Anyone using a window bullet seat die on a dillon press?

[ace4059]

I have been loading several flat base (all I could find in bulk at the time was the flat base) 223 rounds with my dillon super 1050. I noticed with the flat base, loading doesn't go as fast compared to the boat tail due to having to "align the bullet on top of the case mouth" which has to be close to perfect with the flat base or the bullet falls out of the case mouth when pulling on the handle, thus holding up progress. I was only loading about 500 rds per hr versus the boat tails I just drop in the case mouth and they stay put, making for a faster operation which I can load 900+ per hr.

So my thought is using an window seating die such as the RCBS gold medal match seater where you place the bullet in the side of the die, and let the collet hold the bullet and align it to the case mouth, would speed up the progress with the progressive press.

Has anyone tried this to see how well it works? Is it an improvement?

Any other dies that are side feeding and have a collet to hold the bullet in place?

[markm]

Haven't tried it... but... are you really married to this bullet? I mean... I only shoot flat based bullets when I get them at a price that's too good to pass on.... and then, I just load them slower.

[TomD]

The Vickerman seating die is a window die but I don't know if it will work in a Dillon press. I have one that I should get the .22 conversion for and find out.

[ace4059]

I'm not maried to them, but I did buy a small quantity. I'll give it a try and see if the window loading die speeds it along.

[markm]

Sounds good. I just tough it out when I load them. But I'm on a 550b, so the rate drop isn't as dramatic.

[jstone]

Make sure you buy the gold medal match die, because the competition die does not hold the bullet. The competition die also requires an extended shell holder. It works great on a single stage.

[davidz71]

I bought the RCBS Gold Medal die in 223 but I haven't had a chance to load up any rounds yet. The die looks nice sitting in the 650 so I will report sometime in the near future how it turned out next to my Dillon dies.

[BlackViper]

I run the RCBS Gold Medal die in 223 on a Dillon 550B. It's much faster and easier than a standard Dillon die. No alignment problems.

BV