Which bushing bump neck sizer die ?

[TJC]

I have a Forster Co-Ax press and Forster FL resizing dies which work well. However, I'd like to just bump the shoulder and re-size the neck so have been looking at the Forster Bump Neck Sizing die with 3 bushings kit.

While I am sure this will work well I recognise that every few firings I might have to re-size using a FL re-sizing die (have I got that right ?)

I was wondering if anyone could recommend a die that would bump the shoulder, size the neck and ALSO slightly size the case so that I don't have to interchange between the neck/bump die and a FL die quite so frequently. Does such a die exist ?

Just want to make sure I get the right die so any opinions you have would be very much appreciated.

Thanks

[Laurie]

Unless you have a slack chamber and/or run super high-pressure loads, you find that N/S + shoulder bump is enough in most cartridges. I use the Forster B-B dies in 308 and 223 with near full-house FTR loads and .284 Win for F-Open and scrap cases after multiple reloads without ever FL sizing. In a good custom rifle chamber with quality brass, it is shoulder movement alone that makes for hard chambering in neck-sized only cases after a firing / loading or two.

In answer to N/S + bump + very light body size options, the simple answer is 'no' for off the shelf tools. You need a reference point to do your 'light size' from and this determined by chamber size. There is a considerable difference allowed between minimum and maximum SAAMI/CIP dimensions and therefore between the chambers in different rifles. As you have to index off the fired brass in your rifle's chamber, the only ways you can achieve this is to (a) have a custom sizer made for you by the gunsmith who also supplied the chambering reamer and can therefore produce a sizer with marginally smaller dimensions than the chamber he cut; or (b) in the case of some small precision cartridges such as the BRs and PPCs, some custom suppliers cut bushing FL dies in a small range of sizes. You send a fired / unsized case when you order the die and the sizer with the closest dimensions is selected to match. Harrell's Precision does this for both 6mm BR and PPC.

There are other reasons for using a standard FL sizer though, primarily for brass fired in mass produced factory rifles which may not have cahmbers which are as concentric as those in a custom built job. The standard die will largely true the brass up and some factory rifles shoot better with fairly heavily sized brass provided the shoulder position isn't bumped back overly in doing it.

[TJC]

That's all very interesting. Thanks for taking the time to explain all that.