204Ruger

Well folks I rolled through the favorite loads thread. That is a dandy by the way, many thanks from me, all involved should be proud of that. A lot of good info.
I am curious as to what folks are having luck with in regaurds to dies and brass.
Bushings are the way to go from my experience, as long as the gun responds well to it. There are numerous ways to skin a cat so to speak.
When there are various guns with the same chambering, each one will have to be taylored to that specific one.
So I myself am not going to chase bushing sizes around.
I have had good results with the Lee collet die in the past. Is this working for most across the board?
I like Forster dies, especially their seater design. I have seen mixed opinions on micrometer dies.
I was pretty much gifted a large bunch of Hornady 204 once fired brass. I had planned on using it, but see mixed feelings on it. I have not done much checking on what I have.
Is it worth trying some of the other brass out there?
Jeff

Just as everyone has their own favorite load that shoots good in their rifle, I think we all have our favorite reloading equip. that we are use to using. I have a Redding full length sizer die and an RCBS seater die. I also have the RCBS neck sizer die for my bolt action gun but have to full length size for my AR. Next on my wish list is the RCBS competition seater die with the micrometer adjustment.
If you want to get rid of that nasty ol' Hornady brass let me know. I'm not shooting match competition for the big money, just shooting a bunch a squirrels out in the sage. Randy.

I started out with C & H dies, back in around 1954 along with a C & H C-press (still have and use it) But now also have RCBS rockchuker and RCBS Summit presses. Have, over the years added RCBS, Hornady, Lee and Whidden dies. They all work and have a place in the reloading hobby. I mostly neck size so have bushing dies for use on several of the cartridge's I shoot. As for brass, probably have used every brand. But still seem to favor Rem, Win and military size for a given use.
Do use Nosler and like it also. They also, all have a place, but each person does have favorites and will toot how this or that one is better than the other. Like blondes over redheads, for the most part, too each his own.
Main thing is see what you favor and go with it. Bill K

I have RCBS, Lee and Hornady dies. My 204 dies are RCBS, but not for any special reason. Personally, I like the Hornady Custom dies because they have the floating sleeve that helps keep the bullet concentric while seating, whereas my RCBS I have to be real careful to hold that tiny bullet straight as I run it up into the die. Also Hornady gives you 100 bullets just for buying the dies. Can't beat that deal. Brass. I bought a bag of Winchester brass because that was all I could find. Very hit and miss. Right off after the 2nd loading I started getting split necks. About 20% of them split down the side of the neck. So I tried my hand at annealing them. The necks stopped splitting, but then neck tension seemed to be all over the place. Some tight some loose as a goose. That no doubt was my fault. Probably got the loose ones too hot. Lately, the only way I have found to get brass is buy a box of ammo and use the brass after shooting it. Everywhere I check it is out of stock. I wish Lapua made 204R brass, but they don't.

BitterClinger wrote: ↑Thu Feb 22, 2018 7:43 pmI wish Lapua made 204R brass, but they don't.

Have you tried other premium brass such as Norma or Nosler? Both offer their good stuff in 204R.