I picked up a couple of rifles yesterday in rather exotic calibers, .35 Newton and .275 H&H. Today I turned to CH4D, which has been my source for dies for odd calibers in the past, but this time I struck out. I am facing a two year delay in obtaining them.
Can anyone suggest another possible source? At my age, I can't be confident that I'll still be around in two years.
Hornady has advertised a custom die service. Not sure if they still manufacture custom dies but a quick email enquiry would answer that. Redding also advertises and produces custom dies currently to the best of my knowledge. If contacting either or both I would suggest enquiring about how long one would have to wait for manufacture, and the cost, of course. Good luck.
Hunting.... it's not everything, it's the only thing.
Posts: 2014 | Location: New Zealand's North Island | Registered: 13 November 2014
Huntington’s was/is the retailer for specialty RCBS equipment. RCBS was bought out by “Vista Outdoors” and the custom die operation is said to not have fit with Vista’s “corporate vision”.
If you can actually get ahold of someone at RCBS (connected only via Vista telephone customer service) you will get the same answer that I have gotten......no more custom dies, etc.
Good luck.
Posts: 296 | Location: Colorado, USA | Registered: 13 April 2017
Huntington's web site lists both calibers in their "Special Order" category. I have contacted them by email about availability yesterday, but so far no response. However, it's not yet 8:00AM in California, so maybe later in the day I'll hear something. I have had luck on eBay with odd ball dies in the past, but not this time. I haven't tried Gubroker, but will.
Originally posted by Michael Michalski: Redstone, It's got to be my advanced age, but I don't get: "Will Rogers never met a fighter pilot" .
A take off on the Will Rogers quote: “I never met a man I didn’t like”. ie: fighter pilots are claimed to be (maybe a tiny bit) arrogant, obnoxious, boisterous, loud, outspoken, opinionated, etc...........some people don’t like that
XAUSA - Maybe some specialist in Oz, the UK, or Germany might make the .275 H&H?
- Mike
Posts: 296 | Location: Colorado, USA | Registered: 13 April 2017
I got a reply from Huntington: Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately, we do not have what you are looking for. RCBS has discontinued their special order and custom die shop. Please contact Hornady or Redding.
I sent Redding an eMail and talked to Hornady on the phone. No response yet from Redding and Hornady needs fired cartridge cases to base their SO dies on. They will not be cheap.
Since I don't have the rifles in my hands yet, I have no way of creating fired cases, but maybe I can figure something out. Back in my college days in the '50's I used to do all kinds of things with my Belding & Mull loading tool, which I still have.
The .358 Norma specs just a tiny bit smaller in case diameter than the .35 Newton, but I'll bet that most dies for it will accept the Newt. Worth a try, although .358 Norma dies don't grow on trees these days. You might shorten a .358 STW die, also.
7mm Remington dies will load the .275 H&H just fine since the H&H version is the same length and has just a bit more body taper. I wouldn't bother to look for anything other than a set of 7mm Rem Mag dies. The FL die will even set the shoulder back a bit if needed. Of course, the challenge is to make the properly tapered case in the first place, but instead of starting with 7mm Rem cases you can start with .300 H&H cases and trim them back, which avoids the need to squeeze the shoulders in of cases like the 7mm Rem, .264 Win, .300 Win, or .338 Win.
I own several rifles for which I do not own specific dies. Dies for similar calibers often will work just fine.
Posts: 13232 | Location: Henly, TX, USA | Registered: 04 April 2001
Thanks to the OP for posting this thread allowing others to note that RCBS have stopped doing custoom dies. That's a great disappointment to learn. But at the same time it'll save many from buying a rifle hoping to rely on then getting a set of dies from RCBS. It's not good news...but thank you for posting the news.
Posts: 6814 | Location: United Kingdom | Registered: 18 November 2007
Totally off the topic, but already broached; so. Yes, Aviators of all ilk are annoying, boisterous, generally dicks of people. The Army has more aviators than the air force has fighter pilots. I once had to move out of a BOQ because of the Aviators at that end of the building partied late every night, and I actually had a job to do. That same unit did $25000 worth of damage to the O Club, during one of their Hail and Farewell parties. They said they acted that way because they never knew when they might not come back from a mission.
Posts: 17104 | Location: USA | Registered: 02 August 2009
Have a friend who flew jets in Vietnam, was a Blue Angel, trained Top Gun pilots, flew commercial, and after commercial, was the corporate pilot for the giant of the Silicon Valley giants. He still flies privately.
