Reloading Die Costs

[klw]

I looked at the Buffalo Arms web page when checking into brass costs. 

I noticed that the cost of the CH and Lyman dies are quite a bit different.  Anybody know why?  Are they that different?

CH is probably one of the best company's there is when it comes to odd ball die sets.  I bought from Buffalo Arms a die set for the 10.4x38R.  Turns out that there are two not so identical versions of those dies.  Europeans use a paper patched bullet with a small bullet diameter.  U.S. users use 44 magnum cast bullets which are much larger in diameter.  The Buffalo Arms dies are for the Eutopean version.  I wanted to use the 44 magnum bullets.  CH simply had me send the dies back to them along with sample bullets.  They custom made the dies to match those bullets and did it at NO cost.  That was noteworthy.  It was even more impressive, I thought, since they didn't sell me the dies in the first place.

I also see that Buffalo Arms is selling the carbines.  I'm still surprised by that.  Obviously it is no longer a Taylor exclusive but I sure thought that it was.  I gather from another thread here that the Italian maker just started selling the carbine to other firms despite Taylor's exclusive agreement.  That doesn't seem fair.

If Taylor's isn't the sole "distributor" for the carbine, are they the sole distributor for the rifle?

One last thought.  Lee will apparently make custom moulds if you order 25 or more.  If anyone had a favorite bullet, this might be worth consideration.

[Black River Smith]

KLW

Make sure the CH dies are for the Starline brass -Taylor Spencer.  If I am not mistaken I think they are made for the Original Spencer casing.

The Lyman 'are' manufactured specificly for the Taylor-Starline brass


Black River Smith

[klw]

Your are right!  Why I didn't think of that who knows but, well...

I know that Lyman has made two version of their dies but I don't think one was for the original and another for the Starline brass.  What Tom Griffin at Lyman actually said was:

"Ken,
Thanks for the info. We started with the die set on a request from Taylors, basing it on a Italian chamber drawing from them and using cut down 50-70 cases. When Starline came out with brass, we had to modify our expander plug to prevent the case from bulging.

Tom"