FORSTER Micrometer Seating Die

A

akinswi

New member
I finally received my Coax and the Forster Micrometer seating die. I cleaned the die and loaded about 5 rds. Runnout was about 2 thousandths. So I decided to adjust the seating stem alot higher in the die, My theory was that it would allow more travel distance for the sleeve to guide the bullet to the stem. Loaded another 5rds and cut it down to about 1 thousandths.

Some rds almost had zero runnout. I was surprised that forster didnt list this in there instructions.

I did notice that I do have some rubbing on the edges of the bullets 168smks, anyone here had any experience with Forster polishing the sleeve or the stem to fit a specific bullet?
 
No experience with it, but they do offer the service of making a custom stem. I think they state the standard stem will cover about 90% of bullets.
 
I often see a small amount of rubbing on my 6.5 bullets. I have the benchrest seater die, which I believe uses the same stem and internals. The only difference being the micrometer adjustment. Runout is .001" or less with an occasional outlier, so I have not bothered to fiddle with polishing it.

Unclenick is correct, Forster will make custom stems for you. They will also make or alter Forster dies to your specifications. The original seating stem that came with the benchrest die works very well with any bullet I have tried. Even the Hornady ELD bullets and Berger AR hybrid bullets.
 
Kilo,

Did you adjust your seating stem higher or did you leave at factory settings? Im loading 30-06 So it is inherently a longer cartridge

Unclenick,

I bought the Forster Die which is the equivalent to reddings competition seating die. I felt like the redding was machined a bit better but I was afraid the longer profile of the redding wouldnt fit the coax. I do however like the micro meter settings better on the forster they are a little wider apart than the redding.

I just left the redding setup in the dillion for M2 ball work. I do however do not like the priming system on the coax it took me for ever to set it up and it is easier to seat primers on the dillion. I will just prime the cases separately on the Dillion. It seats them they well.

any recommendations of polishing the die components with out over polishing?
 
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Yes, the Forster seater is a pain to set up but is the only one on the market that guarantees to achieve a particular depth of reconsolidation below flush with the face of the case head. You might consider priming some on both machines to see which one gives you lower velocity SDs (assuming either one does).

My Redding 30-06 does fit my Co-ax, but it is a near thing. I like the Redding a lot, but there is one reason for interest in using the Forster in its place. That is that Redding warns against using theirs for compressed loads due to the small contact area between the bottom of the adjuster and the top of the seating stem. The Forster doesn't have that limitation. This is seldom an issue in 30-06, but in .308 Win, I run into it. Anyway, you could swap the two dies if you choose to.
 
akinswi said:
Kilo,

Did you adjust your seating stem higher or did you leave at factory settings? Im loading 30-06 So it is inherently a longer cartridge

Unclenick,

I bought the Forster Die which is the equivalent to reddings competition seating die. I felt like the redding was machined a bit better but I was afraid the longer profile of the redding wouldnt fit the coax. I do however like the micro meter settings better on the forster they are a little wider apart than the redding.

I just left the redding setup in the dillion for M2 ball work. I do however do not like the priming system on the coax it took me for ever to set it up and it is easier to seat primers on the dillion. I will just prime the cases separately on the Dillion. It seats them they well.

any recommendations of polishing the die components with out over polishing?
Click to expand...
I must have been mistaken. On the bench rest die, the seating stem and threaded rod used for adjustment is one solid piece.
 
it should be threaded with a lock nut at the top its all one piece. I adjusted that threaded stem up, so the cartridge had to travel farther into the sleeve to give it more time to align the bullet, before hitting the bullet stem. Set from the factory, the bullet stem was way down at the bottom so the sleeve never had a chance to help align the bullet into the case neck.


This is why the same die with redding is longer “Im assuming” . I did read some where that the 30 cal seater dies (in my case 30-06 ) with Redding were honed to a 168 SMK bullet profile. But I could be wrong. Both are great dies,

But on a side note, the Forster Bench Rest resizing die is the best I have ever used.
 
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Akinswi,

If you want to polish the edges of the bullet recess in the seating stem, I would spin the stem in a hand drill while pressing a Dremel felt bob loaded with a polishing compound against it. If the felt bob is spun in a Dremel tool at the same time, loading the bob from a stick of compound will be easier and polishing will go faster. I would start with a fine polish and only try a coarser compound (on a different bob) if it doesn't polish enough.
 
Thanks Nick,

I was going to sacrifice a 168 SMK and put some polishing compound on the stem and spin the bullet inside the stem . But was a half cocked idea will try yours
 
That has been done, but two things to keep in mind: one is that bullets coming off different tooling have slightly different ogive radii. The other is that you would need a setup to keep the bullet perfectly straight into the stem. Otherwise, you will get some degree of funneling.
 
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