Product Announcement: PVA's new Universal Small Base sizing die

[bohem]

Folks,
We have a new product shipping now, we announced it yesterday. The USB bushing die. It's a push-thru style base sizing die that allows you to push through any of a family of cartridge to size the web back down to as-new size. Intro pricing goes through the end of SHOT show next Friday.

https://patriotvalleyarms.com/universal-small-base-bushing-die/

The inspiration was a need of mine to save about $1000 worth of Lapua 308 and 6mm Dasher fireformed brass that was slightly blown out from a variety of reasons. It could not be full length sized enough to get the bolt to close smoothly in new chambers because of the web of the case head. We've also had customers call and tell me "you know your reamer is undersized at the base. A gauge fits and new brass fits but I can't size my brass down from the other barrel (usually factory but sometimes from other gunsmiths). It's gotta be your reamer." The key there is that new brass fits fine so what's wrong with the FL sized brass? Simple, the case head is very resilient and it doesn't size down nicely. This isn't a surprise to an experienced wildcatter but for most folks shooting mainstream cartridges it's a rude awakening to have a brand new barrel that won't use their current pile of brass and the gunsmith who made it rightfully says "sorry bud, you need to buy new brass".

After much explanation and even some drawing of pictures it comes down to this, unless you can get a small base die for the specific caliber you have there's little chance of saving the blown out brass. That kind of thing doesn't sit well with anyone who has a pile of fired brass and is now looking at $0.70-1.10 per piece to replace it.

I didn't want to do it either... Brass is expensive. I made a honed die that I simply pressed the brass thru using an arbor press in the shop. It took forever and it was a messy business. After some refinement we have the USB.

We are currently shipping dies for 473 shell heads and standard bodies as well as the WSM/SAUM/RUM family. More bushings are being made and will be getting heat treated and polished in the coming weeks.

So where does the die touch the brass? Only around the case head where it's larger than spec size. Note in this photo from our website. The center brass is 308 Lapua brass that was fired in an older chamber several times. It measures 0.473 at the web and my new Palma chamber is based off the 95 Palma reamer which is ground to 469 at the base. New brass comes out of the blue box at 4685-4690.

Either side has sized brass, one from the 308 which now measures 0.4685 and the top is a 6mm Dasher that also measures 0.4685 and smoothly fits in my chamber after being fireformed in a buddy's smoked barrel. Note how the brass shows a very shiny portion about 3/8" above the base back to the extractor groove.

This $100 die pays for itself in fixing brass in a matter of minutes, especially if you're shooting a 6mm BR variant that was fireformed in a chamber that wasn't quite as tight as your current one... or your next one, or the one after that. At $1+ a piece for precision rifle brass it's pretty easy to see a payoff quickly.

 

[SpeedyR]

I looked earlier today after I saw the IG/FB post but figured someone else would post it.

as you said, being able to have a small base die for cases where there isn't a small base die can save a lot of $$$. I was just looking at some 6.5CM brass that had been fired out of a semi and figured I'd have to run it thru a small base die, but couldn't find any. Lee makes a similar setup for 9mm/40S&W to fix the "bulge" that you get when trying to reload brass that comes out of certain pistols (usually glocks). This is like a modular rifle "bulge buster".

is there an ETA and price on the other size bushing/punches?

 

[PatMiles]

Are you going to offer the discount on dies that are out of stock, not being made now but ARE listed, or only the folks who need a 308 size going to benefit from the sale?

 

[whatsupdoc]

Crazy, I just had this issue where my new barrel would not allow the cambering of brass that has been fired multiple times in a different rifle.

 

[Sheldon N]

Cool tool and a great way to recover brass from a different sized chamber. Not sure it totally fixes die to chamber size mismatch if your die isn't sizing the base of the case, but you could always run it through every firing or two.

Out of curiosity how much headspace growth did you see on the brass running it through the bushing? I've had a pretty notable push forward last time I tried a small base die on Dasher, the brass went several thou beyond chamber length and required an aggressive shoulder bump to get it back to being able to chamber. Wondering if the bushing produces a similar effect.

Any long term plans for varying sized bushings within a caliber group if someone was looking for less aggressive base sizing like .4695 vs 4.685 etc?

