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stuckatwork · July 11, 2001, 06:58 PM

Let me chime in on this small base die thing. I was having a devil of a time with my AR a little while ago. After replacing the mil-spec barrel with a "match" grade it simply would not eat anything that I reloaded. It chambered new ammo without a problem. I use both Lee and RCBS full length dies. The reloaded round would hang up in the chamber. (never fired one because of this problem. Didn't want to find out what would happen the hard way). I emailed RCBS, Lee and Hornady and asked to what tolerance their respective dies were made to. RCBS and Hornady both said that they make their sizing dies to SAAMI average and Lee said that thiers were SAAMI max. All three specs are fine for bolt guns or mil-spec. For a tight "match" barrel, you need a die that will go to SAAMI minimum. RCBS was the only one that told me what that meant to them. A small base sizing die is made .002 to .003 smaller than the standard sizing die. Ihave since switched to the small base sizing dies and all my problems went away. Say what you will, but small base dies fixed my problems.

July 11, 2001, 06:58 PM	#19
stuckatwork Senior Member Join Date: March 3, 2000 Posts: 217	Let me chime in on this small base die thing. I was having a devil of a time with my AR a little while ago. After replacing the mil-spec barrel with a "match" grade it simply would not eat anything that I reloaded. It chambered new ammo without a problem. I use both Lee and RCBS full length dies. The reloaded round would hang up in the chamber. (never fired one because of this problem. Didn't want to find out what would happen the hard way). I emailed RCBS, Lee and Hornady and asked to what tolerance their respective dies were made to. RCBS and Hornady both said that they make their sizing dies to SAAMI average and Lee said that thiers were SAAMI max. All three specs are fine for bolt guns or mil-spec. For a tight "match" barrel, you need a die that will go to SAAMI minimum. RCBS was the only one that told me what that meant to them. A small base sizing die is made .002 to .003 smaller than the standard sizing die. Ihave since switched to the small base sizing dies and all my problems went away. Say what you will, but small base dies fixed my problems. __________________ These are the words of Stuckatwork. They don't represent the views or opinions of my employers. They aren't that clever.