Swapping calibres in RCBS Competition Seater Die

[ohland]

Swapped out the 20 Cal bullet guide and seater plug to 243. Pretty simple. Even though (at least to me) RCBS doesn't mention changing the guide and plug, the Competition Die is designed to do just that.
http://www.rcbs.com/downloads/instructions/Competition_Dies_Instructions.pdf

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The Die box is well suited to hold just the Seater die, four extended shell holders, and four guide/stem pairs.

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To swap out calibres

Remove present guide/plug:
Simply unscrew the thimble off the Seater Die Body.
Invert the die, letting the guide slide out the top of the Seater Die Body.
Use a 5/32 allen wrench to unship the seater plug from the thimble.

Install new guide/plug:
Slide the bullet guide, neck side down, into Seater Die Body. The "cone" side MUST face upward.
Mate new seater plug into thimble. If you look inside, the thimble is recessed around the screw hole. When the seater plug is installed, it snugly fits in this "well" and it can't wiggle.
Screw thimble back onto Seater Die Body.

Note: There was an earlier competition seater die that had an actual "clicker", this was replaced in the current design with an "O" ring. IIRC, RCBS has no parts for the clicker micrometer...

Note: RCBS mentions two threads for the seater plug screw, 1/4-28 and 1/2-20. I would check that....

[IllinoisCoyoteHunter]

Yep, been doing this for a bit. I purchased a comp set years ago and the fella that sold it to me had a boatload of seater inserts and slides in a box. I was able to use it on several different cartridges.

[angus6]

What sucks is RCBS wont sell the guides from the Gold Medal dies so that the bullet can be dropped in at any time, I like the Ponsness/Warren window die as it works nice on a progressive press as the bullet can be dropped in at any time and they will sell the parts to swap calipers also.


The RCBS 25/06 comp set can be found at about 1/2 price on forums as amazon sold them for $18 a while back and they finally shipped a couple weeks ago Search

[ohland]

What sucks is RCBS wont sell the guides from the Gold Medal dies

The plug AND the guide are different. While the bullet guide MIGHT work between both (see differences below) the seater plugs have different lengths, and the comp seater plugs probably aren't long enough to work on a progressive. Bummer.

http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f28/rcbs-gold-metal-seater-die-vrs-redding-94024/#post665870
Re: rcbs gold metal seater die vrs redding ?
"The Gold Medal RCBS differs in 3 ways from the RCBS Comp seater

1. The bullet collet covers the neck, bears on the shoulder and comes down 1/4" down the case body (the Comp seater only covers the neck and shoulder)
2. The seating stem is stainless and floats up and down unlike the Comp seater which has a fixed black seating stem
3. The Gold Medal somehow will hold the bullet and not let it fall through. IOW if you drop a bullet in the side window of the Comp seater it will fall through unless you have raised the ram high enough to hold it in place (convenient but not necessarily necessary)"