Post by 11C1P on Apr 15, 2021 13:58:28 GMT -5
Recently I was looking for a universal decapping die & most places were out of the Lee, but eventually amazon got them in & for only $18 shipped. In another forum after I had bought the Lee someone posted about Mighty Armory dies. I did some research & most of the stuff I read & some videos on YT said they were very good dies. I am also looking to get a sizing die to make 300BLK brass from 223 & my Lee die is not good for reforming as the tolerances are too loose. I noticed on the Mighty Armory site they have a budget line of dies called "Flag Star" & the223 Flag Star Sizing Die is on sale for $35 & as I routinely get broke pins with my RCBS 223 die, especially when doing crimped primers (the main reason I got a universal decapping die) I decided to got one as they have much beefier pins in their sizing dies & decapping dies. For $35 I figured it might save me having to run all that 223/5.56 brass through the press twice & be worth it. I got the die in on Tuesday morning & was surprised to see that in addition to the main body being aluminum the lock nut was plastic. While I wasn't overly concerned about the aluminum die body, I didn't want to use a plastic lock nut. I emailed them asking about it & got this response.
"hi J, Those nuts are nylon, more expensive than steel. They hold better and won’t scar the die. Best to stick with them, they really are excellent for the job."
Sorry but not biting on that. Ok, tightening a steel nut on an aluminum die might scratch the aluminum all to hell but I'm not using a plastic (sorry nylon) nut on a post that is going to have a fair bit of pressure being applied to it. I decided I'd add a plastic, (maybe its nylon but seriously) flat washer between the nut & die body.
So I started in on a few bucket fulls of 223/5.56 brass & it went quite well with the exception of nickel plated. Could not get 1 round of nickel through it without being crushed no matter what adjustments or how much or little lube (even no lube) I tried, it just wouldn't work on the nickel cases. Brass was fine & I even did several of those bluish/purple Winchester cases before one of those also got crushed, so I stopped doing those along with the nickel on the MA die. after a few 5qt pails of brass I ran the nickel & bluish purple cases through the decapper then the RCBS die with no problems. Not sure why the MA die doesn't like nickel plated, anyone know what the problem might be?
Does anyone have experience with any of their dies especially their sizing dies? I know their regular dies are heat treated steel & are said to have very tight tolerances which is why I'd like to get one of their 300 BLK sizing dies to use as a form die, but am just a bit hesitant to drop that coin on one die. Anyone with some experiences they are willing to share about them would be great.