Forrester br dies

J

jaybic

Guest
Hello everyone,

I am sure I am just concerned over naught but I must ask so here goes.

I just got two new sets of Forrester Br dies, one in .223 and the other in .308.
and on both sizer dies, the decapping ping is very loose fitting. I think its because of the rubber bushing in between that pin adjustment nut and the lock nut. Is it supposed to be like that or are you supposed to take that bushing out or what?

It seems terribly sloppy to me. How is the die "benchrest" precise with the pin moving all over like that? I can actually look into the die and see that the pin assembly is not concentric with the die body.

Any ideas for this lost soul?

Jaybic
 
This "terribly sloppy" decaping pin -- Just how do you see this affecting the quality of the ammo?? It knocks the primers out, big deal.

If you are counting an expander button to perform some sort of magic, that ain't going to happen. The stem just bends and the button leans to the weak/thin side of the neck and you end up with a bunch of neck runout.
 
Forester BR dies are excellent dies... the small expander ball is towards the top of the stem and engages the neck as soon as it the neck comes out of that portion of the sizing die... it does not distort the neck of the case... nothing needs to be that precise in the decapping pin... all it does is push the primer out... part of precision is the ability of components to center in the press and within the case. The Forester Co-Ax press is an excellent example of that.

The BR seating die is quite precise and work very well.

I have been using these products for close to 40 years now...
 
Karls42,

This is my first set of BR dies and I dont know that it means anything at all. Thats why I am asking an honest question. I thought maybe they were broken or defective. I am a rookie at this and am rapidly becoming discouraged due to the fact no answer can come with out the accompanying sarcasm/mean spirited tone, it seems. I can almost feel you looking down the side of your nose at me. After reading nearly everything on BRC, I have come to understand that in BR, tight tolerances and attention to detail are critical, hence my question.

I will just put this out there. With all due respect to all, if I have to take some kind of verbal a$$-whipping to get an answer to any question I might ask, please disregard my post. I do not wish to offend anyone and I am just trying to learn here and there is also not a soul here that was not new once. If I have mistaken the tone of the first response post, I sincerely apologize.

Dennis,

Thanks for the response. It helped me to understand that my dies are not broken. They are supposed to be that way.

Jaybic
 
Jaybic,

Hang in there mate, not everybody is so uptight !

The Forster "Benchrest" dies are only benchrest in name. The sliding sleeve type seater is actually pretty darn good and not to far from being as good as a proper "benchrest" seater. That seater as well as the Forster Ultra and the Redding competition seaters are capable of loading some pretty straight ammo.

Any die with an expander ball will tend to want to induce more run out in the sized case than a die that uses no expander, a small amount of sizing and neck turned cases, as a "benchrest" sizing die does. Simply the more the case neck varies in thickness and the more you size down and expand up the brass the more run out you are likely to create.

As Dennis said, the high location of the expander in the Forster die is better than most but still not the ideal set up for really straight cases and loaded rounds.

With respect to visibly being able to see the decapping rod being off centre, I'd just nudge it over a bit if you can and try and centre it up. It might even help to loosen, move it a little and retighten it or you may need to bend it a little to get it to sit central. It probably isn't a big deal but it sure can't hurt if it is all nicely aligned. The case neck comes out of the die body an pretty soon hits the expander so the expander wants to be in line with the neck area of the die body, seems pretty logical.

The floppy decap pin ? So long as it enters the flash hole all is well.

I assume you are shooting factory rifles ? I have found the best way to load nice and straight ammo for a factory rifle is to use a Lee Collet neck die, a Redding body die for when they get a little tight to chamber and a seater like the Forster one that you have already, one with the sliding sleeve assembly, that or a Wilson hand seater. I have fooled with this with a number of rifles and that die set up has always come out on top, better than bushing dies even ......

Good luck.

Bryce
 
I take the "spindel" out before setting the die for headspace. Then I replace the spindel and expander button assembly leaving the lock nut loose. Run a case fully into the die taking care to center the expander button when it enters the case mouth . Now withdraw the case until you feel the button enter the neck -stop. Now while it's centered LOCK the lock nut.

Possibly the rubber bushing is to allow the expander ball to self center in the neck . My dies do not have this rubber part.

The people at Forster are very good at answering questions and shipping stuff I've found . Hi Dee !
http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/contact.asp

Glenn:D
 
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Thanks for the help fellas,

I actually meant to say that its the entire spindle assembly that moves around, not the pin so sorry about the inaccurate description of the offending piece. My .308 dies are the Ultra version with the micrometer seater thing(tech term).

Anyway, my rifles are sorta factory in that the .223 is a DPMS with a Douglas match barrel and JP trigger...floated...ect and the .308 is still waiting on the Kreiger barrel and being trued and lapped...ect so they are modified stock/custom rifles maybe. Heck, I dont know.:)

Glenn, I think that your die set up idea is awesome and I am going to try that ASAP. You are essentially letting the case neck hold the expander ball centered under a little tension and then locking down if I am understanding you correctly.

Again, I really appreciate the help.

Best of luck,

jaybic
 
ditto on glen's method

I set mine up the same way,but have not noticed the entire spindle moving around on mine,maybe you didn't have the nut tight enough.Forster says the washer helps to let the expander self center,the older dies didnt have it,but the later models do,i couldn't see any difference on the targets between the two,but these were in light deer rifles.
 
Back in the late 60's early 70's Bonanza Benchrest dies were used to load Benchrest quality ammunition... bullet run out was often only 1/2 thou... .222's, 6 x 47's and .308's were the common ones...

Today there is a better choice of custom dies made to match brass, etc...

...but unless you are competing in serious Benchrest competitions I think you can do a lot with these mass produced factory dies, as you can with Redding as well...
 
I have Forster dies back to Forster to get the neck honed in .223, 6mmBR, 243, 257RAI, 30-30, 308, 8x57, and 338WM.

So I no longer use a sizer ball with them.

I have some that have original tight necks, and I don't use the sizer ball with them either.
 
Dies that have the neck honed or use replacable bushings for the proper neck tension. Saves wear and tear on the neck brass and gives less runout.
 
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