Bullet Marks

[lpreddick]

no matter what you do to the cup there will always be a ring of metal that contacts the bullet and if neck tension is tight, there will be some degree of a ring which does not bother me. what was driving me crazy was if the bullet entered the cup and my measurement were off. very light neck tension accepts the bulllet easily and i usually find no ring. i still like the idea of a cup that makes full ogive to tip contact even though such contact doesn't allow any "free floating" hoping the bullet follows the neck and has no runout.

 

[Erik Cortina]

Lap the seating stem. Chuck one of your bullets in a drill, apply JB, IOSSO, or KG2 to bullet and spin inside stem at high speed to lap it. No need to bed seating stem.

 

[amlevin]

Lap the seating stem. Chuck one of your bullets in a drill, apply JB, IOSSO, or KG2 to bullet and spin inside stem at high speed to lap it. No need to bed seating stem.

I did this with some Flitz on a bullet. Now have a seater stem that fits the bullet I use. For the cost of a seater stem I'll do it for any other bullet I decide to use. It actually took me two bullets to get the seater "cup" where I wanted it. First one developed a groove from the polishing operation. Second one, not so much.

One thing I did notice after doing this is that the seater stem tends to stick slightly to the bullet. Not good if one is using minimal neck tension but for me, no big deal.

 

[mshelton]

That's new clean brass, you don't have any carbon in the neck to help lubricate seating.

In my long range bench gun I sonic clean and anneal after every firing, which essentially gives you new clean brass. If I just seat the bullet in the brass as it is, there is a lot of tension and sometimes the seater can leave marks, to fix that I have some small steel shot and powdered graphite in an old bullet box, I run the neck into that before loading to get a little coating on the inside. Bullets then seat without excess tension.

In your case though you should be fine after you have one firing on those cases.

 

[Killshot]

Lap the seating stem. Chuck one of your bullets in a drill, apply JB, IOSSO, or KG2 to bullet and spin inside stem at high speed to lap it. No need to bed seating stem.

I also do this. It is easy, fast and cheap. And it works perfectly.

 

[searcher]

Are you loading for a bolt gun - or for an A/R? I ask, as if for an A/R, you wil want more than the .002 neck tension as someone suggested. I'd keep it where you have it if using an A/R. If a bolt gun, do as he suggests and reduce neck tension to .001 to .002" which is all that is needed for target shooting - for hunting, I'd go more like .003".

Regardless of the tension, most new bullet seaters have a slight burr or overly sharp edge contacting the bullet which is best removed. Simply check seater in your drill and gently push the spinning seater tip into a piece of secured leather or heavy material which has a bit of jewelers rouge on it. lacking that, simply roll up a bit of 400 grit wet-or-dry paper and use it to burnish the sharp edge just a bit as it is spinning. Takes about 6 seconds.

 

[Grimstod]

I would email these to Redding. They will most likely be more then willing to help. Tell them we sent you

 

[amlevin]

I wanted both long and short VLD stems anyhow, so it wasn't a big deal for me to order another regular stem, and I wasn't motivated enough (ie. too F-ing lazy) to try the glue gun technique. Anyhow, hope that helps.

In a sport where we end up spending huge sums of money just to eliminate "variables" it doesn't make much sense to me that people suddenly "get cheap" and want to use a seating stem that at best is a compromise, trying to fit every bullet shape available for that caliber.

Either order one that fits the specific bullet or make one by lapping, molding, or if you have the equipment, make one.

 

[gilream]

Looks like too much neck tension. Your having to force the bullet into the case. You can damage the die if you have to use too much force.

 

[Joe Maisto]

Does the seating stem match the profile of your bullets? How much actual neck tension do you have?

Jon:
It looks to me there is no problem what-so-ever. In fact, I believe his seater fits his ogive perfectly. I am inclined to believe he has a great deal of neck tension and the marks are from his seater making contact with the bullet ogive, as it should be...

 

[gilream]

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.

 

[CatShooter]

Looks like too much neck tension. Your having to force the bullet into the case. You can damage the die if you have to use too much force.

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

 

[amlevin]

Looks like too much neck tension. Your having to force the bullet into the case. You can damage the die if you have to use too much force.

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

It might be possible if the seating stem has a thin edge and the bullet is wedged into it. This will damage the sliding chamber in dies like the Forster and any other die that uses the same method of lining up the bullet and case.

