I am in the market for more accurate die for varmiting and would like to know what to buy. Any opinion would be appreciated.

223 and 22/250 are first on the list.

thanks,
Matthew

MATT,
I have switched all my dies over to the Redding Competition die sets. They're a little expensive, But the cheapest place I've found them is at Midway at $125 for the three die set. The bushing is extra. If that's too much the Redding three die DeLuxe set is about the best ones around IMHO.Good luck.

Another choice, but you need also an arbor press are Wilson dies
bye

I have a redding competition die set and a lee die set for my 222 - whilst I am not seriously reccomending Lee dies for benchrest, I would point out that it would take a serious amount of honing of my bench technique for me to tell the difference in accuracy between the 2. Both are capable of one ragged hole accuracy. I suspect the difference if any is of the order of .1 or less. The difference in cost is of a slightly higher order!

Thanks to you all,
It's nice to have choices like this.
I know the cost is prohibative but it's only once(I hope!).
Were can I get the wilson dies and arbor press.
I am interested in knowing my options well. I do have the 22/250 in lee collet 2 die set. The finish is a little? but the results are good. Just would like to know the details of my options.

Thanks for the input,
Matthew

Matt, since you already have the Lee Collet dies, you're probably not going to get any improvement with even the most expensive dies out there. 1894's experiences are the norm, the Lee Collets are like the Savage rifles of dies: equal or superior performance for about 25% of the price.

If you aren't deep seating your bullets in those light varminters, that's where I'd go next. You'll of course need to redevelop powder charges, but the 22-250 will respond well to bullets seated at least a caliber's depth into the case.

Check with the techs at Hornady (800)338-3220 and Sierra (800)223-8799 and ask about the deep seating issue. In a nutshell, the small bullets deform upon firing (like a soccer ball when it is kicked). This is called "obturation", and the degree of deformation can be limited considerably by deep seating the small bullets. Larger bullets don't suffer nearly as much from this effect.

You can of course get good accuracy with shallow seating, but most of those cases involve custom chambered rifles shooting at less than maximum pressures.

There should be a thread in the archives here called shorter OAL = better accuracy. Check it out.

I don't believe you need new dies...

Dan Newberry
green 788

1894,
I certainly hope you meant the difference is on the order of .001 instead .1. Thats a helluva difference. I don't think anybody holding tolerances on the order of .1 would be selling very many die sets.

I use Wilson benchrest dies with a Sinclair arbor press in some calibers, and in others a Wilson neck sizing die in combination with a Forster Ultra Seater. The bullet runouts with these dies is usually minimal. On the order of .002-.003."