Whidden Dies

Status
Not open for further replies.
A gunsmith said they are top notch.... I like making long range shots at deer, so I said why not... I have to fire form a few times before I send them my brass. You're on accurateshooter forum aren't you?
 
Been recommended to me multiple times. Haven’t seen any bad news or reviews about them. Never personally used them but those who have like them and prefer them.
 
What off the shelf dies come close? I can't get a Forster in .30-06 with all this craziness. A custom fit die I would think would out do any sammi spec made dies. Does Higher shelf dies such as Redding, Forster or RCBS gold medal or any competition dies come close?
 
Great company to deal with, great dies to work with!
I have a set of Whidden custom made dies for a 7.7x58 Japanese rifle. They are outstanding people to deal with, great communication, high quality dies. They say it takes about 12-16 weeks once they receive your fired-brass. When I got my 7.7x58 dies about two years ago, it was right around the 16 weeks mark, but they do let you know along the way where things stand with the progress of your dies. I got the custom dies matched to the chamber of my rifle because I wanted to full-body re-size, not just neck-size the brass, but wanted to minimize the amount of overworking of the brass that I will have to do. More importantly, I wanted the completed rounds to fit as close to snugly, without being too tight, as possible. The chambers of the Type 99 Arisaka rifles are loose and I was having problems with the brass not sealing in the chamber enough during firing, and that means that the bullet gets ejected into the rifling before the pressure got high enough to fully burn the powder, and that can cause squibs. Obviously, most people get custom dies to make highly-accurate ammo, and that's good, but my purposes were a little different. I asked them if I was the first one to want to spend the money for custom dies for a World War II military rifle, and they said I was their first customer wanting 7.7x58 Japanese dies, but they have had other people who get their custom dies for military surplus rifles. The sizing dies come with a custom made shoulder bump gauge that you install on a caliper and it lets you precisely set up the sizing die so you can bump the shoulder back as little or as much as you want, e.g. 1-2 thousands of an inch for bolt rifles, or 3-4 for a semi-auto, etc. They have great instructions on how to set up and use their dies.

I'm so happy with this company and their custom dies that at this moment they are working on a set of custom dies for me for a 270 Win rifle.

They have fancy nice lock-rings with a set screw and all that. I am the kind of reloader who thinks a lock ring is supposed to lock the die in place like it is about to be flown to the moon, so I replace the lock rings for my Whidden, Redding, Lyman, and RCBS dies with Dillon lock rings. I would say that the Whidden dies are nicer than my Redding dies, by the way, but the Redding dies work great too, and so do the RCBS dies, etc. I mostly use Dillon dies for pistol and rifle reloading, and they are my favorite, other than the Whidden dies.
 
valleyforge.1777 said:
Great company to deal with, great dies to work with!
I have a set of Whidden custom made dies for a 7.7x58 Japanese rifle. They are outstanding people to deal with, great communication, high quality dies. They say it takes about 12-16 weeks once they receive your fired-brass. When I got my 7.7x58 dies about two years ago, it was right around the 16 weeks mark, but they do let you know along the way where things stand with the progress of your dies. I got the custom dies matched to the chamber of my rifle because I wanted to full-body re-size, not just neck-size the brass, but wanted to minimize the amount of overworking of the brass that I will have to do. More importantly, I wanted the completed rounds to fit as close to snugly, without being too tight, as possible. The chambers of the Type 99 Arisaka rifles are loose and I was having problems with the brass not sealing in the chamber enough during firing, and that means that the bullet gets ejected into the rifling before the pressure got high enough to fully burn the powder, and that can cause squibs. Obviously, most people get custom dies to make highly-accurate ammo, and that's good, but my purposes were a little different. I asked them if I was the first one to want to spend the money for custom dies for a World War II military rifle, and they said I was their first customer wanting 7.7x58 Japanese dies, but they have had other people who get their custom dies for military surplus rifles. The sizing dies come with a custom made shoulder bump gauge that you install on a caliper and it lets you precisely set up the sizing die so you can bump the shoulder back as little or as much as you want, e.g. 1-2 thousands of an inch for bolt rifles, or 3-4 for a semi-auto, etc. They have great instructions on how to set up and use their dies.

