Dies for 20 Tactical

[TonyH]

I know there are dedicated dies by e.g. Redding (my preferred maker) in this calibre, but what sort of individual jury-rigs are people doing? I imagine one could use a standard .223 Redding Comp seating die, perhaps with a different plug, for example. Anyone got experience with the RCBS Gold medal seater, with the handy sounding cutout for bullet insertion? I'm making some progress toward a 20 Tac and want to make sure in advance that I'm kitted out. And is this Lapua brass in 20 Tac available here yet? Seems to make sense to spend the cash on that, rather than faffing around with an expensive forming die to modify all my present .223 brass.

Thanks, Tony

[Guest Scotland Rifles]

I know there are dedicated dies by e.g. Redding (my preferred maker) in this calibre, but what sort of individual jury-rigs are people doing? I imagine one could use a standard .223 Redding Comp seating die, perhaps with a different plug, for example. Anyone got experience with the RCBS Gold medal seater, with the handy sounding cutout for bullet insertion? I'm making some progress toward a 20 Tac and want to make sure in advance that I'm kitted out. And is this Lapua brass in 20 Tac available here yet? Seems to make sense to spend the cash on that, rather than faffing around with an expensive forming die to modify all my present .223 brass.

Thanks, Tony

 

Hi Tony

 

i have a redding 3 die set and i have not looked back.

 

i just wanted to get on and shoot the rifle non of this farting around forming 223 to 20 tactical. and i have been happier then a dog with 2 tails,

 

they are not cheap but then again nor is the brass, dakota brass will set you back £50+ for 100 so i used 20 at a time and after 5 reloads i anneal them full size trim and then neck size again and then the will be used 5 more times and binned,

 

as for the 20tac, it was built for me by Neil (Dasherman) and i have only just got 2 new extractors from the USA and its shooting like a dream. 1.5" high at 100 takes me out to 250 with ease,

 

i was running it a bit hot but now backed it off to about 3400 and with a 40gr vmax its the dogs kahunas.

 

bob.

[TonyH]

Hi Tony

 

i have a redding 3 die set and i have not looked back.

 

i just wanted to get on and shoot the rifle non of this farting around forming 223 to 20 tactical. and i have been happier then a dog with 2 tails,

 

they are not cheap but then again nor is the brass, dakota brass will set you back £50+ for 100 so i used 20 at a time and after 5 reloads i anneal them full size trim and then neck size again and then the will be used 5 more times and binned,

 

as for the 20tac, it was built for me by Neil (Dasherman) and i have only just got 2 new extractors from the USA and its shooting like a dream. 1.5" high at 100 takes me out to 250 with ease,

 

i was running it a bit hot but now backed it off to about 3400 and with a 40gr vmax its the dogs kahunas.

 

bob.

Hi Bob - yes, I knew about your 20Tac and that you like it a lot. Is it the standard Redding 3-die set? Happy with runout and so on? Interesting that you use the 40gr V-Max - I've used the .224" equivalent for years, great bullet, and the 55gr ditto in more than one 22-250, but in 20 cal a lot of folk seem to prefer the 39gr SBK, which appears to behave significantly differently from its Hornady cousin of almost the same weight. Did you try that? have you played with the 32gr bullets at all? Interested by the MV you now get - I thought the 40gr (-ish) bullets could be safely driven quite a bit faster, like 3800-3900? My .223 load sends the 40 V-Max off at very near 3800 and I sort of anticipated the 20Tac would do the same. I'm not obsessed with max MV but every little bit helps.

Cheers, Tony

[Guest Scotland Rifles]

Hi Bob - yes, I knew about your 20Tac and that you like it a lot. Is it the standard Redding 3-die set? Happy with runout and so on? Interesting that you use the 40gr V-Max - I've used the .224" equivalent for years, great bullet, and the 55gr ditto in more than one 22-250, but in 20 cal a lot of folk seem to prefer the 39gr SBK, which appears to behave significantly differently from its Hornady cousin of almost the same weight. Did you try that? have you played with the 32gr bullets at all? Interested by the MV you now get - I thought the 40gr (-ish) bullets could be safely driven quite a bit faster, like 3800-3900? My .223 load sends the 40 V-Max off at very near 3800 and I sort of anticipated the 20Tac would do the same. I'm not obsessed with max MV but every little bit helps.

Cheers, Tony

 

 

hi tony

 

i find the redding dies are the dogs mate, so much that i sold my 223 and 243 rcbs ones and got them all from redding runout and everything they need to do is spot on,

 

right, this is what i was told i should get from my 20"barrel when i first had the 20,

 

24 grains of Reloder 10 X with a 40-grain

Hornady V-Max shot at 3,857fps

and 1,322ft/lb energy

 

i found it was a tad slower than the above about 3,675 so not having a chrono i have to think i will be about 3400 now with a much reduced load of just 23.5 gr rl10x.

