About those "stubby" dies..............

[3006guns]

I just saw Pressman's post regarding his Saeco press, and there's a Saeco "stubby" die in the picture. Now, I have several old Reloader Digests from the sixties that mention the stubbys, but no real explanation of their use. Were they for neck sizing only, or something else?

[Pressman]

The Stubby dies were made to work in the Saeco press only, though they are 7/8"x14. They were available in 10 rifle calibers, .222 to .338. These are neck sizing only. There were 4 pistol calibers, 38/357, 45ACP, 45Colt, 44 Spl/Magnum, these are full length resizers.

They were thought to be an economical alternative to conventional dies. The instructions state to resize the case first, then thread the decapper/neck expander into the die to remove the primer. The decapper pins were hardned and press fit to the rod, breaking one would put you out of business till a new rod was obtained.
The seating die operates in the traditional manner with standard seating stems.
As the press has an adjustable ram stop using these dies does work well. The dies are screwed all the way into the press, there is no lock ring as ram travel is controlled by the adjustable stop.

Pictures to follow later today.

[Pressman]

45 Colt sizer and seater, shellholder and primer punch. The other "die" is an adapter that lets you use the stubby dies in a standard press. The stubbies are 1.5 inches long and with most presses are too short to allow the shellholder to contact the base of the die. The adapter let's you set up the die like it's full size cousins.

[3006guns]

I forgot to check for answers after I posted..........sorry 'bout that.

Thank you for the clear and concise explanation Pressman. They work as I suspected, and it looks like they were just another "gotta have" item turned out by the reloading industries. Not that they're a bad idea, but why invest in them when "regular dies" would do the same job? Again, thanks for the information.