What’s all the fuss about seating with an arbor press?

[fatelvis]

I’ve been loading for over 35 years, and have always used my press/dies to seat a bullet, even when loading for precision (F-class) and have been satisfied with my accuracy. Since joining this site (best on the net), I repeatedly see guys suggesting seating with an arbor press. Does it make a noticeable difference from seating with a press and quality die? If so, I will be tempted to go that route also, and try to gain a little extra precision.

 

[Fast14riot]

It has much less leverage than a standard press, allowing you to feel how the bullet seats better, if you dont have a force pack on it. Also, its pretty nice to do seating depth test at the range with an arbor press. Seat everything long, adjust die, shoot. If you find a good node, seat everything else to that, no bullets to pull.

 

[jackieschmidt]

A seating die has two functions. The first i to seat the bullet straight into the case.
The second is to consistently seat a bullet to the exact desired depth.

Through the years, I have used arbor presses with dies that are designed to be used with an arbor press, and a regular press with Redding style seaters that I machine my own sleeve for.
I machine my own sleeve for an exact fit to the case after sizing. The factory sleeves usually have too much clearance.
I have found the Redding to be that most accurate in performing the two functions I alluded too.

 

[Retired Grunt]

I’ve been loading for over 35 years, and have always used my press/dies to seat a bullet, even when loading for precision (F-class) and have been satisfied with my accuracy. Since joining this site (best on the net), I repeatedly see guys suggesting seating with an arbor press. Does it make a noticeable difference from seating with a press and quality die? If so, I will be tempIted to go that route also, and try to gain a little extra precision

I don't have any scientific data but what I see on the gauge and my target, My scores did go up. I am doing more seating depth testing as I can. hoping to make the next jump this year.

 

[urbanrifleman]

Feel.

You can actually FEEL the neck tension in your fingers.

 

[RegionRat]

Does it make a noticeable difference from seating with a press and quality die?

That depends.

In some contexts, I develop the load at the range and the post above was on point about being one of the more user friendly ways to find the seating depth in real time. From there on, I have the choice to continue with the arbor if I am concerned about detecting the seating force, using the AMP Press if I am concerned about recording the seating force, or using any conventional method up to and including a progressive.

I have some that I run in both ways, ones where I stay with the Wilson, and ones where I use a regular die on a progressive. YMMV

 

[caihlen]

For me, when it comes to feel, the arbor press is next level over any other press.

 

[Hengehold]

I use a Rockchucker and Redding dies to shoot NRA 1000yd prone/sling competitions. I tried an arbor press and Wilson die with a K&M force pack to get measurable readings on my neck tension.

Overall I did not notice any benifits or improvements by using the arbor press.

1.The K & M force pack uses an internal spring when measuring the seating force and it resulted in a “squishy” feel rather than a solid feeling in the seating leaver.

2. It was slower than using a Rockchucker.

3. it was expensive. I had to buy another press, force pack, and new dies for 6 different cartridges. I am willing to pay for better performance but in this case there was no improvement for me. Perhaps I was doing something wrong?

-TH

 

[RegionRat]

Perhaps I was doing something wrong?

Quite the opposite. It proves you are not doing anything wrong....

The most useful thing about the method, is debugging. If a process change or batch change causes a problem, it is much easier to catch with the arbor press and Wilson seating die. When nothing is wrong, you could make a case for regular dies.

This is one of the views of the arbor and inline dies, but certainly for loading at the range as in a BR match, there are benefits to not hauling a press.

 

[MikeMcCasland]

I think both can be "accurate enough" for a lot of applications, but I feel like you get more consistency (and obviously superior feel) out of an arbor than you do operating with a standard threaded die/press.

With the Wilson/Sinclair click adjust arbor dies (in .0005 increments) it makes tuning depth on-site really simple.

These days I pretty much only seat on an arbor. If I were cranking out some blasting rounds for an AR15, I'd use a threaded die.

 

[dellet]

I don't know if the difference between a good quality regular press and a good arbor press makes much difference other than portability.

I do know that when I first started using an arbor press, the first thing I learned was how much my case prep sucked. The feed back was instant.

So there was an immediate increase in accuracy using the arbor press, that tapered off as my case prep skills increased.

Kind of embarrassing when the tools more than I do.

 

[JEFFPPC]

If you think you are feeling he neck tension by feel it's only because you never never done it was a press designed to actually measure it. Now , has it showed a measurable difference on targets. Maybe, maybe very slightly.....but it has allowed me to pick out the 1rr 2 per box that are out of norm high or low. I have shot these out of norm as a group, they are not a good group. All the effort, travel expence, and work I put in to be at the bench shooting on a target at a match, I want to be as precise as POSSIBLE, Let me say again, if you think your being accurate knowing neck tension by feel, I think your mistaken......I sure was.

 

[M-61]

For me the RCBS Summit with the short (optional?) handle has the best 'feel'.
I use one of them exclusively for seating bullets.
I have many to choose from on my bench (including arbor type) and this Summit is best for me.

 

[mikecr]

I use hand dies/arbor for neck sizing and bullet seating. Threaded dies for shoulder bumping and pre-seating neck expansion. That's just what I do, but I believe that any method CAN be as good -or better.

In theory in-line dies eliminate press misalignment and slop. But if you don't have that, if your threaded dies are custom or they just turned out a good match for your chamber, then there is no reason to consider that path as inferior.
I do like sneaking into exact CBTO with a hand die/micrometer top. But it could also be done with a threaded die & feeler gauges.
Seating force was mentioned, and there are instrumented arbor presses for this. I don't like that you're seating an actual bullet to find out there is an issue (too late to fix it). So I instrumented a body die cap and measure pre-seating forces while I can do something about it (before actual bullet seating).

 

[fatelvis]

Thank you for all the responses guys, I appreciate your input. So the force required to seat the projectile is much more evident with the arbor press. Got it. But does that “feeling” or sensitivity translate into better groups in the end? Do you sort them according to “light, medium and heavy” feeling resistance?

 

[marchx]

I don't really care about the "feel" thing. What I care about is measuring the seating force and see the variations.

 

[Steveb]

I actually use my 21 Century more for setting up the Redding dies and debugging issues than production seating. Once I have the Redding dies and process right I use the Redding exclusively. I find the arbor a useful and valuable tool though and am glad I have it.

 

[Dave M.]

I’ve been loading for over 35 years, and have always used my press/dies to seat a bullet, even when loading for precision (F-class) and have been satisfied with my accuracy. Since joining this site (best on the net), I repeatedly see guys suggesting seating with an arbor press. Does it make a noticeable difference from seating with a press and quality die? If so, I will be tempted to go that route also, and try to gain a little extra precision.

Absolutely. I now seat ONLY with a Wilson micrometer seating die and a K&M Arbor Press. Now I can control CBTO (or shoulder to ogive if you prefer to use the Accuracy One gauge) to +/-0.0005”. I also shoot all of one size in progression through the next 0.0005” longer rounds and so on.
dave

 

[RegionRat]

But does that “feeling” or sensitivity translate into better groups in the end? Do you sort them according to “light, medium and heavy” feeling resistance?

The goal in my opinion, is to root out the cause of those ugly ones and eliminate it completely so I don't have any to sort out. YMMV

 

[WVRJ]

It's hard to beat a Wilson chamber type seating die used with an arbor press if you want to load straight ammunition.