quote:

Originally posted by 243winxb:
https://redding-reloading.com/...petition-seating-die

To hold the bullet concentrically, the Bullet Alignment Bore and the Seating Stem have been honed and ground to virtually the same diameter as a jacketed bullet. As a result, the seating stem walls are relatively thin and not as inherently robust as the Seating Plug in a standard Seating Die. Though the Stem is heat treated to make it as strong as possible, it will not endure the excess seating pressure of Compressed Charges. This excess seating pressure will crack the Seating Stem which will, in turn, damage the other internal parts of the Die. Please be mindful because replacement parts are costly and NOT covered under Warranty. Please remember that your Competition Seating Die is a precision instrument and should be used and treated as such. A handloader using this Die to compress powder is tantamount to a machinist using a Micrometer as a C-Clamp.

quote:

Originally posted by 30.06king:
Redding's Competition Seating Die is indeed sensitive. I use them for most cartridges I regularly load. The Micrometer gives totally repeatable COAL for whatever setting it's turned to. I found the only exception is when loads are starting to become ( only slightly ) compressed then COAL will become 0.1 or .0.2 mm longer than the length the Micrometer is set for. I take that as the signal that no more powder can be added to that load.

quote:

posted 25 January 2019 17:57 Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 30.06king:
Redding's Competition Seating Die is indeed sensitive. I use them for most cartridges I regularly load. The Micrometer gives totally repeatable COAL for whatever setting it's turned to. I found the only exception is when loads are starting to become ( only slightly ) compressed then COAL will become 0.1 or .0.2 mm longer than the length the Micrometer is set for. I take that as the signal that no more powder can be added to that load.


Do you also find that they are sensitive to resistance from neck tension? For example a case resized with and without an expander present should provide 2 different neck tensions. Would the unexpanded neck provide more resistance than the seater plug can tolerate? Also begs the question why not simply make the seater plug a little larger in diameter along with the requisite increase in siz
e of that part of the die body?

quote:

Originally posted by 30.06king:

quote:

posted 25 January 2019 17:57 Hide Post
quote:
Originally posted by 30.06king:
Redding's Competition Seating Die is indeed sensitive. I use them for most cartridges I regularly load. The Micrometer gives totally repeatable COAL for whatever setting it's turned to. I found the only exception is when loads are starting to become ( only slightly ) compressed then COAL will become 0.1 or .0.2 mm longer than the length the Micrometer is set for. I take that as the signal that no more powder can be added to that load.


Do you also find that they are sensitive to resistance from neck tension? For example a case resized with and without an expander present should provide 2 different neck tensions. Would the unexpanded neck provide more resistance than the seater plug can tolerate? Also begs the question why not simply make the seater plug a little larger in diameter along with the requisite increase in siz
e of that part of the die body?

I FL size all cases with a neck expander. With the Competition Seater I have never attempted to seat bullets into an unexpanded neck so cannot directly answer your question. However some bullets e.g. Barnes TTSX have a firmer seating "feel" and require slightly more seating force on the press handle compared to Hornady SST bullets. I heve never encountered problems with this. I actually think seating into unexpanded necks has potential to damage the Competition Seater. Personally I wouldn't do it. I guess Redding could beef up the Seater making it stronger. I don't know if this would somehow disrupt the usual loading of very straight rounds with minimal runout.