I'm considering purchasing a neck sizing die. Has anybody had any experience using the neck sizing die by L.E. Wilson? Also, has anyone been able to compare them to the Redding type-s dies?

I have the Sinclair arbour press and the Wilson neck and seating dies with a Redding body dies for my 7x57 and 20VarTarg. H ave had them for a number of years and went with the Wilson because of thier BR reputation, portable aspect, and the pricing. The Wilson dies and bushes are very cost effective and I have various bushes for each caliber and think they give me the best and straightest cartridges I can get. I have a seating stem and cap for each of the bullets I load in both of the calibers and find the convenience of being able to load different bullets by sliding one seater stem and cap out and sliding another in.Being able to change the neck bush to suit various aplications is a real bonus.

Von Gruff.

Thanks for the reply V.G. That's the info I was after. I have the Wilson trimmer and love it. Do you turn the outside of your case necks? If so, I imagine you then would have to buy a different bushing for the new neck size? I wish Wilson made an outside neck turner.

Wilson makes a top quality bushing die. I have a lot of them. We"benchrest" do our final tuning on load with different sizes of neck bushings and seating depth.
Butch

I would agree with what had been said here.
However...

A lot of the Wilson die users shoot rifles of uncommon quality with tight chambers and they work fine with the tight reamed Wilson tools.
If you shoot some XYZ factory rifle with the typical generous chamber there is a chance your once fired brass will stick in the Wilson tool.
This is not really a fault of the Wilson tools but some times they have to be polished out to work with the run of the mill hunting rifle chamber.

BTW I own and use a lot of the Wilson tools and prefer to use them when I can.

Assuming we are talking about match shooting------
Ok I guess no one else will say it so I will---Wilson Dies work in an arbor press and Redding dies do not--without a lot of adapting and such...........................Also as far as I know-unless you have Wilson build a custom die for you, their neck dies do not size the shoulder and body--Redding S dies do and can accept the various Redding neck bushings--they also used to take Wilson bushings as well, unless Redding has gotten smarter about marketing, I imagine they still do. At one time I believe you could also get the Redding S dies in small base conformation while Wilson did not offer that option. These days, you may be able to buy the Redding small base S die as a custom or you might just use the standard small base Body bump die as it is cheaper-- This last I just recently researched with Redding as I need small based 22 BR 6 BR and 30 BR dies---so---in case anyone else is having trouble with running the hot loads in those cartridges---

http://www.redding-reloading.c...-full-length-a-type-

Forgive my ignorance, but what is a small base die. I'm not a match shooter. I'm currently shooting a Savage chambered in .204Ruger. It's in a McCree Precision stock. I'm using it for long range varmint and target shooting. I was just curious about the Wilson dies as I use their trimmer and I really like their line of thinking. I especially like the concept of their bullet seating die. Are these kind of dies an overkill for what I'm doing? Probably, but if it adds some accuracy then that's all gravy because I enjoy the loading process regardless of being an extreme marksman or winning matches. I just like to tinker and to shoot. Thanks all for the replies.

Sharptail hunter...sorry to start off with my foul sense of humour, but could that possibly be Sharp Tail-hunter?

Well, anyway, to small base dies...

Some rifles, for a variety of possible reasons, require that the base of the brass being reloaded be sized down to a smaller diameter than "conventional" SAAMI dimension dies do.

Dies which size brass to that smaller diameter are known as "small-base dies"...they size the base smaller.

They are not needed in most rifles. It can reduce the life of brass (at least in theory) to use them for brass which is repeatedly fired in a rifle which doesn't require their use in order to function properly.

Glad to see you aboard here. Your questions are perceptive, and show you are trying to learn to do everything right, and to understand those gun-related things you aren't doing.

BTW, the last I knew, Wilson does (did) make a neck turner that works with their little case trimming lathe set-up.

Welcome, Sir....

quote:

Originally posted by sharptailhunter:
Thanks for the reply V.G. That's the info I was after. I have the Wilson trimmer and love it. Do you turn the outside of your case necks? If so, I imagine you then would have to buy a different bushing for the new neck size? I wish Wilson made an outside neck turner.

I have custom chambers on both my 20VarTarg and 7x57 so tolerances are what I want them to be. For the 20VT I have some loads that are in 221 FB brass necked down and just cleaned up the necks with my Sinclair neck turner, but I also have some Lapua 222 cases that I formed down and of course I had to neck turn for a fit that gave me a min of working on firing and sizing.That means a few different bushes for the different neck wall thicknes's. For the 7x57, again I have brass from 7x57 through to 30-06 formed down, but for this rifle I also have cast bullets so again different release tensions are needed and neck wall thickness to keep the minimum brass working and to keep the release clearance in the desired range both for range work and another set of brass for hunting with a little more 'room' in the neck. The body die keeps any need for more than neck sizing in hand.

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Are these kind of dies an overkill for what I'm doing? Probably, but if it adds some accuracy then that's all gravy because I enjoy the loading process regardless of being an extreme marksman or winning matches. I just like to tinker and to shoot.
--------------------------

Good gear is never an overkill. The 204 being a cartridge designed for "accuracy" will not have the grossly slopy chambers that cna be common for some "universal" cartridges.The thing you dont mention is the type of rifle you are using. My 20VT is on an XR 100 and as such is a single shot so the release tension dosent have to contend with the missalignment that might occur chambering from a magazine. Many things come into the reason we use this gear and enjoying tinkering is as good as any.

Von Gruff.

quote:

Are these kind of dies an overkill for what I'm doing?

I do not think so. I think Wilson dies should be the reloading standard.
All those threaded press tools are good for are full length resizing and case forming.

Alberta: I wondered how long it'd be before someone cracked that joke. Surprisingly, it took a while. Congrats, you're the first! A Sharptail is a grouse native to my land, it's very similar to the prairie chicken and/or sage grouse. But I digress....

Thanks a ton for the info. My rifle is a Savage FV12. It's mounted in a McCree precision stock. I'm using a Zeiss Conquest 6.5-20x50 scope. It's very accurate and very fun to shoot.

If anyone has a resource for a Wilson trimmer that works in conjunction with their lathe style trimmer, please chime in. I think that'd be as slick as can be

Sharptailhunter -

I used to hunt sharptails a lot!! I have lived in both Alberta and Saskatchewan; both have LOTS of them...as well as spruce grouse, ruffed grouse, blue grouse, sage grouse, and anther slight variation from the sharptail which was what we called a "prairie chicken". (What folks refer to as a prairie chicken seems to vary depending on where one lives.)

I just couldn't resist the joke....