Seating depth, held to a thousandth.
Seating depth is the last variable you control before a round leaves the bench, and most dies leave it to feel. This one resolves it to 0.001" per click across a full inch of travel, with a stem cut for your bullet's ogive and a sprung sleeve that squares the case before the bullet moves.
A standard seating die gives you a basic seating stem, which provides basic results. This micrometer seating die replaces basic with consistent, measurable results that you can rely on when the shot counts.
A 0.001" head with positive detents, so you count clicks instead of reading a scale in bad light. A full inch of travel covers the seating range of the class without touching the stem. The head is re-zeroable: set your zero, move off it, and come back to the same number. The scale cylinder turns independently of the adjustment, so it faces you whichever way the die ended up locked down.
Modern rifle bullets come in two ogive shapes, and a generic stem contacts neither of them correctly. Tangent at 13° and secant at 10° both ship in the box, cut for your bullet diameter. Each meets the bullet low on the ogive, close to the bearing surface, spreading the load across a band instead of a narrow ring. That is what keeps base-to-ogive spread tight and leaves no mark on a thin jacket.
From the knurl to the last thread.
Deep knurl with a tactile detent micrometer for precise adjustments.
Carries the sprung centering sleeve that squares case to bullet before the stem makes contact.
A lock ring designed for the Micrometer Die and optimized for both progressive and single-stage presses, including free-float presses such as the Forster Co-Ax or Short Action Customs Nexus Press.
0.001" per click, free-rotating and re-zeroable. The scale reads the full inch of travel and faces wherever you set it.
The micrometer and die body are universal across calibers. Bullet diameters can be swapped without tools by changing the case centering sleeve and seating stem.
The industry standard die thread. Any press with a 7/8"–14 station takes it.
Deep knurl with a tactile detent micrometer for precise adjustments.
0.001" per click, free-rotating and re-zeroable, reading the full 1" of travel.
Carries the sprung centering sleeve that squares case to bullet.
Micrometer and body are universal. Swap diameters without tools: sleeve and stem only.
Optimized for progressive, single-stage and free-float presses.
The industry standard die thread. Any 7/8"–14 station takes it.
Scroll table horizontally →
The die is built for a bullet diameter rather than a named cartridge, so one conversion covers the whole family. The cartridges below are examples, not the full list. If yours is not here, the question to answer is what bullet diameter it uses. Rifle profiles only.
Tangent and secant describe two bullet nose profiles. A tangent ogive blends into the bearing surface; a secant meets it at a sharper angle. A stem cut for one rides the other on a point rather than a band, and that point moves from round to round. Both stems ship with the die, tangent at 13° and secant at 10°, cut for your bullet diameter, so you match the stem to the bullet instead of settling for whichever one came in the box.
Colour the nose of a bullet with a marker, then seat it lightly against each stem in turn and look at where the ink is rubbed away. Whichever stem marks lower on the ogive, with more surface in contact, is the one for that bullet. It takes a minute and it settles the question for that bullet permanently.
The ogive is the most dimensionally consistent surface on a bullet. The tip is the least. Contacting low on the ogive, near the bearing surface, means the die indexes off the part that doesn't vary, and it leaves the nose unmarked, which matters on thin-jacketed high-BC bullets. It shows up on your comparator as tighter base-to-ogive spread.
As the case rises, a sprung sleeve captures it and holds it concentric with the seating stem before the bullet is pushed. The bullet enters the neck square rather than slightly cocked, which is the mechanical cause of runout. You get straighter ammunition without adding a concentricity step to your process.
Seat a dummy round — no powder, no primer — and measure it base to ogive with a comparator. Every click moves seating depth 0.001", so the difference between what you measured and what you want is a click count rather than a guess. Once the round measures where you want it, re-zero the micrometer at that setting. From then on the number on the scale is that load, and you can move off it and come back to it.
