New Compass Lake 18" Douglas build

[LRRPF52]

Eventually. I'm making brass with factory ammo now and keeping a lookout for bullets and powder. What dies do you recommend? I load for precision with a single stage press.

I started out with Hornady New Dimension dies and now have Redding Competition dies.

I’ve always appreciated the higher quality of a good set of dies. I like Forster, Redding Type S, RCBS, standard Redding, and Hornady in that order.

You also might mix and match with seating dies you prefer, vs full-length sizing dies, vs universal de-capping dies.

I’ve found that some dies were fine for full-length sizing, while I would use the Forster micrometer seating die for seating, and a cheap Lee universal de-capper for de-capping before initial cleaning.

The Hornady dies for Grendel are what I would consider the minimum standard for a reasonable price.

You need to polish the expander ball on the neck-sizing mandrel so that you don’t introduce micro fractures into the neck. At least I do that on my expander balls if they aren’t a mirror polish texture.