First Look: 12ga Overshot Card and Wad Punch Dies

Came across these dies last year and put them on my Christmas list. As one of the dies were out of stock, decided to wait until both were in as they are coming technically from outside the U.S. Even though it's our northern neighbor, things from Canada still have to go through U.S. Customs. Lesson learned: don't overpay for expedited shipping as that means NOTHING when dealing with U.S. Customs! Years ago I had seen a video about using a hollow hole (leather?) punch to do 3/4" cards. Does that work? Technically yes. Is it cumbersome and a pain in the behind? Absolutely. So I decided I wanted to try something a bit more reliable and actually easier with more consistent results, especially on thicker card stock. These are small shop crafted from steel and really nicely done. You'll see my challenges with the tight tolerances on one die, but the idea and execution are very well done and allow me to leverage my Lee single stage press that I picked up in 2016 when I began my channel around the 416 Barrett build.