Through the research and development process for the ZERO, it became a testing bed for MANY reloading products. We needed to isolate variables, and ensure we were testing the press and not just the dies/shellholders/etc. One of the major culprits we found for inconsistency was actually lock rings. MOST lock rings on the market are held into place by a set screw or they’re split/clamp style. We found these to be inconsistent by design, as they needed to secure themselves to the DIES for constant removal/replacement in single-stage presses. So, we decided to make our own. Here’s where we landed:

• LARGE DIAMETER – more surface contact with the turret head means the ring will align with the press and force the DIE straight, instead of grabbing onto the DIE and aligning as it may.
• MORE THREAD ENGAGEMENT – the rings feature .350″ of thread engagement, which is 15-25% more than common DIE lock rings. This results in roughly a full thread of additional engagement, increasing the ability of the ring to square the DIE to the press.
• INTERNAL WRENCH ENGAGEMENT – with traditional rings, there is a flat or knurling on the outside, which requires you to get a wrench around the outside to tighten. On a multi-DIE head this requires you to get tools between DIES and fight with the location – or you have to make the ring smaller which has real downsides. This ring is designed with internal wrench engagement, mitigating this issue altogether.
• PRECISION STAINLESS STEEL MANUFACTURING – The threads and bottom face of the ring are machined in a single operation, delivering square surfaces to align your DIE. We then leave the ring and threads hole and unobscured by splits and grub screws. All rings are made of 17-4PH stainless steel.
  

Total thickness of rings is .500″ and outside diameter is 1.685″