Full Length Bushing style Sizing Dies

[9mmepiphany]

Not wanting to derail my other thread...I'm just as guilty as anyone of letting tangents wander...I'll ask this in a separate thread.

It came up as I was browsing Midway in preparation for Black Friday and birthday discounts and was looking at Foster and Redding rifle dies.

I notice that there were:
1. Full Length
2. Neck Sizing
3. Full Length w/ bushing

I understand full length

My understanding that neck sizing works when you are shooting the case in the same rifle and works the brass less.

My reasoning tells me that adding a bushing would support the exterior of the neck of the case.

Would someone explain the advantages of the different systems and their desirability

 

[cfullgraf]

My reasoning tells me that adding a bushing would support the exterior of the neck of the case.

The bushing die allows you to select the amount of sizing of the neck that you want by changing the bushing.

Otherwise, they are no different than a full length or neck only sizing dies.

One advantage to bushing dies, you can size the neck so that you do not need to run an expander ball through the die. This should help with concentricity of the neck and body as well as minimizing stretching of the case due to the expander ball.

I only have limited experience with bushing dies so I will others discuss the virtues of the dies.

 

[USSR]

As cfullgraf said, the beauty of bushing dies is the ability to vary the amount of neck tension. There are several ways to approach this. You can buy a full length sizing die, or you can buy a neck sizing die. The thing with a neck sizing die is, you can only neck size your brass if you choose, or you can full length resize your brass with the addition of a body die. This is how I process my brass using the Redding Competition Die Set.

Don

 

[Walkalong]

I am using a Redding FL bushing die for .308 F Class ammo and really like it.

A whole lot of folks use the neck sizing bushing die and a body die. It is a proven combination.

If my memory serves, and it may not, the Redding Body Die, to supplement the neck sizer die, both standard and bushing style, has been around longer than the Redding FL bushing style die.

You will end up buying more than one bushing, but it is the best way to go, unless you get a Forster sizer with the neck reamed to your specs from the factory. It is obviously a fixed die though, and not as versatile as the bushing set up.

 

[9mmepiphany]

...and folks wonder why I don't have a lot of interest in loading rifle rounds.

I'd go broke buying all the nice things to eek out that last .00"

Besides my ARs/AKs/Milsurps/.22lrs, all I have is a Steyr Pro Hunter in 7mm-08...I actually wanted a 6.5x55mm or a .260, but CDNN was sold out of them..with a 26" barrel. I'm not even sure why I have it; except that I couldn't past up the price as they were clearing them out

 

[Cemetery21]

The bushing dies are also useful for some wildcat calibers where factory dies are not available. There are several wildcats based on the 6.8 Rem case, for example. If you wanted a 6mm 6.8, you just swap out the bushing and neck down to 6mm.
My first bushing dies were for .20 Practical. A .223 die with a 20 cal bushing.