I'm so happy with this company and their custom dies that at this moment they are working on a set of custom dies for me for a 270 Win rifle.

They have fancy nice lock-rings with a set screw and all that. I am the kind of reloader who thinks a lock ring is supposed to lock the die in place like it is about to be flown to the moon, so I replace the lock rings for my Whidden, Redding, Lyman, and RCBS dies with Dillon lock rings. I would say that the Whidden dies are nicer than my Redding dies, by the way, but the Redding dies work great too, and so do the RCBS dies, etc. I mostly use Dillon dies for pistol and rifle reloading, and they are my favorite, other than the Whidden dies.
Click to expand...

I was wondering about my RI 03' Sporter and my M-1.

I always noticed soot around the neck after firing, and was wondering about Whidden eliminating that with tighter tolernaces.

The T99 is a tack driver for an old war horse... glad you have it where you want it.

Your 270 Winchester..... accuracy and consist accuracy improvement. Consistent groups?
 
I've got a set for my 6mm SLR.

Very, very, well made and supported. I had an issue with markings on VLD bullets and they sent me a new stem in a week. he also has some excellent videos on how to set up and use.
 
milboltnut said:
then what is it? Load pressure?
Click to expand...
My humble 2 cents
Soot is blow by from neck clearance' no worries as the cartridge seals the chamber or should. My competition rifles will have a soot line that appears as a sine wave except where the lugs are located, my factory cambers are a bit more unless I run a low charge and don't seal.
More experienced re loaders could expand
 
South Prairie Jim said:
My humble 2 cents
Soot is blow by from neck clearance' no worries as the cartridge seals the chamber or should. My competition rifles will have a soot line that appears as a sine wave except where the lugs are located, my factory cambers are a bit more unless I run a low charge and don't seal.
More experienced re loaders could expand
Click to expand...

I agree.... neck clearance yes. That's one of the custom die clearances that put into the die.
 
South Prairie Jim said:
Nope that's in the reamer.
Click to expand...

in relation to a custom how does it get an increase in that area? If the neck is expanding as the cartridge case is sealing the chamber then that's where a custom die comes into play, correct?
 
Last edited:
True
My semi custom FL bushing dies are honed to reduce my fired cartridges about .0015 at the CSJ and the .200 datum, I control the neck size using bushings .002 less in diameter than a loaded round. Neck clearance on a custom I can control by choice of reamer , a factory sammi I cannot. I do use a semi custom die on a couple of sammi Chambers to not over work the brass or my press linkage by grossly oversizing but I just live with the soot as it doesn't affect accuracy.
 
Last edited:
I love my Whidden Dies - Custom ones for all my bench rest rifles, made from my reamer print and 5 cases, each fired 3 times without full length resizing. Have there Off the Shelf ones for some of my other calibers.

Bob
 
milboltnut said:
in relation to a custom how does it get an increase in that area? If the neck is expanding as the cartridge case is sealing the chamber then that's where a custom die comes into play, correct?
Click to expand...
No, that is where fit to the chamber comes in, as in a custom reamer like are used for tight necked chambers where you turn the case necks for a close fit, but that has nothing to do with soot. Quit worrying about soot.
 
not worried about soot.... talking about a tighter casing from fired cases to size for a tighter fit versus Sammi die tolerances
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

Fatelvis
  • Locked
How do Whidden Mic seaters measure up?
Replies
4
Views
532
JimKirk
JimKirk
W
  • Locked
Forster, Whidden, and Triebel
Replies
5
Views
2K
RugerOldArmy
RugerOldArmy
riverats
Custom Pistol Die ?
Replies
13
Views
516
riverats
riverats
tcoz
  • Locked
Looking for some f/l bushing die help
2
Replies
30
Views
2K
tcoz
tcoz
J
  • Locked
Bullet Pointing System
Replies
15
Views
976
taliv
T
Back
Top