Hey fella's,
I see from perusing this forum that quite a few of you are getting into the new 204 Ruger. Me too. I just aquired the new Savage VLP, stainless, in ruger 204. I will recieve tomarrow, via UPS, three boxes each of the factory ammo, 32, and 40 gr. V-max. (boy am I chomping at the bit!!)

I have her scoped with a Sightron 6-24 AO, which has served well for load development on my other Savage, a 7mm Rem mag. (that rifle now wears my Leo) I cleaned the crap out of the barrel from the factory firings, proper cleaning tools are ordered from Midway, and as far as I can tell, she is ready to begin testing at the bench.

I am poised to order the Harris Bipod of my dreams, as wel as dies, shell holder and such from Midway. I have printed all experimental loading data I can find from this forum. This is gonna be fun!!

Question:

I want to aquire the most appropriate dies for this rifle. I see that many accuracy nuts like myself prefer the Redding Competition dies with the bushing set up. Are those really needed for a factory chamber, or are they really only usefull for custom "tight neck" chambers? I have heard often that folks think that Redding produces the best "standard dies" on the market. I wish to produce the most accurate ammunition possible, but have much to learn about the process. Any advice is much appreciated!! Thanks in advance.

Clayman204,
Deep in the heart of Central Oregon

The best "standard" FL die's are RCBS in my experiance. Thier seating die is excellent as well. The thing about the Redding standard die sets is that they don't drill a bleed hole and cases dent faster than sizing with RCBS dies.

However when I get a new cartridge I don't get the "standard" two or three die set any more if the Lee Collet and Redding "S" type FL die are available?

Working the necks at the minimum is a key to accuracy and easy loading as well. The collet and "S" dies will do this best. I hope they are making them for the 204 for you.

I have a Savage 12VLP in .204 Ruger and have done a little bit of reloading for it. I have quite a few rounds loaded up with various powder weights of Reloder 10X, BL-C(2), and Winchester 748 waiting for me to take them out to the range for testing. I have resized these once fired Hornady casings with my Redding Type S neck die and a 0.024" bushing.

I think the Redding Type S neck die with the bushing is a good choice. I would also think that a Lee collet die would be great too. However, with the Lee collet die you have to "custom" order it. You send in a couple fired casings, samples of the bullets you will use, a check for $50.00 and then you wait 6 to 8 weeks for them to build your die.

With the bushing dies, there is a gap in the bushing sizes. You can purchase 0.024" and 0.025" but then the next size you can order is the 0.029" bushing. I am able to use the 0.024" for my rifle on factory brass that I do not neck turn.

RCBS does make good equipment, but the ability to size the neck with bushings just sounds like the way to go for me.

I like Forster's Ultra seating die. It has a sleeve that aligns the bullet and case.
I'm using a set of Hornady dies now. They're ok, but it's hard to pull the sizing button out of the case. Hornady also has a sleeve to align bullet and case, but it only comes down to the shoulder. Forster's covers the entire case.


Born Ready