Well crud! I got all excited reading this and called SSK to order a set.

eeeeeent! They won't sell them unless you buy their barrels.

Now *that* is service with a smile and yet another great example of how far JD is willing to go to gain customers.

Oh? He has bad rep for CS? I take it the dies are only sold by them?

My Redding set came with the 7mm and 30 cal expander as well.

I got the Redding 2 Die Set and Forming Die and have shot 500 or so with no issues.

SSK won't sell you dies, brass, or anything else for that matter, UNLESS you buy/have one of their guns/uppers/barrels.

Poor business practice, if you ask me.

I had a recent run in with JD from SSK on this topic. His gear is way overpriced and in my opinion not as flexible as the 300/221 platform so I chose not to go with it. On top of being the most expensive by at least double on everything, he came off as a total prick when I tried to talk to him about it. Spend your money elsewhere with a 300/221 or Fireball barrel, Redding dies and surplus 223 cases.

Does he sell the dies to someone with a TC 300 Whisper barrel? It is my understanding that Thompson Center sells barrels under contract from JD Jones through their custom shop.

Also - what if you bought a used upper, barrel, rifle? Is that good? Or dies it have to be new?

I called and ordered the dies and no one asked if I had their gun.

I used to buy quite a few Hornady products until they started having all their quality control issues over the last two years. I have since fell in love with Reddings products. They are absolutely top notch and the service is excellent. You will never get a switch board when you call Redding either ... they have actual people that answer the phone right off the bat. I replaced numerous bent Hornady and RCBS decapping rods, but I have never bent any of my Forster or Reddings ones. That is a beefy looking expander rod though ... did the set come with a seperate die for decapping or does that have decapping pins that you can install in that massive rod? It sorta resembles the Lyman M dies ... they work great for expanding necks without over-working them.

I haven't had any dealings with SSK because of the reputation that they have developed around the shooting business. You can read on their site about how that all the 300/221 dies/barrels out there are "counterfiets" and how none of them should be allowed to "copy" their wildcat. After spending a couple hours researching the Whisper on their site and reading all their rants .... I decided that the majority was probably correct and took by business else where.

Sarg