I've been doing just fine with my Hornady custom dies but decided I wanted to try messing with neck tension outside of a neck mandrel and purchased a Redding Type S match die set with the sizing die and micrometer seating die. I bought three neck sizing bushings in titanium nitride so I could dial in 2 thousandths neck tension for various brass/bullets.
I typically use either lanolin or Hornady One Shot. Lanolin as of late, is my go-to as it's just worked, is non-toxic and cheap. I also wash my brass between sizing and loading. Either is an absolute no-go with the Redding die. The die was so tight that I literally couldn't get a fired piece of brass to resize with either. It took so much force I knew the brass would get stuck or the table would snap!
So I tried an already full length resized piece of brass with lanolin, alcohol flashed off, and it got stuck. Pounded it out with a punch. Did the same with Hornady One Shot. Same result. BOTH lubes work just fine in a Hornady die with very little effort.
I pack it up and send it in to Redding with five pieces of recently fired brass. I get it back in about a week (nice turn around!) saying there's nothing wrong, they had no problem sizing the brass and to use their lube. Four of the five were resized. NONE were consistent and off a few thousandths from one and other. I can nail off a hundred with the Hornady and all are right on target. Super easy.
They did send back a little sample of their imperial sizing die wax. Ok, I'll give it a whirl. First one, apparently not enough lube. Extremely hard to get back out of the die and I lucked out. I lube it up a bit more and it's easier this time. I start using more and more lube until it becomes "easier" for subsequent cases. The required effort is still substantially above the Hornady die, particularly on the downstroke. I am using cam over, set up like Redding's instructions dictate and I'm rotating the die to set final head space, not adjusting with the shell holders.
I did about a dozen and final head space was all over the map. If it came in too long, I'd adjust down and re-lube the case, then push it into the die until I had the head space number I was looking for. If I did not re-lube, it'd get stuck again, no question. In fact, one did get stuck when I didn't use enough lube and I was using a lot of lube.
If I then lubed up another case to check shoulder bump, it'd be like 6 thousandths off the previous sized die.
My sized headspace measurements were all over the map. From 1.620 to 1.628 depending on the size of the pre-sized fired case. Must be the lube. So I stopped lubing the neck/shoulder area but the results weren't any better.
I threw in a few fired from my AR10 which are in the 1.630+ range. Those would size down to 1.626, my target. If I then took a fired case that was 1.626 already, it'd size down to 1.618 to 1.620 with no adjustments to the die. I really don't understand this as I'm mechanically limiting the amount of bump. All brass is the exact same head stamp.
I have the neck bushing free floating per Redding's instructions but that shouldn't affect shoulder bump. Just at a loss. I've got about $300 in the set with bushings and I'm about ready to toss it out the window.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.
I typically use either lanolin or Hornady One Shot. Lanolin as of late, is my go-to as it's just worked, is non-toxic and cheap. I also wash my brass between sizing and loading. Either is an absolute no-go with the Redding die. The die was so tight that I literally couldn't get a fired piece of brass to resize with either. It took so much force I knew the brass would get stuck or the table would snap!
So I tried an already full length resized piece of brass with lanolin, alcohol flashed off, and it got stuck. Pounded it out with a punch. Did the same with Hornady One Shot. Same result. BOTH lubes work just fine in a Hornady die with very little effort.
I pack it up and send it in to Redding with five pieces of recently fired brass. I get it back in about a week (nice turn around!) saying there's nothing wrong, they had no problem sizing the brass and to use their lube. Four of the five were resized. NONE were consistent and off a few thousandths from one and other. I can nail off a hundred with the Hornady and all are right on target. Super easy.
They did send back a little sample of their imperial sizing die wax. Ok, I'll give it a whirl. First one, apparently not enough lube. Extremely hard to get back out of the die and I lucked out. I lube it up a bit more and it's easier this time. I start using more and more lube until it becomes "easier" for subsequent cases. The required effort is still substantially above the Hornady die, particularly on the downstroke. I am using cam over, set up like Redding's instructions dictate and I'm rotating the die to set final head space, not adjusting with the shell holders.
I did about a dozen and final head space was all over the map. If it came in too long, I'd adjust down and re-lube the case, then push it into the die until I had the head space number I was looking for. If I did not re-lube, it'd get stuck again, no question. In fact, one did get stuck when I didn't use enough lube and I was using a lot of lube.
If I then lubed up another case to check shoulder bump, it'd be like 6 thousandths off the previous sized die.
My sized headspace measurements were all over the map. From 1.620 to 1.628 depending on the size of the pre-sized fired case. Must be the lube. So I stopped lubing the neck/shoulder area but the results weren't any better.
I threw in a few fired from my AR10 which are in the 1.630+ range. Those would size down to 1.626, my target. If I then took a fired case that was 1.626 already, it'd size down to 1.618 to 1.620 with no adjustments to the die. I really don't understand this as I'm mechanically limiting the amount of bump. All brass is the exact same head stamp.
I have the neck bushing free floating per Redding's instructions but that shouldn't affect shoulder bump. Just at a loss. I've got about $300 in the set with bushings and I'm about ready to toss it out the window.
Any suggestions greatly appreciated.