In a book of great orators was a debate between two groups; the group responding to a question said: "As sure as I am there is but one god I am as sure he has not dealt with us equally etc.' etc." .
I said my shell holders have a deck height of .125" meaning it does not matter what brand of shell holder I use. Years ago I purchased 2 counter display box of dies. On the bottom of the box was printed the instructions. The reloaders was instructed to use 'these' die with a shell holder with a deck height of .125". Meaning it was not until the inventions of the Internet reloaders started the story about matching die brands to shell holder brands. I have a depth micrometers, I have height gages and I have dial calipers that measure height.
Again, there is 'get your money back', I sort the shell holders that are not spec. and then separate. All of the shell holders I have that give manufacturers a bad repetition were made in the mid 50s.
Not fair, when I choose to size the case to minimum length/full length size I use my common ordinary everyday RCBS shell holder which is the .000" one. If I choose to avoid reducing the length of the case from the shoulder to the case head .010" I would use the .010" one with the added .010" increase in deck height.
F. Guffey
The Lyman shell holder I have is .029 shorter than the Redding shell holder. Although the distance from the top to the deck the cartridge sits on is .125". The difference is between the surface that sets the top of the ram and the deck the case sits on. I body size with the appropriate, 06 or 08, shell holder and use the standard shell holder for all other operations. This avoids me getting confused and making fewer adjustments on the other dies. When I use the Lyman shell holder I would have to adjust the die almost half a turn down to make up for the difference. In other words the Redding shell holder completes the shell holder set. The Lyman requires adjustment to work with the set. In other words a slight cam over stroke with the Reddings is a non-cam over stroke with the Lyman.
On the other hand I was opposite when I said I could not reach my zero going down to the 10 shell holder. With the set you start with 10 and work up until you reach the case head to shoulder length you want. The "general" way the shell holder set works. With the ram set to give a slight cam over:
Standard shell holder is way below factory length
.002 usually is way under factory
.004 is still below factory
.006 is generally right on factory length maybe .0005 over to .001 under
.008 just shortens my bolt guns back slightly
.010 doesn't size any of the brass I've shot. I guess its for guns with longer chambers.
So if you were to use the Redding dies in a cam over press with a cam over stroke and a standard shell holder you are badly overworking the brass. I see why no one cams over a Redding die unless they have the comp shell holders. This may also only be true for their competition dies.
Thanks again Guffey and Dawg for keeping me straight.
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