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Die Recommendation- 300 Win. Mag

cttbax

Sergeant
Full Member
Minuteman
Jul 22, 2010
380
0
42
Augusta GA
www.1911market.com
New to precision shooting and new to reloading 300 win mag. In the past with rifle I have used Lee dies, and started with loads off the bottle or standard manual loads. I always used the book OAL, never measured out my rifles actually OAL. So I feel like I am pretty up on reloading, but not to the level of gnats ass detail that I should be at.

So what dies should I start with? Do I need anything fancy like the $200 redding competition dies? Or will the good ole Lee dies work for me?

Thanks!
 
Re: Die Recommendation- 300 Win. Mag

Sounds like you have a nice stable of rifles. Consider the Forster comp dies. They will do all you need for about $100 less.The Lee seater die gives me from .050 to .08 runout over the Forster at .002 to .003. JMHO.
 
Re: Die Recommendation- 300 Win. Mag

Run out is how "straight up and down" the bullet is once seated. I use one of these to measure it:

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=310955

As for dies I just use regular RCBS dies. I thought about buying the redding comp dies but I'm just a plinker and would rather spend that $$$ on powder, brass, bullets, strippers, etc.
 
Re: Die Recommendation- 300 Win. Mag

"I always used the book OAL, never measured out my rifles actually OAL. So I feel like I am pretty up on reloading, but not to the level of gnats ass detail that I should be at.
So what dies should I start with?

I'd suggest you stick with what you have until you get a lot more experience. Conventional dies are quite good after all and you haven't yet reached the full potential of what you're useing now. Not a slam, just a fact, and you may well be surprised at what you can do without the more costly die sets.

Fact is, if the manufactoring tolerances in a conventional die set happens to match your rifle no others will do any better anyway. Getting that kind of match from any dies is luck, not the color of the box they came in...or how much you pay for them!

I've owned a couple of bad die sets but the worst gave me about 10 thou of runout. I can't imagine how any die set could produce 50-80 thou of runout and if they did it would be a manufactor's warrantee issue for correction!

Get your new rifle, learn some advanced loading and load development methods and enjoy it! When you get to the point you may need different dies you will have the experience to know it and know what you want without asking us.
 
Re: Die Recommendation- 300 Win. Mag

Just my 2 cents, I use RCBS dies and have no problem with accuracy department.