Redding Competition seating die adjustment

[bigcatdaddy]

I have Redding's seating die in 7mm-08 Rem, the competition die with the flaoting stem. 1st time using today, I could not get die set by adjusting at the top of ram stroke with shellholder in place. Ram to the top of stroke with shellholder in place, and I set the die body until it was firmly touching the shellholder...by the time I had the seating stem screwed all the way in...I was still short on adjustment. With stem adjusted to end of it's travel for adjustment, I was still short .02's of where I wanted to be. Was trying to seat SMK, 168 gr, HPBT. Is it possible that I need a longer/different seating stem for this bullet?

Any ideas?

I pulled the shellholder out, set die off ram without shellholder, then replaced the shellholder and had enough travel to get the job done.

Novice here, and I think I'm doing something wrong, 'eh?

[blom]

Call redding
, they are very helpful

[Slowpoke Slim]

If I'm reading you correctly, you are bottoming out the seater die against the shell holder with the ram all the way up? And you still can't seat the bullet down enough?

!

Something is drastically wrong. Like you have the wrong seater die in your die set. Or the wrong seater die body was used to assemble the 7-08 die.

My gut says you'll be sending that one back to Redding for a free replacement.

[bigcatdaddy]

Yup guys, you got it right.

Only thing I'm pondering is the sleeve inside..that holds the seating stem. Could it be upside down? Will check but I bet it only goes into the die-body in one orientation.

Guess I'll call Redding tomorrow AM.

Thx for the response. I'll post the ultimate fix...or operator error report!

[Quickshot]

I just checked my Redding die and can,t see how you could have that problem. Looking forward to what caused it. I also have a RCBS seater that requires an extended shell holder to seat the bullet but that is not the case with the Redding as far as I can see. Let us know. Quick

[bigcatdaddy]

Quickshot...here's the story.

Simply, my naievety and operator error. Redding was great. Answered on the third ring. Had a tech in 20 seconds. He heard my story and chuckled. Told me it's a common mistake. In fact, he's made it himself when he was more "green". After inspecting the die more carefully, what appears to be the bottom of the die, is really the inner sleeve hanging out the bottom by about 1/2 inch. As a novice, I set the die to touch the shellholder at the bottom of this sleeve. This sleeve is under tension from the inner spring and needs to be compressed up into the die body when adjusting and setting the die into the press. Being a novice, I peeked under the press and assumed what I saw was the die bottom....(it was really the inner sleeve hanging below the level of the die body). I simply screwed in the die until this touched the ram....not knowing it was just the inner sleeve.

So tonight armed with some intell, indeed by continuing to turn the die body deeper into the press...the inner sleeve compresses all the way up into the die body...giving me about another 1/2" of bullet seating depth.

Simple as that. Inexperience.

Well, it may help one of you who may purchase this die.
By the way, it is as smooth as a baby's butt in the seating operation.