So I just received a 308 redding FL Bushing Die and set it up and sized some cases. I noticed it did not size the neck all the way down to the shoulder.It sized the neck down around 78 to 80% of the neck. Is this normal. I set it up per instructions and some video's that I watched on how to set it up.
Donut Redding Neck Die?
- Thread starter Brux
- Start date
Yep. You set it up so that the bushing floats freely and isn’t sandwiched in the die halves off center inducing runout. The consequence of that is that you leave a little space and the bushing pushes up and away and you’ll never make up that gap. I think the collet dies can get a bit lower?
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Are you 100% sure you even got your brass sized right, plus, as far as floating the bushing, just over 1/32 of a turn enough to accomplish this. Yes, a Redding type S cannot get to the shoulder fully, but it is hardly noticeable.
Something else that affects this is the radius on the ID of the bushings. It varies a bunch from bushing to bushing.
As far as I know it is sized right. I bumped the shoulders 2 thou and the part of the neck that got sized corresponds with the measurement that I took from a loaded round to the bushings that I bought. With Lapua brass a loaded round measured 336 and I used a 334 bushing to give me 2 thou neck tension. I noticed that the bushing looks like it is beveled slightly on one end so I put the beveled end facing down.
No reason you cant flip it an use the non/less beveled edge. It will provide a tiny bit more sizing as well. Not that that would be required, just giving you another tuning aspect.
You're right, but not to the tune of a 20% gap, 3 firings and he will not be able to chamber the brass.
We havent actually seen his necks and dont know how much he backed off the stem to keep the bushing floating. You correctly pointed out how little he needs to back it off. Certainly there are a few factors at play here.
I no longer buy redding bushings because of how poor they are with consistency, including the chamfer.
edit: what i meant by “more sizing” was not aimed at sizing further down the neck (that would be taken care of by less chamfer)but actually smaller diameter, since most bushings have a slight taper on the ID.
I no longer buy redding bushings because of how poor they are with consistency, including the chamfer.
edit: what i meant by “more sizing” was not aimed at sizing further down the neck (that would be taken care of by less chamfer)but actually smaller diameter, since most bushings have a slight taper on the ID.
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The engraving of the info on the bushing may be raised and thus not be an even surface. That can induce runout. Now whether his have that issue or not is something he will have to check. But there is at least a potential reason why it would not be a good idea.
Running it numbers down would eliminate that posibility then. I think he’s just backed off the stem too far, combined with a generous chamfer on the bushing.
I talked to Redding today and they said that was about right as far as not sizing all the way down to the shoulder. I did flip the bushing and it did size down a little more. I seated some bullets and I am not getting over 2 thou runout. The cases did chamber with no problem even in my match palma chamber. I did tighten the bushing down all the way and just backed it off just barely enough to make it float.
LE wilson. Sold through most of the major vendors. Hornady match dies use the same .5” bushings as well.
I had the same issue with Redding Die for my Grendel. I figured out the bushing wasn't screwed down all the way. I removed the stem and just screwed the part that holds down the bushing. I even had to do a whole turn down of the die as well. Now i get a complete resizing of the case neck
