Redding lock rings suck!

WildBill3/75

Sergeant
Banned !
Full Member
Minuteman
May 21, 2012
329
102
Virginia
Was resizing brass the other day and the ring wiggled loose.....to top it off I removed it to replace it with a hornady lock ring and the bastard took a piece out of the resizing die threading while unscrewing it. You would think for the price of these dies they would come with better lock rings.
 
Was resizing brass the other day and the ring wiggled loose.....to top it off I removed it to replace it with a hornady lock ring and the bastard took a piece out of the resizing die threading while unscrewing it. You would think for the price of these dies they would come with better lock rings.

No shit, I had a small fortune in Sinclair rings, and their fancy plier, then bought a coax, now another small fortune! Hornady's are nice!
 
"suck" is an inadequate description. After many years of trial and evaluation I went with the Lee rings with the embedded O-ring. Forster rings came in second, Hornady third. Redding makes some nice dies .... but .... as so eloquently stated, their die rings "suck".
 
That was my conclusion.

You can't not secure the die because the threads will back out. Having it secure with a bit of float is very good. Even better is proper installation of the die in the press. I run the case up into the die before I lock it down. It self centers.
 
Last edited:
I've had dies back out when fl sizing, yup, free floating, big fucking mess. Either resize or load, load, you better have a body die!
 
Don't use lock rings. Let the die "float". Helps reduce runout.

I'm using the hornady LNL bushings in my lee classic cast. I find they "float" the dies and make changing dies very fast...doing it this way I need a lock ring.

I'm also using an autoloader and got to bump the shoulder back when I FL size and I am to cheap to buy a bump gauge. So removing the ejector out of my bolt is not something I like to do often.
 
The split rings like Hornady or Sinclair are nice, but I've never had a problem with a lock ring. I loosen the set screw and tap it with a hammer handle or plastic mallet and they unscrew. Lightman