6BR Norma/Forster question

[nonliberal]

As the title says, I have a 6br norma chamber and forster dies. I was planning to send the sizing die back to forster to have it honed but I found a problem with the seating die as well.

I noticed the seating die does'nt bottom out on the shell holder it actually catches the brass about .015 away from the shell holder. Since every piece of brass might not be perfect when neck sizing I dont think I could ever get perfect consistant seating depth.

Has anyone else had this problem? How is it corrected? Does the seating die need to been sent to Forster as well?

Im using Lapua brass. Thanks

 

[nonliberal]

I smoked the brass so I could see where it was catching in the die, and it is actually the length of the neck that is keeping the brass from going all the way in and letting the die touch the shell holder.

Does Forster fix this or will I have to put a .015 thick washer on the shell holder which would be a pain.

 

[billmo]

Catshooter, I was looking at my seating dies too and none of them actually contact the shellholders except for the Comp. Redding dies which have the sliding sleeve inside. Instructions from Redding says to back away from the shellholder when setting up a regular seating die. I don't know if his die is made with the sliding sleeve or not but if it is then it would almost have to contact the shellholder, would it not? Thanks, Bill

 

[nonliberal]

OK, my die does have the sliding sleeve. When the brass goes up into the sleeve the end of the neck hits the top and causes the sleeve to slide up before it touches the shelholder.

Are you guys saying this is normal? Thanks for the help.

 

[rayjay]

I just checked mine and it doesn't touch the shell holder. At first I thought that they would do it this way so the case would not be rattling around in the sliding sleeve and giving variations in seating depth. I thought about it some more and realized that the seating depth is determined by the base of the case sitting on the shell holder and the depth of the seating stem.

The sliding sleeve is just there to align the bullet with the case mouth before the seating stem contacts the bullet. Having the sliding sleeve register off the shoulder does make more sense than having it bear on the shell holder.

 

[nonliberal]

Thanks guys, off the shoulder would be better I guess but mine actually registers off the end of the neck. I figured it was the shoulder until I smoked a piece of brass to see where it made contact. So I guess as long as I keep my cases trimmed the same length its fine. Thanks again.