Unless one is trying to achieve consistent 1/4 MOA accuracy, you can save a bit of money by not having to buy the most expensive reloading equipment available...and I'm a "buy once, cry once" kind of guy.
I know dudes are going to want to flame me for this, and that is fine. Getting into reloading needs to be fun and not break the bank...especially for hunting rifles where 1 MOA accuracy is not only acceptable, but also often the best many factory rifles can shoot.
I do have one set of Forester dies. They are very nice indeed. I would not hesitate to buy more should the need arise. I also have one set of basic Redding dies for my 7mm RM. I had a Redding competition seater die set for my .260 when I had a full blown custom rifle in that chambering, and it was very nice too
VLD seating stems can definitely reduce deformity on the bullets. Your polymer tips usually don't get deformed, but you may press a very slight ring somewhere between the tip and the ogive. You'll often see this more in secant ogives found on VLD style bullets.
However, I have multiple legitimate 1/2 MOA or better rifles that use handloads made with a basic RCBS Rock Chucker press and basic RCBS (not the best quality dies). I'm not even using competition seater dies...reloading heresy at its best.
I have great luck with Starline brass. Bolt Action Reloading on YouTube did a test of different brass manufacturers in 6.5 Creedmoor, and Starline actually won in a category or two...its not Lapua or Alpha quality, but it is a lot closer than some people give it credit for.
Sine I'll get called out, here's my load development with my Salvage (Savage) 6.5 Creedmoor using 120gr Nosler BT and IMR-4895. ES and SD aren't super great, and perhaps some of that could be attributed to powder volume (~85% case fill) and perhaps maybe a better die set might help too. *These were 4-shot groups.
^ I've shot 1.5" three shot groups with that load at 300 yards. It is my F-I-Ls hunting rifle, and I've since swapped to 129gr SST and H100V.
Here's another junk RCBS die group at 250 yards out of my FN SPR. It is only three shots, but was about 1.5" too. This rifle shot .419" for five shots with the 165gr Nosler BT over Varget.
I've got a bunch more garbage like this on my computer for about 5-6 more rifles with *hunting* bullets. I'm just uploading these off my phone to back my position that prep and attention to detail like jcann posted in his link make the most difference to me.
I buy and load a lot of once fired brass. I always FL size to .002-.003 under my fired shoulder size...then debur the flash hole and uniform the primer pocket. After that I manually trim (takes more time, but I'm fine with that) within .002 of "trim to" length, and manually again chamfer and debur the case mouth using the same number of twists for each piece of brass. I'll prime with a hand primer, and then manually throw each charge weight onto a beam scale to an anal-retentive level of being within a granule or two of each other. I think that this step has probably more bearing on my accuracy than anything else. Then I seat using my standard dies. Nothing of what I do screams quality equipment or benchrest procedures, but it works very well for me.
I'm pretty sure that Gavin dude of the Ultimate Reloader on YouTube would have an aneurysm if he saw my process. Some people just can't get over that you can load very accurate ammunition with the basic stuff. That isn't a crack at competition shooters at all...I'm shooting at deer to 400 yards and steel to a max of 900, not trying to score X's at 1,000. Different needs there.
I know dudes are going to want to flame me for this, and that is fine. Getting into reloading needs to be fun and not break the bank...especially for hunting rifles where 1 MOA accuracy is not only acceptable, but also often the best many factory rifles can shoot.
I do have one set of Forester dies. They are very nice indeed. I would not hesitate to buy more should the need arise. I also have one set of basic Redding dies for my 7mm RM. I had a Redding competition seater die set for my .260 when I had a full blown custom rifle in that chambering, and it was very nice too
VLD seating stems can definitely reduce deformity on the bullets. Your polymer tips usually don't get deformed, but you may press a very slight ring somewhere between the tip and the ogive. You'll often see this more in secant ogives found on VLD style bullets.
However, I have multiple legitimate 1/2 MOA or better rifles that use handloads made with a basic RCBS Rock Chucker press and basic RCBS (not the best quality dies). I'm not even using competition seater dies...reloading heresy at its best.
I have great luck with Starline brass. Bolt Action Reloading on YouTube did a test of different brass manufacturers in 6.5 Creedmoor, and Starline actually won in a category or two...its not Lapua or Alpha quality, but it is a lot closer than some people give it credit for.
Sine I'll get called out, here's my load development with my Salvage (Savage) 6.5 Creedmoor using 120gr Nosler BT and IMR-4895. ES and SD aren't super great, and perhaps some of that could be attributed to powder volume (~85% case fill) and perhaps maybe a better die set might help too. *These were 4-shot groups.
^ I've shot 1.5" three shot groups with that load at 300 yards. It is my F-I-Ls hunting rifle, and I've since swapped to 129gr SST and H100V.
Here's another junk RCBS die group at 250 yards out of my FN SPR. It is only three shots, but was about 1.5" too. This rifle shot .419" for five shots with the 165gr Nosler BT over Varget.
I've got a bunch more garbage like this on my computer for about 5-6 more rifles with *hunting* bullets. I'm just uploading these off my phone to back my position that prep and attention to detail like jcann posted in his link make the most difference to me.
I buy and load a lot of once fired brass. I always FL size to .002-.003 under my fired shoulder size...then debur the flash hole and uniform the primer pocket. After that I manually trim (takes more time, but I'm fine with that) within .002 of "trim to" length, and manually again chamfer and debur the case mouth using the same number of twists for each piece of brass. I'll prime with a hand primer, and then manually throw each charge weight onto a beam scale to an anal-retentive level of being within a granule or two of each other. I think that this step has probably more bearing on my accuracy than anything else. Then I seat using my standard dies. Nothing of what I do screams quality equipment or benchrest procedures, but it works very well for me.
I'm pretty sure that Gavin dude of the Ultimate Reloader on YouTube would have an aneurysm if he saw my process. Some people just can't get over that you can load very accurate ammunition with the basic stuff. That isn't a crack at competition shooters at all...I'm shooting at deer to 400 yards and steel to a max of 900, not trying to score X's at 1,000. Different needs there.
