Re: RCBS Competition dies
"I will continue to use them until my ability gets to the point where I need to focus on perfect seating depths."
Thing is, for accuracy the OAL is virtually meaningless as it's defined. What matters is the jump to the rifling, not where the bullet points are. And even then, a properly developed load will have a seating tolerance window of 10 thou or more in which varitions will have no visible effect.
The RCBS "Comp" side window seater is a feature some love, some don't; matter of personal taste. I find the extended shell holder to be sorta clumsy and it opens a potential for case misalignment I don't care for.
Those dies work as well as most others and that's really quite well. What I don't care for is their short, loosely fitted bullet sleeve that only insures the bullets will enter the case mouth and that's not a real problem with any dies. Since the sleeve is too loosely fitted to be precise and it's too short to align the case at all, and the die set costs are much the same, I much prefer Forster and Redding seaters that do have full length alignment sleeves. An FL die is an FL die; RCBS copied Forster's raised expander button. And the 50 year old Vickerman seater design.