Thread: RCBS F/L die

Recently bought some second hand , new (definitely weren't), RCBS Competition dies for my new to me 22-250 . Now I'm assuming these are old because I've never seen dies of any make in a wooden box . They consist of a f/l and seater die .

On seeing how much dirt was on them , a full strip down , clean in the ultrasonic , dry , oil and reassemble . All seems good in the hood .

Not quite .

The sizing die is so , so tight at the base that it won't f/l size no matter how it is adjusted or lubed and it clearly isn't making contact with the shoulder . There's a visible gap between die and shellholder when sizing even when set with a full turn of contact . If a 16 stone bloke hanging of a Rockchucker Supreme can't size them something is a miss, surely
. Let's not start the discussion regarding case growth during sizing again , there is significant lengthening and I'm fully aware of the cause .

The brass , as a matter of interest, is once fired factory ammo which I annealed.

Has anyone had a similar experience , are they tight based or just dog s^#@ as is my suspicion ?


These are my 1st experience of RCBS dies , so far , less tickled pink and more coloured unimpressed . New , about £160 .

Not the bargain I was looking for .

Make sure that your de capping stem is not set too low. This will stop the case being fully sized. Easy to take the stem out to check.
GPM.

Nothing inherently wrong with RCBS dies. I have heaps of them as well as Reddings and no issues.

I tried without the stem , with more lube , more adjustment, same result to the point of a case sticking which required some force to remove .

I guess it's possible there's a reason they were cheap . I've ordered another f/l die to compare.

Cheers guys

RCBS Competition dies were sold in the wooden box years ago, I have come across some that are new in the box for sale recently, they are good dies and were sold at a premium price.

Sure the build up on them wasn't dried up grease? I've had some old dies that have never been used and the grease has dried up till it's a solid mess, took a bit of cleaning but with a bit of work they cleaned up and looked like new dies.

Not sure what your problem is but if the dies faulty RCBS will possibly replace the die, I've had them supply parts and wanted to pay and they instead supply them free with free shipping.
Better service than I've ever had from Redding.

If you've got a couple of FLS dies and you seemingly haven't it's dead easy to do rough measurements with your vernier calipers into the mouth of the die and then compare between dies. Also compare with the base area of your brass you are sizing to see how much you are trying to reduce.

Slide just the tips of the calipers into the die to take the reading. Pushing them fully in will obviously incorrectly measure further down (up?) the taper.

You've given them a good clean and say all good. I presume that means no rust?

And I guess I have to ask you what lube you are using.

Some dies still come in wooden boxes. There is a South African gunsmith who manufactures very sophisticated and expensive dies and they are packaged in a wooden box. The wooden box itself is a beautiful thing.

If what I've been told is correct then the die has the year stamped on the top flat , mine will be 1980 .

I have bought another F/L die , this time a Lee , also second hand . The problem doesn't exist with that die .

I have taken note that the problem, is possibly a result of a build up of lube and dirt , when time allows , I'll check and try to remove or polish it out .

I like the seater die , I'm not convinced it'll give any better results than any other but dropping the bullet in through a port is a nice touch .

I'm not a die snob , guess I've just got used to what I have . In fact I'd go as far as to say , " the only difference I've really seen is that some size more smoothly , I haven't seen more accuracy down range " . Perhaps, a discussion for another day ?

Thanks guys for your feedback , appreciated.

A decent tidy of FL die internals can be made with a brake cyl hone in a drill with crc as cutting fluid

Just enough to tidy the bore, doesn’t need to remove metal