Bullet Marks

[CatShooter]

Cat...I called Redding and spoke to them this very morning. I actually talked to a technician, on the phone, live and in person and he told me that if you place too much pressure on their Competition Die seating stem they can crack and become oblong in shape and eventually fail. Do you really think that Redding places a giant red letter warning on their Competition Bullet Seater web page to warn you against marring a 25 cent bullet? Or would they more likely be trying to warn you against damaging a $120 dollar high precision die? Please call them and see for yourself. Geeze you'd make somebody a good wife! I'm done here.

Long before you reached that point, you would have already damaged your bullets.

 

[amlevin]

I actually talked to a technician, on the phone, live and in person

I talked to one of those once. In my case he worked for a Powder Company and told me that one of their powders wasn't temperature sensitive at all. Virtually no velocity change from 0 to 100 degrees.

When I heard that I resisted the urge to break into laughter. I merely said "Thank you for your time" and as soon as the "end button" was pushed proceeded to laugh so hard my wife came into the room and asked what was so funny.

I'll leave company name out of this as well as the powder (which would of course give away the first) but the powder I was asking about I have since found was extremely temp sensitive, even more so than the experience I had that prompted the call.

In short, you only thing you know about the "credentials" of those people on the other end of the phone is what they tell you. It ain't always true.

 

[warbird2006]

I have to jump back into this thread because I recently measured and created a dummy round with some new Lapua 223 Remington Match brass. The case neck thickness averaged .01284 for the 100 case lot and the dummy round measured .2508 across the case neck. (with less than .001 runout) The bullet's diameter is .2246 at the pressure ring. Your .244 bushing gives you nearly 7 thousandths of neck tension!!! I'm a pure dummy compared to most of the guys here but if you would get yourself a .248 and a .249 bushing...problem solved.

Gilream, you were completely right, my tension was 7 thousands and I need .249 bushing. I also checked other forums and noticed marks on other 223 bullets. ( http://www.sniperforums.com/forum/cartridges-calibers/39122-if-new-223-fool-s-experience-neck-sizing.html)

Now, to be perfectly clear, the marks appear only on Siera Match King bullets (69 and 77 grains) No marks on Berger 80 gr VLD and 80 gr Hornady A-Max. I guess the 80 grainers are slimmer.

my .02 i have had 3 redding competition seating dies and they all marked my bullets i call them and they say to polish the seating stem i say for a 200.00 dollar saeting die you should have polished it before you send it i have rcbs hornady and wilson and have never had to polish them get a good seating die and problem will go away i sent all my redding dies back

Krktractor, you are right too, for 200 dollar die we could get it with polished stem. I can hold the stem in my hands, put a tip of the 77gr SMK on it. You can feel right away how the sharp edges bite into the bullet with almost no pressure.

 

[gilream]

Very glad to hear that you are back on the right track. Ockham's razor proves itself once more.

 

[sonnyboy]

I had same problem and followed the suggestion of another poster & problem solved. Seat the bullet and then get some 0000 steel wool and give it a light twist on bullet ogive. Marks will be gone and bullets will shoot just fine. Don't dump the Redding Die it is one of the best in reloading componets.

Happy Shooting
sonnyboy

 

[amlevin]

I had same problem and followed the suggestion of another poster & problem solved. Seat the bullet and then get some 0000 steel wool and give it a light twist on bullet ogive. Marks will be gone and bullets will shoot just fine. Don't dump the Redding Die it is one of the best in reloading componets.

Happy Shooting
sonnyboy

If I have a mark from the seating plug I just shoot it. Works just as well as any bullet that doesn't have the mark. Unless the "mark" is a big gouge or deep ring it's merely cosmetic. More important to those that think "pretty bullets" shoot better.