Standard 7/8"–14 thread, so it fits any press with a 7/8"–14 die station — the XL750, RL550, RL1100, Super 1050, CP2000 and BL550, and effectively every other brand. Two presses have a station note: on the XL750 the die will not run in station 4, where it fouls the powder measure. Use station 5, or station 3 if you are crimping. On the RL550 station 3 is the intended location; in station 4 the threads can rub the ejector wire, so it only works there on taller cartridges that don't need the die threaded down to the shellplate. The Square Deal B is the one press it does not fit: it uses Dillon's own SDB dies and loads handgun calibers only.
No. The lock ring is cut to seat correctly on single-stage presses as well as on Dillon progressives, so the same die and the same lock ring move between a 1050 on the bench and a single stage used for load development.
No. The die is built for rifle-profile projectiles only, and the seating stems are cut for rifle ogives. It is not intended for handgun bullet profiles.
Order the $49.95 conversion kit for that diameter. Both stem profiles and the diameter-specific alignment sleeve, and the body doesn't change. Swap, re-zero, load. Covering all six this way costs a fraction of six dedicated micrometer dies.
Order by bullet diameter rather than by cartridge.
Complete die: .224 40021 · .243 40022 · .264 40023 · .284 40024 · .308 40025 · .338 40026
Conversion kit: .224 40027 · .243 40028 · .264 40029 · .284 40030 · .308 40031 · .338 40032
If you are not sure which diameter your cartridge uses, the compatibility section above lists the common ones.
It covers a bullet diameter rather than one cartridge. Most premium seating dies are cut for a single cartridge, so three cartridges means three dies, three boxes and three setups. This one moves to the next diameter in the family for $49.95, and both ogive stems and the spring-loaded centering sleeve are in the box rather than sold as accessories. On a bench that loads more than one cartridge the arithmetic is different from the shelf price.
On most dies the scale ends up wherever the threads leave it. Here the graduated cylinder turns independently of the adjustment stem: set your depth, then spin the scale to face the front of the press. You read your own setting without leaning over the toolhead.
The micrometer seating die is $325 and arrives set up for one bullet diameter, with both seating stems and the matching case alignment sleeve in the box. Each additional diameter added is a $49.95 conversion kit.
Complete die in the bullet diameter you choose. Both seating stems, the diameter-specific alignment sleeve, and the case.
One bullet diameter is included. Additional diameters are $49.95 each.
.224 (5.56mm) · 40021
.243 (6mm) · 40022
.264 (6.5mm) · 40023
.284 (7mm) · 40024
.308 (7.62mm) · 40025
.338 (8.6mm) · 40026
Adds one bullet diameter to a die you already own. Tangent 13° stem, secant 10° stem and the matching alignment sleeve.
.224 (5.56mm) · 40027
.243 (6mm) · 40028
.264 (6.5mm) · 40029
.284 (7mm) · 40030
.308 (7.62mm) · 40031
.338 (8.6mm) · 40032
A walk through the die: what is in the box, how the micrometer is set, and how the diameter is changed.
The die is a standard 7/8"–14 thread. Two presses carry a station note worth reading before you set it up.
The micrometer stem is round-nosed and drives an independent seating stem rather than pushing the bullet itself. The two meet on a curved face, so the force that reaches the projectile arrives the same way on every stroke instead of varying with however the threads happen to be loaded. The round nose keeps that contact consistent regardless of small variations in the angle of the micrometer, the die body, the case or the projectile.
Yes. The body stays in the toolhead and the lock ring holds its position, but the stems and alignment sleeve are diameter-specific, so the seating depth is set again for the new cartridge. The micrometer head is re-zeroable, so you can mark the new setting and return to it. Swap, re-zero, load.
Six: .224 (5.56mm), .243 (6mm), .264 (6.5mm), .284 (7mm), .308 (7.62mm) and .338 (8.6mm). The die body is common to all of them; the diameter lives in the two stems and the alignment sleeve. Rifle profiles only; the die is not built for handgun bullets.
Because a stem is a cut profile, not a setting. A tangent ogive and a secant ogive meet the stem at different angles, and a single generic stem contacts one of them on a point rather than a band. Two stems, 13° for tangent and 10° for secant, is the only way to get full contact on both.
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