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Do Wilson Hand Dies Wear Out?
MG1890
Member Posts: 4,649
I have a set of Wilson bushing style .222 dies. In the past, they always gave me great results in regard to loaded cartridge bullet runout, like .001" or so. Now I struggle with them. I have a lot of loaded cartridges in the .002" - .004" range, occasionally better, occasionally worse.
I have loaded maybe 2000 rounds with these dies. I am thinking of switching to Lee Collet dies.
This is all fed to a .222 benchrest rifle. I need good runouts!
I have loaded maybe 2000 rounds with these dies. I am thinking of switching to Lee Collet dies.
This is all fed to a .222 benchrest rifle. I need good runouts!
Comments
If you want to spend the $$ get a Redding Match seating die but if it worked in the past it should be working now..
However, the one thing I see people doing the most is not checking their neck thickness as they go along firing their brass. This needs to be checked as even the act of firing and re-firing cartridges does sometimes lead to brass movement causing off-center brass necks. Of course, having oil building up and hardening in the die can do it as well. Clean the die to start with, with a good solvent.
The reason I see brass going off center in a neck die is mostly from brass inconsistency. If it's still doing it, try some new brass and see what happens.
I do not remove the seater to insert a bullet. I place the bullet on the case neck and set the die assembly over the case / bullet.
I'm really stumped. I have even checked the bushings for concentricity.
Maybe I will buy a new set & try them.
You might try annealing, then full length resizing. Using a quality die, of course.
Sandwarrior, I could try annealing, but I am having the same runouts with virgin brass or 5x fired.
What about the Lee collet dies? Any of you benchrest shooters play with them? What kind of runout numbers do they yield?
Sandwarrior, I could try annealing, but I am having the same runouts with virgin brass or 5x fired.
I tried the Lee Collet dies on a few calibers and they work pretty good. Not good enough IMO to be winning at benchrest, but for those of us punching steel, they work.
From what you are describing, (same runout on virgin brass) you need to see if there is anything in the die, the bushing, or between the die and bushing.
You might try a different brand of brass and see if that is doing it. If the virgin stuff wasn't already.
You might also have a good hard look at your run-out measuring. There may be something there as well.
I am now sorting by runout. .002" to .0025" goes on record targets, everything else is sighters.
Just what is the latest die setup among the benchrest crowd??
Cases, fired, sized, whatever, show no measurable runout. I will try a VLD chamfer.. maybe this will help.
I do believe that the problem is in the seating operation.