs. ago.
You have the action and it is a SR. ( Turks were about 95% SR ), the barrels were about $60-$70 dollars from MidWay. SR thread dimensions, and short chambered in 6.5 X 55.

I doubt you could do it for that now.

Ben
 

Maven

Well-Known Member
I got a Vickerman seating die (CH-4D) with a bunch of other reloading stuff years ago. Lucky for me, it came with a .30cal. (nominally) insert, which I use and one for a .223 (I think) which I don't. It works as advertised, but I don't measure run out or haven't compared it to other seating dies I have, e.g., Lee Precision (collet die) and Lyman. I think CH-4D still sells the inserts in case you have such a die and wish to use it for a variety of cartridges.
 

Brad

Benevolent Overlord and site owner
Staff member
I have heard of those dies but never saw one in use. Looks like an interesting idea.

Who is the old southern guy who did the narration on your video?:)
 

Ben

Moderator
Staff member
The name is Junior Samples.
You can reach me at " BR - 549 ".

 
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Pistolero

Well-Known Member
Ben,
Do you spin your ammo to compare the straightness with different seating dies?

I started doing this about 8-10 yrs back and it seems to be worth the effort to find dies
which produce straight ammo, and straight necks on sized cases.

Bill
 

fiver

Well-Known Member
ponsess warren makes one of these sliding sleeve drop the bullet in the window type dies.
it has different diameter bullet seaters and you can change out the sleeve for the different neck sizes.

anybody with a lathe or a decent drill press could easily make the sleeves.
the seater stems would be a lathe project for sure.
but a simple threading lesson and some turning on the seater stem part would turn out a good straight part with no drama.
 

williamwaco

Active Member
That is a blast from the past.

I have seen those dies - - - so long ago I cant even remember when. I have never seen one in action.

Thanks for the video.

PS: What kind of camera did you use for the video?