53gr V-Max; inconsistent ogive?

[DLH_]

Measured the distances to lands on my VSSF via stoney point 2/22 with 53gr V-Max's. Measured to 1.8435. When I came to seat the bullets in my RCBS press, I could not get consistent measurements without altering the die at all. Is this due to inconsistencies in the ogive of the bullet.
Thanks, Josh

 

[bulwaagh]

Hrm, I've had nothing but great success with the overall quality of the 53gr V-Max's. All mine come out within 1 thou, which is more than precise for my application. I'm using a forster seating die, which seats the VLD style bullets much more consistently than my other basic RCBS 223 seating die. What seater die are you using?
I just wish hornady sold these in bulk :-\

 

[DLH_]

Just a standard RCBS seating die. With 50gr Speer TNT's, it will seat them easily with I thousandth of an inch

 

[AckleymanII]

I am wondering if you have a bunch of crud in your seater stem??? Also, perhaps seater stem is not a VLD type.

 

[lpreddick]

Most common reason for this to happen to me is due to variation in neck tension/resistence to bullet seating resulting in differences measuring case base to ogive....0.008 today and those cases were immediatly annealed and reloaded...bullets seated nicely . The seating depth difference is the amount of bullet ogive that went into the seating stem, leaving a very noticeable groove in the bullet.

 

[savagedasher]

I am wondering if you have a bunch of crud in your seater stem??? Also, perhaps seater stem is not a VLD type.

VLD stem for sure . Larry

 

[DLH_]

Thank you all for your replies. After some time trying to decipher the problem, I went to clean the die as suggested. I'm doing so I took the seater stem out and noticed that the recess isn't deep enough for the V-Max's but it is ok for the shorter fatter TNT's. My new question is, do I buy a new stem specifically for the A-Max as the two bullets are extremely similar?

 

[Gabe22BR]

Get a VLD seater stem, it'll seat both. Might have to re-adjust for the 50 TNT, but you'll be set for both kinds now.

I came across this problem when I was seating for my 22BR and the 53 V-Max and 50gr. BK.
I use the Wilson micro seater, easy change.

 

[Gabe22BR]

I believe Hor., Redding, and Wilson offer the VLD stem, plus the custom die manufactures, Whidden, Harrels, etc...