Nicest guy you'd ever want to meet.
Posts: 8169 | Location: humboldt | Registered: 10 April 2002
Originally posted by Stonecreek: The .358 Norma specs just a tiny bit smaller in case diameter than the .35 Newton, but I'll bet that most dies for it will accept the Newt. Worth a try, although .358 Norma dies don't grow on trees these days. You might shorten a .358 STW die, also.
7mm Remington dies will load the .275 H&H just fine since the H&H version is the same length and has just a bit more body taper. I wouldn't bother to look for anything other than a set of 7mm Rem Mag dies. The FL die will even set the shoulder back a bit if needed. Of course, the challenge is to make the properly tapered case in the first place, but instead of starting with 7mm Rem cases you can start with .300 H&H cases and trim them back, which avoids the need to squeeze the shoulders in of cases like the 7mm Rem, .264 Win, .300 Win, or .338 Win.
I own several rifles for which I do not own specific dies. Dies for similar calibers often will work just fine.
I have dies for both of those calibers, but I believe the .275 H&H shoulder is larger in diameter than the 7mm Remington Mag and farther from the base. However, I may have come up with a way around that.
Originally posted by xausa: I got a reply from Huntington: Thank you for your inquiry. Unfortunately, we do not have what you are looking for. RCBS has discontinued their special order and custom die shop. Please contact Hornady or Redding.
I sent Redding an eMail and talked to Hornady on the phone. No response yet from Redding and Hornady needs fired cartridge cases to base their SO dies on. They will not be cheap.
Since I don't have the rifles in my hands yet, I have no way of creating fired cases, but maybe I can figure something out. Back in my college days in the '50's I used to do all kinds of things with my Belding & Mull loading tool, which I still have.
You might ask them if they could work off of a chamber cast. They probably just need a fired case to grind the reamer for the die and should be able to do that off of a casting.
Have gun- Will travel The value of a trophy is computed directly in terms of personal investment in its acquisition. Robert Ruark
Posts: 3828 | Location: Cave Creek, AZ | Registered: 09 August 2001
At this time I have all the specialty dies I need.bt a couple of years ago I called rCBS direct + asked for some die set,I don't remember + was told that they could not sell to the public.I told the rep that I had been buying dies there for years,he just said not in the last 18 months you have'nt.Seems there was an edict under the past administration to limit r/e stop sales of dies to individuals.All I know was that after many years I could not now buy direct from RCBS.
Originally posted by Blacktailer: [QUOTE]Originally posted by xausa:
You might ask them if they could work off of a chamber cast. They probably just need a fired case to grind the reamer for the die and should be able to do that off of a casting.
I did ask if they could work off a chamber cast and the response was that you couldn't measure headspace from a chamber cast. In the meantime I have come up with a way of reducing the 7mm Remington shoulder: I simply force it into a .375 H&H die and it reduces it nicely. Once it's formed, I will have no problem loading it using neck sizing dies.
Just curious, is your .35 Newton in an original Newton rifle? I have a Rem Model 30 that Tip Burns re-barreled years ago for me in .35 Newton. I'd like to have a second Model 30 done the same in .30 Newton. Do you have any brass or ammo? I think you'll really like the .35 Newt- T.W.
Contact Hornady. I just bought a 2 die set for 500/416NE.
During my search I also confirmed via Huntingtons that RCBS no longer makes custom dies... and CH4D was a 2 year wait.
Hornady had them to me in 2 months. Not cheap at $380 (3.25" cases ain't cheap in any way) but apparently they are the only game left in town, and the prices on more "normal" lengths are lower.
I did get the shellholder from CH4D, he had one on the shelf... it is not included in the Hornady set.
Just curious, is your .35 Newton in an original Newton rifle? I have a Rem Model 30 that Tip Burns re-barreled years ago for me in .35 Newton. I'd like to have a second Model 30 done the same in .30 Newton. Do you have any brass or ammo? I think you'll really like the .35 Newt- T.W.
My rifle is built on an original 1916 Newton action, but the barrel doesn't appear to be factory original. I suspect that is a German rifle take-off originally in caliber 9X57. I will certainly slug the bore before shooting it.
I have some .30 Newton cases which I can open up to 35 and I expect I can use a .358 Norma Magnum seating die to seat the bullets with, before receiving proper Newton dies.
I have read that .30 and .35 Newton cases can be formed from 8X68S brass, of which I have a fairly large supply.
