Hey guys,
From having read my previous posts, many of you may be familiar w/ my affection for some of my personal favorite handguns--XP-100 in 22 BR, Contenders in 221 Fireball, 223 Rem, 6X50R Bellm, 6.5 JDJ, and 300/221 immediately come to mind. One round you've NOT read about is my Encore in 22-250 AI. This has been like the proverbial "red-headed step-child" for me.... The latest set-back has been the rupture of a fire-formed case in the FL resizing die. I fire-formed 100 rounds using corn meal and Bullseye powder. On full length resizing the 75th round, the case ruptured at the old body/shoulder angle; everything above this part of the brass is stuck in the full length die. The brass had been well lubricated w/ Imperial Sizing Wax. In 25 years of handloading, I'd never had this happen before. I tried various ways to remove the stuck piece of brass, but all have been unsuccessful. I used various solvents (Kroil and WD-40), various tools (wooden dowels of various sizes and brass bristle brush), and even froze it in the freezer (read about that one on the 'net.....); I avoided trying any methods that might scratch the inner surface of the die. After all these unsucessful efforts, I thought I'd pass on the BEST way to fix this problem. I sent an e-mail to the die manufacturer, Redding, and they said to send the die to them w/ a check for $4 and they'd repair it. Sounds like a pretty good idea to me. I'm getting that baby in the mail TODAY! This is the first time I've had a chance to use Redding's customer service; I'll admit to being impressed. Just thought I'd pass on the good news and the suggestion. Gary T.

Redding is always top notch. I only buy there dies now on things that matter. (not counting blasters and plinkers)

When I bought my 17 Ackley Bee dies from them, I called Cortland and asked the price, which they gave me. Said mail them a check and a letter and they'd send the dies.
I forgot to mention I was in state, and didn't even think of the sales tax. A week later I got my dies with a letter saying we'd both forgotten sales tax and could I send another $8 (or whatever it was.) A lot of companies would have held up shipping the order waiting for the balance.

Gary-I am glad to hear Redding has taken care of you. I've never had the opportunity to test their customer service.

As far as going above and beyond, Nikon and Hornady customer service come to mind first and foremost. Leupold is good in this department, and Burris -- well, I won't even go there as I have previously posted about an experience with them. Also worthy of mention are the techs over at Sierra, especially Rich Machholz. I had used one particular bullet of theirs (7mm, 130 grain SSP) for years with tremendous results. Then I ran into a batch which refused to expand.

I sent Rich both fired & unfired bullets, and he then went to work. After all was said & done, he sent me some "compensatory" bullets, even though I mentioned this was not necessary. He also mentioned that this incident helped bring about some new testing procedures.

And by the way, those "new" bullets performed just like the old ones: excellent expansion and tissue damage, tremendous weight retention and more than sufficient penetration -- not to mention typical Sierra accuracy. In fact, I used the 130 grain SSP on 3 of the 4 deer I took this past season.