Forster coax not resizing all the way down?

204 AR

Well-known member
I don't have one of these presses so don't understand the issue. But reading on another forum someone is having issues forming 6mm ar cases from Grendel brass. Using Redding bushing dies I guess and the pic he shows he's only getting about 2/3 of the neck sized. I don't understand how that can be, are Forster dies shorter than others or what? To accommodate that spring loaded jaw shellholder? I've made a lot of rounds of the brass he's talking about and never had issues of that sort with my RCBS presses. He said it is a common issue with those presses.
 
Originally Posted By: 204 ARI don't have one of these presses so don't understand the issue. But reading on another forum someone is having issues forming 6mm ar cases from Grendel brass. Using Redding bushing dies I guess and the pic he shows he's only getting about 2/3 of the neck sized. I don't understand how that can be, are Forster dies shorter than others or what? To accommodate that spring loaded jaw shellholder? I've made a lot of rounds of the brass he's talking about and never had issues of that sort with my RCBS presses. He said it is a common issue with those presses.

Redding bushing dies do NOT size the whole neck - they are made that way...there is no problem, other than the user does not understand the dies he has.
 
Originally Posted By: BrassRatOriginally Posted By: 204 ARI don't have one of these presses so don't understand the issue. But reading on another forum someone is having issues forming 6mm ar cases from Grendel brass. Using Redding bushing dies I guess and the pic he shows he's only getting about 2/3 of the neck sized. I don't understand how that can be, are Forster dies shorter than others or what? To accommodate that spring loaded jaw shellholder? I've made a lot of rounds of the brass he's talking about and never had issues of that sort with my RCBS presses. He said it is a common issue with those presses.

Redding bushing dies do NOT size the whole neck - they are made that way...there is no problem, other than the user does not understand the dies he has.

Yep. That's something many can't understand. If you do get the whole neck you muffin top the case. A little less float will get you a tad more.

Greg
 
fyi the spring loaded jaw shell holder isnt! the bottom of the case head indexes off the base plate below the jaws. ie the case just sits on a flat steel plate just like it does on the base of a conventional shell holder. The spring loaded jaws just help align the case into the die mouth. After that then the die body takes over from there.

The forester coax is unique because the case is not forced to have to align on the fixed placement of the shellholder in relation to the fixed placement of the die. With the coax the case is eased into 'perfect' alignment with the die by a 'freefloating' effect. The case can move left to right from the light jaw spring pressure on the case and the die can slide from front to back because it just sits in a slot. Once the case starts up into the die body and has some pressure then the base is planted firmly on the steel base plate and die slides into alignment if it has to. Thats why the coax is known to naturally make straighter ammo than conventional presses as there is no horizontal pressure on the case when being formed or when seating.

Anyhow as soon as I understood the mechanics and benefits of the coax I immediately bought one and am very pleased. I dont know of any negatives for that press in relation to conventional ones. Plus it has the best primer and dirt collection system of any single stages. it was a great invention by some fellow out in the midwest who used to travel around in his bonanza airplane selling them. Thats why the original ones were called bonanzas before the forester people bought him out and renamed it the coaxial. just some trivia to throw in! My 550b is gathering dust!


I neck size my 20p cases with redding bushings nearly all the way to the shoulder junction with no muffin?. The bushing in the die is adjustable to how much neck to squash down by controlling the up and down float. I can nearly auto adjust mine by listening to how much it rattles when i shake the die when I switch bushings!

Not sure why he would have that issue unless he dosent understand things. My redding bushing die ring is 1/3 of the way from the bottom so lots of space to move it down. I see alot of guys on forums getting into bushing dies but not understanding the mechanics of how they work first of all!

You can use pretty much any die in the coax but need to swap out rings for a one dollar aluminum forester ring.
 
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No he had a pic and he isn't getting near enough of the neck sized. I get mine awful close to the shoulder junction and he is still 3/16" away probably. It just looks like it needs screwed down more to me.

I adjust my bushings like tesoro, just loose enough to hear a rattle.

I just have never been around a coax so didn't know how that shell holder worked. Thanks for the explanation tesoro.
 
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Yup sounds like he needs to understand how his tools work before using it! pretty common occurrence we are all guilty of from time to time.
 
I feel it's a die adjustment problem and not a press problem. I've owned a co-ax press since the guy ( from southeast Minnesota) flew around in his airplane selling them! Bought it in the mid '70's. Have never had a problem with the press. Tesoro is right, they take any standard dies and only on some brands do you need to change the lock ring. Hornady, lee and older RCBS work fine. The newer RCBS and Redding lock rings are a little narrow, but may still work. I have, however never used a bushing die, but if they work in a rock chucker, adjusted right they'll work in a co-ax.
 
further to this bushing die 'tutorial'! You know they say learn by your mistakes but I try not to very much.....well last night i finished off a batch of 20p cases with the 226 bushing. This was the 3rd sizing down from orig 223. first bushing is 243 then 233 and then 226.

Well when I adjusted my bushing I must have moved it down somehow and not noticed. So I final sized 250 cases just past the neck shoulder junction into the shoulder. I didnt see the tiny scape mark on the shoulder base until the next morning in the daylight. The necks were all out of whack as the shoulder had been pushed on some. So now I have a lifetime supply of setup cases for my annealing machine! luckily they were just lc one fired at 5c each.but still a huge waste of time.!!

I guess this also proves you can size the whole neck contrary to what some people have posted !
 
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