Lyman dies in 7mm

[sgraham3]

Picked up a set of Lyman dies in 7mm at a show, i have one die listed as DA. Because of the thumbscrew top, I'm guessing the "DA" die is the bullet seater but it has a long skinny plunger . Can one of you with Lyman experience give me an idea what this maybe?

[462]

"DA" means double acting, and is a seating/crimp die.

Since Lyman has always been very much into cast bullets, their seating dies are specifically designed to seat them, as well as jacketed, unlike other brands of seating dies. The seating stem has a three-digit number stamped on the top which is the same number as one of their top punches. Most often, that number is also the same as the last three digits of a mould in that caliber. For instance, a 358311 mould would use a 311 top punch and 311 seating stem. Some top punch and seating die numbers will work for several different moulds.

[sgraham3]

Thanks, I have never seen such a small seating stem. How do you set up this die?

[462]

Set up is the same as any conventional seating die.

Lyman will send you a copy of their die instructions.

[sgraham3]

ok. I found a pdf of on the layman site.

[462]

It may be a moot point, now that Lyman is not longer the dominate mould manufacturer that it once was, or if you'll be seating only jacketed bullets, but the various numbered seating stems allow for one die body to seat cast boolits of differing nose profiles. An innovative idea, at one time.

[EDG]

If you bought a set of the old chrome plated Lyman's you might be better off selling them and buying another brand.
RCBS are usually very dependable.

Lyman dies of that era are really tight in the body and neck. They size the cases more than necessary. If you do not have the right shell holder for your brass you will bend or pull off a lot of case rims. There are 2 different 7X57 shell holders. Norma brass will often be ruined by using the wrong shell holder with Lymans old dies.

Your seater sounds like a Lyman precision alignment seater die with the sliding sleeve.
They sound good and some people like them. I had 5 or 6 at one time but never learned to like them and got rid of all of them.