I’m wondering about buying a set of these, but I’m not sure what the benefit is.
Can someone chime in?
Can someone chime in?
Redding competition shell holders
- Thread starter CEO10KaDAY
- Start date
The benefits of them are that it makes for easier and more consistent sizing, you are bumping your shoulder in .002 increments without adjusting your dies.
But for someone who already has their dies set up properly, buying this wouldn’t yield any advantage would it?
They're awesome for fine-tuning your shoulder bump ... super consistent results especially if you have multiple rifles with the same caliber (like 300-WM, 300-PRC, etc.). I've found the majority of the time, the .004 shellholder gives me a very nice 2/1,000-ths bump.
It would. The deal with competition shell holders is your dies arrest ram movement. That way you eliminate the slack in the linkage. If you have your dies set up conventionally then the shell holder does not touch the die and the linkage introduces variance.
So why buy them if you can make the bottom of the die touch the shell holder just by screwing it in a little more…?
Because if you do that, with most dies, you’ll bump the shoulder too much. The purpose of competition shell holders is to enable you to bump the shoulder a specific amount, say .002”, consistently.
Never had an issue doing exactly that with my Co-Ax... and the dies were set up just off the shell plate.
I've used the Redding Comp shell holders on other presses, and the fancy schmancy 419 shell holders on my Zero press... and I honestly can't tell the difference in the loaded ammo, either dimensionally or on target.
If setting up a regular 7/8-14 tpi die to the nearest thou freaks you out, then by all means, use the graduated shell holders. They usually make things a little easier. Usually...
I've used the Redding Comp shell holders on other presses, and the fancy schmancy 419 shell holders on my Zero press... and I honestly can't tell the difference in the loaded ammo, either dimensionally or on target.
If setting up a regular 7/8-14 tpi die to the nearest thou freaks you out, then by all means, use the graduated shell holders. They usually make things a little easier. Usually...
Since they usually work as advertised, no need to discourage interest in them.
I held off buying a 21st Century primer tool for a long time, and while you can get good results with most priming tools the 21st Century unit is soooooo nice and makes primer seating great again.
Competition shell holders make die setup great again.
MRGA
Competition shell holders make die setup great again.
MRGA
Idk mayne… I’m kinda new to reloading (less than 1 yrs total experience) and I’m already at the point where the novelty has worn off and I’d rather pay some Peruvian house maid to make my ammo in a bikini.
My recommendation then is to load, and not reload. Buy new brass and load it, tune the load to your gun, enjoy the results, sell the 1x brass in the px.
Dunno…I like the Peruvian house maid in the bikini idea better, personally. lol.
Do I understand correctly that the top surface of these shell holders are incrementally lower than standard which lets you get your bump without bottoming out the die….or am I dazed and confused one more. Haha
With competition shell holders the shell holder has to bottom out on the die. The two must have solid contact. The inside depth of the shell holders is progressively deeper starting at .002” and typically going down to .010” although Redding will make you a custom one if those don’t work.
O/P, see post #11 in this thread for an explanation on how the Redding competition shell holders work. Many people who don't actually use them know how they actually work.
www.snipershide.com
Question on Redding competition shell holders
Looking at them, they're all "+" meaning if you raise the ram and tighten the die down to where it's touching, and that headspace is larger than what you're looking for, these won't help. Is that a correct assessment? Just to clarify, and these are relatively random numbers, doing the above...
www.snipershide.com
I've been reloading for a long time starting out with seating the die to touch the shell holder then giving it 1/4 turn more for camover not worrying about minimal shoulder bump. Over time things changed and .002 bump became a target which required me to set the die away from the shell holder preventing camover (die being square to shell holder). I never liked this but it worked for getting .002 bump. This past winter I purchased the competition shell holder sets for .223 and 6mm and they sat on my bench for a few months.
I finally tried them 2 days ago on my .223 Lapua brass and I'm totally pleased and somewhat shocked with the ease of setup and consistency of bump with camover. I could kick myself for not trying them sooner. I recommend you go for it
I finally tried them 2 days ago on my .223 Lapua brass and I'm totally pleased and somewhat shocked with the ease of setup and consistency of bump with camover. I could kick myself for not trying them sooner. I recommend you go for it
What he said. As I am currently reloading just one caliber for multiple rifles I could solder my SAC die to the press and then manage different shoulder bumps for different chambers or push a little more those individual piece of brass that require more than the usual sizing stroke
Similar threads
Reloading Equipment
Redding shell holder set
