Reloading for a Savage 308 with a Shillen Barrel

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serbinator

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Hi, I just scored a really nice savage 11 with a Shillen barrel, should be receiving it soon. I have a hornady full length resize die set that I use for my garand, can someone recommend a good die set that comes with a seating die and a neck sizing die that I can start off with? im not looking to spend a lot of money on the dies and from what ive read so far the match grade dies with the bushings just confuse me as I have no idea what width the neck should at.

recommendations?
 
serbinator said:
Hi, I just scored a really nice savage 11 with a Shillen barrel, should be receiving it soon. I have a hornady full length resize die set that I use for my garand, can someone recommend a good die set that comes with a seating die and a neck sizing die that I can start off with? im not looking to spend a lot of money on the dies and from what ive read so far the match grade dies with the bushings just confuse me as I have no idea what width the neck should at.
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I take it your Garand is a 30-06 and not a .308, and you can't use the dies you have for it?

Another alternative to what Jerry has suggested is the Lee Ultimate 4-Die Set. It includes the collet die, full length die, bullet seater, and crimp die. Although for a bolt gun, I would not recommend using the crimp die. Should be around $70 or so.
 
The Forster benchrest die sets seem good value to me.
The sizer is a full size with expander ball though, but that's what I like.
 
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Ron AKA said:
I take it your Garand is a 30-06 and not a .308, and you can't use the dies you have for it?

Another alternative to what Jerry has suggested is the Lee Ultimate 4-Die Set. It includes the collet die, full length die, bullet seater, and crimp die. Although for a bolt gun, I would not recommend using the crimp die. Should be around $70 or so.
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mine is a 308, custom build ;)
 
Ron AKA said:
If you are saying your Garand is a .308 and you have dies for it, why would you want to buy more?
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I only have a full length resizing die and a seating die set for the bullets I use for it, I want to purchase a neck sizing die and a seating die for my 308 bolt gun. I have the hornady single stage with the quick release bushings so its more convenient for me to swap out dies on the fly then readjusting them all the time.
 
serbinator said:
I only have a full length resizing die and a seating die set for the bullets I use for it, I want to purchase a neck sizing die and a seating die for my 308 bolt gun. I have the hornady single stage with the quick release bushings so its more convenient for me to swap out dies on the fly then readjusting them all the time.
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OK, I'm getting it now. I would suggest you keep your Garand brass separate from the bolt gun. You can save a lot of grief with the bolt gun, if you only use brass that has been fired in it only, starting with new brass.

If you just get a Lee Collet Die, you should be able to size brass that has been fired in the bolt gun only for quite some time. And instead of buying a new body die, you could use the FL die you have now to size the body and bump the shoulder back should it become necessary. And in fact you can even use use the FL die to essentially neck size only, by short stroking the press so only about 2/3 of the neck is resized. Like using a collet die, if you keep the brass separated, you could get away with that for a long time too.

Another, but a little more complicated (and expensive) option on the bullet seater is to go to a Micrometer adjustment style. See link below. It lets you set the seating depth for a variety of bullets for both guns and simply record them. The micrometer lets you easily go back to each individual bullet setting, with no die adjustment other than the micrometer setting.

Forster Ultra Micrometer Seating Die
 
Ron AKA said:
OK, I'm getting it now. I would suggest you keep your Garand brass separate from the bolt gun. You can save a lot of grief with the bolt gun, if you only use brass that has been fired in it only, starting with new brass.

If you just get a Lee Collet Die, you should be able to size brass that has been fired in the bolt gun only for quite some time. And instead of buying a new body die, you could use the FL die you have now to size the body and bump the shoulder back should it become necessary. And in fact you can even use use the FL die to essentially neck size only, by short stroking the press so only about 2/3 of the neck is resized. Like using a collet die, if you keep the brass separated, you could get away with that for a long time too.

Another, but a little more complicated (and expensive) option on the bullet seater is to go to a Micrometer adjustment style. See link below. It lets you set the seating depth for a variety of bullets for both guns and simply record them. The micrometer lets you easily go back to each individual bullet setting, with no die adjustment other than the micrometer setting.

Forster Ultra Micrometer Seating Die
Click to expand...


im already keeping my bolt gun brass and garand brass separate ,my garand is hard on brass bigly,id rather get the 3 separate dies and use them strictly for my bolt gun.
 
serbinator said:
im already keeping my bolt gun brass and garand brass separate ,my garand is hard on brass bigly,id rather get the 3 separate dies and use them strictly for my bolt gun.
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Sounds good. I understand what you are doing and why. I was just trying to save you a few bucks.
 
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