30-06 Die recommendation

[Bart B.]

While some brass may not have neck wall thickness that thin, necks that's been turned may well be that thin.

There's another component dimension that has quite a range. SAAMI specs for .30-06 bullet diameters are from .306" to .309". Some company's 30 caliber bullets have been larger than .309". And die makers know that some people turn case necks to uniform their thickness so they want to ensure their dies can size those fired cases enough.

Commercial dies are made to size fired case mouths small enough to grip the smallest diameter bullet tight enough to stay in place during handling and loading. Their makers don't know what case and bullet dimensions customers will use so they try to accommodate all of them with a single die. And some combinations of cases and bullets won't end up with bullets gripped tight enough after sizing.

Reloaders have the option to get sizing dies with neck bushings or diameters correct for their cases to grip their bullets as they desire.

 

[RentaCop]

I have Forester. Ever since the made my 30-40 and 8x57 seaters, it's all I use.

 

[Elkins45]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I was planning on going with the Hornady mostly to cash in on the free bullets as Mgmorden suggested, but while on a day trip with SWMBO and the kiddos I spotted these on the clearance rack at Bass pro and they followed me home


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That's a powerful argument in favor of Lyman. I think you will like them just fine.

I try to buy Lyman dies for all of my straight wall rifle cartridges because their three die sets come with their fantastic M die case neck expander.

 

[FROGO207]

FWIW I have several brands of reloading dies accumulated over the years. Some old brands that are no longer made, up to some new within the last year. I try to have at least two different die sets for each caliber I reload for in case of problems while in a reloading session. So I often have different brand die sets in a particular caliber. I will try both/all sets to see if I can detect any differences when using them to reload. So far I can not shoot well enough to detect if there are major differences between brands of dies. BUT I am not shooting 1000 YDS either. YMMV

FWIW The most dies I own are Lee (mostly purchased new by me) followed closely by RCBS with a few of several other brands.

 

[jaguarxk120]

Go with RCBS or Redding dies, they are well made and perform the best.

Don't go cheap on your tooling, you will have less problems down the road.

 

[Gtscotty]

I think there is a lot of voodoo floating around about standard die sets. I use RCBS, Hornady and Lee, and really can't tell a difference in performance. I use Lee for .308, and have a rifle that will regularly shoot 0.5 MOA with ammo loaded on those dies. It's my experience that you really need to jump up into special competition dies or full length bushing dies to see a difference over any of the basic die sets, even then you'll be dealing with diminishing returns for each dollar that jumps out of your wallet. Worth it for competition..... Hunting and plinking up to a few hundred yards, not so much.