Hi again all!
Last week, I got a package in the mail from Midsouth... containing some new dies and a few assorted case-prep gizmos. Couldn't wait to try it all out, so at the first possible opportunity (Saturday) I gave it all a spin.

Up to this point, I've been using Hornady "New Dimension" dies for sizing and seating, and I've been far from thrilled by the resulting case neck and bullet runout. My new dies were an attempt to correct these problems. I decided to use .223 Rem. as my test cartridge for the new methods, since I have a huge stash of brass for that cartridge, and a heavy-barrel varmint gun that routinely does 1/2MOA to test the resulting ammo in.

First off, after some case-prep work (including flashhole uniforming, primer pocket uniforming, etc.) I used a Redding body die to do full-length sizing (leaving the necks alone). I followed this with a Lee collet die that I had completely disassembled, polished to perfection, and put back together. This sized the case necks. Measuring case runout after doing 50 this way, I was amazed to find that most necks had less than 0.0005" (yes, that's ten-thousandths!) runout, with only 2 cases showing greater than 0.001" runout. Upon closer examination, both of those cases had dings on the case shoulder, which I suspect were caused by forceful ejection from my AR-15... and I'm assuming the dings were "pulling" the neck slighly off center, causing the runout.

WOW... those Lee collet dies are GREAT!!! Combined with the Redding body die, I am getting PERFECT full-length sized cases, with less than 1/10 the runout that I was previously experiencing with my Hornady dies on average! I used to need to size a batch of 50 or 60 cases and cull out most of them to get a small run of 10 or so cartridges with low runout using the Hornady dies, now I am getting EVERY CASE to come out right! I'm truly baffled as to why every die manufacturer doesn't offer a higher quality version of these dies in their product lineup.

OK... on to seating. I purchased a Redding competition micrometer seater, and the first thing I did (being me...) was to disassemble it and see how it was constructed. Let me tell you right off, I was SERIOUSLY impressed with the fit/finish and overall precision of this tool. I seated a dozen bullets and measured runout, and found that most of them were under 0.002" TIR, and only 2 or 3 approached the 0.005" runout that is TYPICAL of my Hornady seater die. Overall, a VAST improvement.

Very impressed with the new tools... I think I've found some winners! Range report to follow next time there's a calm wind-free day.