 

i posted the same question about my predicted load on another forum and this was sent to me.

 

Cartridge : .20-223 20 Tactical

Bullet : .204, 40, Hornady V-MAX 22006

Useable Case Capaci: 26.360 grain H2O = 1.712 cm³

Cartridge O.A.L. L6: 2.165 inch = 54.99 mm

Barrel Length : 20.0 inch = 508.0 mm

Powder : Alliant Reloder-10x

 

Predicted data by increasing and decreasing the given charge,

incremented in steps of 2.0% of nominal charge.

CAUTION: Figures exceed maximum and minimum recommended loads !

 

Step Fill. Charge Vel. Energy Pmax Pmuz Prop.Burnt B_Time

% % Grains fps ft.lbs psi psi % ms

 

-20.0 70 16.00 2557 581 23530 6755 88.9 1.221

-18.0 72 16.40 2616 608 24923 6967 90.2 1.194

-16.0 73 16.80 2675 636 26395 7174 91.4 1.168

-14.0 75 17.20 2734 664 27951 7375 92.5 1.143

-12.0 77 17.60 2793 693 29594 7569 93.5 1.119

-10.0 78 18.00 2852 722 31327 7756 94.5 1.095

-08.0 80 18.40 2910 752 33155 7935 95.4 1.071

-06.0 82 18.80 2968 782 35082 8105 96.2 1.049

-04.0 84 19.20 3026 813 37114 8267 97.0 1.026

-02.0 85 19.60 3083 844 39255 8418 97.6 0.999

+00.0 87 20.00 3140 876 41511 8559 98.2 0.974

+02.0 89 20.40 3196 907 43889 8689 98.7 0.950

+04.0 91 20.80 3252 939 46394 8809 99.1 0.926

+06.0 92 21.20 3307 972 49034 8916 99.5 0.903 ! Near Maximum !

+08.0 94 21.60 3362 1004 51816 9011 99.7 0.881 ! Near Maximum !

+10.0 96 22.00 3416 1037 54748 9094 99.9 0.860 !DANGEROUS LOAD-DO NOT USE!

 

Results caused by ± 10% powder lot-to-lot burning rate variation using nominal charge

Data for burning rate increased by 10% relative to nominal value:

+Ba 87 20.00 3288 960 49232 8421 100.0 0.901 ! Near Maximum !

Data for burning rate decreased by 10% relative to nominal value:

-Ba 87 20.00 2941 768 34001 8265 92.2 1.062

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Note that the TAC SAAMI maximum is 55,000 psi which roughly works out at 22 grain of 10x.

I would be going nowhere near that without a lot of working up.

 

 

so if the above is true i'm way over the limit ??

 

i have some 32gr on the way (collecting them tomorrow) so i will let you know what they are like sir.

 

bob.

[6mmBR]

I use the RCBS seater it is superb and the side loading window is spot on no more balancing bullets.

I use the same seater for all my calibers simply buying a new bullet guide and seater plug so you can do a cal change for under £20.

Try buying a comp seater at that price!

My ammo is spot on a silver in the Queens F class final at Bisley's Imperial meet proving a point on ammo consistency.

Cheers

Dave

[20Tac]

I know there are dedicated dies by e.g. Redding (my preferred maker) in this calibre, but what sort of individual jury-rigs are people doing? I imagine one could use a standard .223 Redding Comp seating die, perhaps with a different plug, for example. Anyone got experience with the RCBS Gold medal seater, with the handy sounding cutout for bullet insertion? I'm making some progress toward a 20 Tac and want to make sure in advance that I'm kitted out. And is this Lapua brass in 20 Tac available here yet? Seems to make sense to spend the cash on that, rather than faffing around with an expensive forming die to modify all my present .223 brass.

Thanks, Tony

 

Tony - a good choice is the standard Redding type S bushing die (either just neck or full length) so you can adjust the neck tension, plus the competition seating die.

[22/250 foxer]

I use the RCBS seater it is superb and the side loading window is spot on no more balancing bullets.

I use the same seater for all my calibers simply buying a new bullet guide and seater plug so you can do a cal change for under £20.

Try buying a comp seater at that price!

My ammo is spot on a silver in the Queens F class final at Bisley's Imperial meet proving a point on ammo consistency.

Cheers

Dave

 

ive got the rcbs comp die for the 22/250 and agree the window on the side is great. it holds the bullet and saves messing about trying to hold it right when loading a round