I am still putting together some parts for my 6.5 WSM project. I am unfamiliar with bushing dies. I will have to get a set of custom dies for the caliber and someone recommended that I go with bushing dies, possibly Hornady, to be used with necking up and down to different calibers using the same brass platform. Can someone elaborate on what they are or if they'd work for my application, or should I just get a set made from RCBS, or other?

= neck sizing dies with exchangeable bushings of different diameters so as to be able to control bullet pull. I use the competition dies from Redding, which come that way. Recently body sizing dies + bushing were made available and they're a better (not cheaper !) alternative to the occasional FL sizing, needed after so many firings of neck sized cases.

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Andr�

What Andr� said.
They are really useful, particularly when you are necking down brass because normal sizing dies make the neck smaller based upon the outside diameter of the brass. Due to variations between different pieces of brass, the inside diameter can vary quite a bit and cause problems such as loose neck tension on the bullet which lets the bullet slide up an down easily. Another problem can be when the inside diameter is too small and make it tough to seat the bullet. An extreme example can even collapse the brass at the shoulder.
Since you are necking down parent brass, dies with insert bushings are probably an excellent idea. Mine are Redding Competition neck sizing dies which have micrometer adjustment on the depth of bullet seating. When I bought the die set, I got a packet which contains a range of bushings for a particular caliber. Once you experiment a bit and get the desired neck tension, normally you don't have to switch out the bushing until buying a new batch of brass.
The Micrometer bullet seating depth feature is superb and lets you seat the bullet in an extremely consistent fashion, which is important if you seat the bullet close to the lands like I do.
The die sets aren't cheap though. I have about $250 per caliber invested because the three die set is about $190 from Sinclair and a selection of bushings cost about another $50.

How is the 6.5 WSM project coming? I have been contemplating the same thing quite a bit lately and would sure like to find out a bit about load development and the results in terms of velocity and accuracy. What bullet are you going to use? The one I have been looking at is the Berger 140 grain VLD bullet because it has a ballistic coefficient of .627 at 3000 fps and will work out of a 1-9 twist barrel.

[This message has been edited by Bruce Gordon (edited 02-08-2002).]

I use a Redding type s full length sizing bushing die to load a 243 win.The bushing doesn't size the full length of the neck.There is that tiny area at the shoulder, neck junction the bushing misses.The only time this is a problem is when i neck turn the brass. So before neck turning, the brass must be full length resized in a standard RCBS full length die.