Just finished reloading a 100 Swift Scricocco bullets in 338 Federal Cartridge, no problems. I started reloading Hammer Hunter 213 grain 338's and the first bullet got stuck in the seating die. For the life of me can't figure out why the bullets are getting stuck. Talked to Redding, the Die company and the technician said it was the ogive causing the problem, suggested using 800 grit sandpaper to round out the interior of the seating die. Anyone ever encounter a problem with bullets getting stuck in a seating die?
Bullets Getting Stuck In Seating Die
- Thread starter onelastshot
- Start date
My Wilson seater left a sharp ring on the ogive. I disassembled the seater, put a bullet in an electric drill and honed the seater plunger with valve grinder compound from AutoZone. This increased the contact bullet to seater and minimized the sharp ring. Not a sticking problem but an easy try to fix the problem. The seater plunger and bullet shapes are not ideal. Some companies make seaters with different contours.
I just don't see how neck tension would factor into it.
The more neck tension you have the more force is required to seat the bullet.
And as stated above the more contact area you have with the seater plug and bullet the less chance of deforming or a sticking bullets.
I have had a similar issue a while back with my 300WM. I took the seating stem and chucked it in a drill, then used valve lapping compound on several of the bullets I was seating (actually 5 bullets) and worked into a better contour. Works great now on all my 300WM bullets.
pirate ammo
Guaranteed to take the wind out of their sails
chances are it's the seater itself, they don't work perfect with every bullet.
It will. I have a bullet that will stick at any 'tension' over 0.0015"; seating at 0.0010" or less the cartridge falls out of the die like it was greased...and this is with a stem 'honed' to the bullet with lapping compound.
Very slight tangent on stems. They can also be swaged larger to a very mild flare. If done with precision by chucking it up in a lathe. Try to get any stem to die wall clearance minimized....
Another aspect of this is "sometimes" (which means,exactly that) the reshaped stem allows a better self aligning of the bullet during seating. I make/grind reamers to produce swaging parts for cast bullets.... so obviously have made perfect fitting seater stems. Once in awhile they work too good,meaning the stiction between the stem and bullet will cause runout where there was none before. Dosen't work for every die/stem/bullet. I had a situation where all attempts at getting dead nuts straight seating had me pulling hairs. Then as just an experiment, chucked the stem up and friction swaged it..... went from a problem to,"well I'll be". Good luck with your project.
Another aspect of this is "sometimes" (which means,exactly that) the reshaped stem allows a better self aligning of the bullet during seating. I make/grind reamers to produce swaging parts for cast bullets.... so obviously have made perfect fitting seater stems. Once in awhile they work too good,meaning the stiction between the stem and bullet will cause runout where there was none before. Dosen't work for every die/stem/bullet. I had a situation where all attempts at getting dead nuts straight seating had me pulling hairs. Then as just an experiment, chucked the stem up and friction swaged it..... went from a problem to,"well I'll be". Good luck with your project.
I took 0000 steel wool and devised a stem with a ball of steel wool on the end of it. Polished the seating stem with the steel wool. It worked! No more stuck bullets. THe ogive of the bullet doesn't show any more rings.
I recently had the same problem with a bullet I have been using for years. At first I thought it might be getting hung up in the seater stem so I cleaned it up with no improvement. I took out the seater stem and inserted a bullet into the die and found that it was hanging up in the neck area of the die . Cleaned it up with solvent and 0000 steel wool and no more problem. Sometimes it's just not that complicated!!!
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