I'm changing my die manufacturers around and I got to wondering if I need to buy new shellholders also. Is there some kind of industry standard for their dimensions? I'm not sure it really matters in my application since I partial full length resize, but it's just one of those questions that popped up.

In other words, if you set up an RCBS FL die according to the die directions with any other manufacturers shellholder, will the sizing be off or will it be correct?

irwin

irwin,

It always looked to me like the shellholder "standard" was a half inch or .5. I've always noted that the higher the standards the manufacturer had on the shellholders indicated somewhat their overall quality level on their dies. But, in bolt guns of recent manufacture I set the full length dies to the chamber of the rifle anyway.

knobmtn

Some shellholders may have slightly thicker "lips" than others, which don't allow the hull to travel as far into the die at maximum. Generally speaking, however, a new die will need to be properly adjusted to the shellholder, but typically any shellholder will work. The singular exception would be when loading for a gun with a "springy" action (think Win 94) and an unusually short chamber. It is possible (but unusual) that a shellholder with "thick" lips will not allow sufficient sizing for a given gun's chamber.