Custom Seating Die Recommendations

[Dogtown]

I've had a set of custom Whidden dies for .338LM Improved 40 for about 7 years now and they've been fine, but the seating die has increasingly been giving me consistency issues. The symptoms are that if I load say 20 rounds, the first 5 or so will seat consistently, then slowly it'll start seating long little by little. As I turn down the micrometer to adjust, nothing changes...then all of a sudden I feel a big change when I raise the ram. I've pulled it apart several times, cleaned it, but the problem persists. I even experimented using my vanilla .338LM Redding seater but I got some ugly runout.

It's frustrating and I'm ready to ditch that die and get something new. Any recommendations for who to get a custom seater from? This wildcat is still my preferred ELR cartridge, so I plan to shoot it a lot longer.

 

[Rocketmandb]

Any recommendations for who to get a custom seater from?

Get an arbor press (I use K&M) and an LE Wilson Seater. The press is like $150ish and the dies are in the same realm as normal seaters. Getting this setup was the single biggest enabler to improving my round-to-round consistency.

 

[Dogtown]

Ah yes. I have a K&M arbor press with the force pack; might have to dust it off. Then the question becomes: where to get a custom arbor seater?

 

[Dogtown]

Well look at that? How fortuitous

Whidden Gunworks

Technology Applied To The Art Of Shooting

www.whiddengunworks.com

 

[Rocketmandb]

Well look at that? How fortuitous

Whidden Gunworks

Technology Applied To The Art Of Shooting

www.whiddengunworks.com

Oh damn... need to look at that for my 37XC. I sent off to LE Wilson to see if they could make me one (waiting to hear back). But I might call Whidden as well.

 

[Rocketmandb]

Also, LE Wilson will sell blanks that you can send to a smith and have them use the reamer to cut. My issue with the 375 is they don't have a blank big enough off the shelf. I'm pretty sure Whidden will make just about anything for you.