Wilcats - making dies...?

[turbo54]

Educate me, wildcatting gods!

What do people do about dies for their own custom wildcats?

I know that you can have a "die reamer" made. I assume these mimic the chamber reamer, but every dimension is a couple thousandths of an inch smaller?

Are these required?

Why can't you just use the chambering reamer, and not run it into the die blank as deep?

What about seating dies?

 

[bward]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

Get ahold of Bob Green out of PA. I know he makes a lot of custom dies and is reasonable on pricing. As far as seating dies, I just get a caliber close to what I am needing, but slightly smaller, and run my chamber reamer in it.

 

[former naval person]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

Sometimes hard to do and can be very expensive. "Custom wildcats" is saying that "There is NO other round that can do what I have thought up!" That is where it gets expensive. Do it if you want, but don't try to do it on the cheap. Suck it up and get it right. If the new custom caliber is a success...when you shoot out that barrel you have the tooling and the dies already, and the next barrel and the next costs much less. In fact, if it is really a good idea...have 3 barrels made up at the first time. Then you can get a really good deal.

 

[armorpl8chikn]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

I am by no means a wildcatting god but I have played with my share. With all the wildcats available today it would be hard not to find something that does what you want. Not trying to be a wet blanket but as Naval has already alluded to, this ain't the spot to get cheap or cut corners. I have only owned one set of custom dies, and to be honest that cartridge wouldn't do anything 5 other cartridges wouldn't do just as good.
Get ready to spend plenty if you absolutely positively have to have a cartridge bearing your name.

 

[427Cobra]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

The BR guys at my club tell me the chamber reamer is used to make the seating dies, and a another reamer is required to make sizing dies, it's my understanding that they bump the shoulder but don't size the body.

 

[Clark]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

I use a boring bar and short pieces of 7/8-14 threaded rod to make dies that do one little step of the wild cat process.

I did that last month and shot 4 deer.

I could have shot them with a 30-06, so it is all just for fun.

 

[Dave inVA]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

<span style="font-size: 11pt"><span style="font-family: 'Comic Sans MS'">What I did for the two weird wildcats I have was to have PT&G make a "resize reamer" based on the chamber reamer.
Then I ordered a blank bushing sizing die from Newlon Precision, and a Forster Micrometer seating die for the parent case, or if you are necking down from the parent case, get one with the correct bore size that is close to right length but NOT longer that the parent case.
The sleeve in the Forster die is not tempered so it can be removed and bored out with the chamber reamer, and then use the resize reamer on the Newlon die.
The Newlon die can use Redding or RCBS bushings, and pr</span>obably others.

Dave</span>

http://newlonprecision.com/

http://www.forsterproducts.com/store.asp?pid=36163

 

[JGorski]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: turbo54</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Educate me, wildcatting gods!

What do people do about dies for their own custom wildcats?

I know that you can have a "die reamer" made. I assume these mimic the chamber reamer, but every dimension is a couple thousandths of an inch smaller?

Are these required?

Why can't you just use the chambering reamer, and not run it into the die blank as deep?

What about seating dies? </div></div>

I sent a reamer drawing to Ben @Hornady and he made me a set of Custom Match NS & FL Neck bushing dies for my 6 Creed, everything works fine so far.

 

[JGorski]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

You dont need anything special for a seater die, I use Hornady's New Dimension seater with a AMAX seater plug. Dont waaste your money on a micro seater.

 

[MarinePMI]

Re: Wilcats - making dies...?

PTG sells dies blanks (unhardened), cheap.

Your gunsmith should be able to make a d-bit reamer for the sizing die.

Seating die is made using the chamber reamer.