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Custom dies - body die


Hobbit

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Does any body have any experience on getting custom dies made and sent to the UK?

My current preferred reloading method is to use the body die (to bump 2 thou in a bolt, 4-5 though in a blaser or AR) and seater from a Redding competition type S die set and Lee collet neck die (I recently found that the latter gives me better run-out than the rather expensive redding comp bushing neck sizers that come in the set and apparently works the brass less)

This is great for 308, 223, 6.5CM and 300 Win Mag but I can't get either the Redding or lee dies in 7x64 Brenneke

Currently I FL size the 7x64 with a standard redding die and run in a sinclair mandrel at .282 for 2 thou neck tension - which is ok but not quite the run out tolerances of the lee die and the effort of withdrawing the expander suggests I am working my Lapua brass hard

So I wondered if this was an opportunity to try out the custom dies route - I have ordered a lee collet die in 280/7mm express to experiment with but that still leaves bumping back the shoulder without over working the neck which I think my FL dies is doing.

I recognise that I may be overthinking this and the marginal gains are questionable but learning new approaches and experimenting is one of the reasons I enjoy reloading so any insight and anecdotes appreciated

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For the full custom route, both Neil Jones and Whidden just want 3 once fired cases (use full power loads) to be sent to them. They make the dies to size the brass to a minimum, so they're nicely spec'd to your chamber.

Both dies of high quality. Both ordered online (with a few emails back and forth). No issues with export and customs.

My Neil Jones die (no longer with me - went with the previous rifle when I sold it) was very high quality.

The current Whidden dies I have aren't the 'custom' route. I actually went with their normal benchrest dies because they had the calibres I wanted (6.5x47 and .338 Norma Mag.). I took a look on their site but unfortunately they don't offer 7x64, so you would need to go with their custom dies.

One key reason why I went with their regular dies was the fact that I didn't have/own the original chamber reamer (for the 6.5x47 anyway...I own the .338 Norma reamer) or could guarantee I would have access to it. I felt (rightly or wrongly...not sure) that without the reamer, a future rebarrel with a new reamer may size my brass differently and thus *may* not work with the custom dies. Now, the dimensions of difference between reamers and thus the dies may be minuscule, but I couldn't be sure. I don't know enough about it. Needless to say I didn't want to take the risk, so went regular Whiddens this time for ease.

Whidden himself was pleasent to deal with, the dies work really well and appear to be very concentric. They appear to be machined of aluminium (with steel insert..I think?!?) but haven't heard any complaints about their durability. 

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On ‎11‎/‎13‎/‎2018 at 1:09 AM, Hobbit said:

Gandy - are you suggesting contacting Lee?

Sorry Hobbit, I've been away for a few days and had forgotten all about this thread, I've a set of Lee 7x64 dies at home so they must have made them at some point I would enquire if they still do them. Much more economical than the custom route.

 

Shall I try to fish out the part / model number or something for you tonight from the packaging?

Quick google found this: https://leeprecision.com/3-die-set-7x64-brenneke.html

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