 

[MarinePMI]

Funny. I was just contemplating turning something like this on my lathe to swage down 5.7 brass to .308" OD (to play with making 308 bullets from spent 5.7 brass).

This would be a great product for those .308 brass lots that have been blown out from being run through a 240G machine gun...

 

[bohem]

I looked earlier today after I saw the IG/FB post but figured someone else would post it.

as you said, being able to have a small base die for cases where there isn't a small base die can save a lot of $$$. I was just looking at some 6.5CM brass that had been fired out of a semi and figured I'd have to run it thru a small base die, but couldn't find any. Lee makes a similar setup for 9mm/40S&W to fix the "bulge" that you get when trying to reload brass that comes out of certain pistols (usually glocks). This is like a modular rifle "bulge buster".

is there an ETA and price on the other size bushing/punches?

Additional bushings are $25, additional punches are $15.

Are you going to offer the discount on dies that are out of stock, not being made now but ARE listed, or only the folks who need a 308 size going to benefit from the sale?

We're not at this point. Our current infrastructure can't handle it and I don't want to overtax my guys handling order fulfillment and web traffic. My advice would be buy the 473 or 555 setup now if you're going to use it, extra bushings are going to be $25. If you're going to need it then it really doesn't matter which you buy first.

Cool tool and a great way to recover brass from a different sized chamber. Not sure it totally fixes die to chamber size mismatch if your die isn't sizing the base of the case, but you could always run it through every firing or two.

Out of curiosity how much headspace growth did you see on the brass running it through the bushing? I've had a pretty notable push forward last time I tried a small base die on Dasher, the brass went several thou beyond chamber length and required an aggressive shoulder bump to get it back to being able to chamber. Wondering if the bushing produces a similar effect.

Any long term plans for varying sized bushings within a caliber group if someone was looking for less aggressive base sizing like .4695 vs 4.685 etc?

We aren't planning to make tailored bushings. The amount a certain piece of brass moves depends on who made it and how much it has been fired. It would be a logistics nightmare dealing with customers calling saying "I bought xxxx die and I need yyyy so can I swap it out?" And then they have stuff that's 10x fired instead of 4x fired and all of the sudden the "yyyy" bushing isn't reliably doing the job anymore.

I haven't seen the headspace change measureably on sizing, stuff that had been FL sized but the base was too fat only needed to be shoved through the die and the problem was solved. The base ring of the brass case is a tough piece of material and it seems that we see something WAY oversize actually react better than something that's just a little oversize. The stuff that's just a little oversize needs to go through 2x instead of the first time with a big fatty.

I attribute that to the fact that there's elasticity in the materials and if you bring the material past the plastic strain point sufficiently it moves well as opposed to remaining in the elastic-plastic overlap region where it might need continued working (aka shove it through a couple times).

 

[amymorgan20]

Are you planning to bring this product back? Link goes to 404 not found.

 

[spife7980]

I wish they would so I could get a properly sized 473 bushing thats more like 470 or 469 instead of the 462 it came with.

 

[McNamara0851]

Does anyone have one of these that they would like to part with? I have a 6BRA barrel from PVA that shoots well, but my 500 pieces of twice fired Lapua 6BR brass are on the fatter side. I get a heavy bolt on close and open. I’m attempting to salvage them if at all possible.

 

[spife7980]

Mine is nonfunctional, the bushing is too small, tries to size down to .463 or something instead of .469 or something more feasible. It would take a sledge hammer to force brass through it.

 

[memilanuk]

Does anyone have one of these that they would like to part with? I have a 6BRA barrel from PVA that shoots well, but my 500 pieces of twice fired Lapua 6BR brass are on the fatter side. I get a heavy bolt on close and open. I’m attempting to salvage them if at all possible.

Might not be a perfect solution... definitely not a cheap one... but I recently got a Micron F/L bushing sizer from Bullet Central for my 308 Win, and in addition to the usual good things about this die it also sizes the base down pretty tight. Like 0.4695" or so. Maybe you could upgrade your sizing die and save your brass at the same time.

And maybe ease up on your load. Cases swollen that bad after only two firings is a bad sign.