 

[gilream]

Looks like too much neck tension. Your having to force the bullet into the case. You can damage the die if you have to use too much force.

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

Take a look at Redding's web page for their Competition Bullet Seating Die (which is what the original poster is using) they state in bright red letters, "Not For Use With Compressed Loads!" This would suggest to me that using too much force to seat a bullet with this particular die could in fact damage the die.

http://redding-reloading.com/uniquely-redding/119-competition-bullet-seating-die

 

[CatShooter]

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

Take a look at Redding's web page for their Competition Bullet Seating Die (which is what the original poster is using) they state in bright red letters, "Not For Use With Compressed Loads!" This would suggest to me that using too much force to seat a bullet with this particular die could in fact damage the die.

http://redding-reloading.com/uniquely-redding/119-competition-bullet-seating-die

You should not guess at these things and your powers of suggestion are running away with your imagination.

You need to actually do it, and it is obvious that you have not.

Actually, the reason for that warning is not because the bullet will damage the die, but because when the bullet meets the resistance of the compressed powder, the cup will damage the bullet, and NOT the other way around.

 

[gilream]

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

Take a look at Redding's web page for their Competition Bullet Seating Die (which is what the original poster is using) they state in bright red letters, "Not For Use With Compressed Loads!" This would suggest to me that using too much force to seat a bullet with this particular die could in fact damage the die.

http://redding-reloading.com/uniquely-redding/119-competition-bullet-seating-die

You should not guess at these things and your powers of suggestion are running away with your imagination.

You need to actually do it, and it is obvious that you have not.

Actually, the reason for that warning is not because the bullet will damage the die, but because when the bullet meets the resistance of the compressed powder, the cup will damage the bullet, and NOT the other way around.

The seat stem in the Redding Competition Seater Die is cut .002 smaller than the bearing surface of the bullet. Applying too much pressure to it, as with compressed powder charges, will crack the stem and cause it to become oblong. In other words it will damage the die.

I can not match your ability to insult and I will not try to do so sir. But I chose not tolerate rude and ignorant behavior. I am guessing at something? It's obvious to you that I have not done something? I have powers of suggestion? Well here is a suggestion for you my friend. Please call the good folks at Redding Reloading Equipment Company and find out whose imagination is running away. The phone number is listed on their web site. At that time I will gladly accept your apology.

 

[krktractor]

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

 

[CatShooter]

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

Take a look at Redding's web page for their Competition Bullet Seating Die (which is what the original poster is using) they state in bright red letters, "Not For Use With Compressed Loads!" This would suggest to me that using too much force to seat a bullet with this particular die could in fact damage the die.

http://redding-reloading.com/uniquely-redding/119-competition-bullet-seating-die

You should not guess at these things and your powers of suggestion are running away with your imagination.

You need to actually do it, and it is obvious that you have not.

Actually, the reason for that warning is not because the bullet will damage the die, but because when the bullet meets the resistance of the compressed powder, the cup will damage the bullet, and NOT the other way around.

The seat stem in the Redding Competition Seater Die is cut .002 smaller than the bearing surface of the bullet. Applying too much pressure to it, as with compressed powder charges, will crack the stem and cause it to become oblong. In other words it will damage the die.

A brass bullet will NEVER split a steel seating cup, until you have been crushing bullets for a long time...

... obviously, since the notice in the Redding catalogue "suggests" to you, then you have no real experience in this area.

Do it and show us.

Inquiring minds want to know...

 

[gilream]

There is no way a die can be damaged by seating a bullet into a neck, even if the neck crushes.

Take a look at Redding's web page for their Competition Bullet Seating Die (which is what the original poster is using) they state in bright red letters, "Not For Use With Compressed Loads!" This would suggest to me that using too much force to seat a bullet with this particular die could in fact damage the die.

http://redding-reloading.com/uniquely-redding/119-competition-bullet-seating-die

You should not guess at these things and your powers of suggestion are running away with your imagination.

You need to actually do it, and it is obvious that you have not.

Actually, the reason for that warning is not because the bullet will damage the die, but because when the bullet meets the resistance of the compressed powder, the cup will damage the bullet, and NOT the other way around.

The seat stem in the Redding Competition Seater Die is cut .002 smaller than the bearing surface of the bullet. Applying too much pressure to it, as with compressed powder charges, will crack the stem and cause it to become oblong. In other words it will damage the die.

A brass bullet will NEVER split a steel seating cup, until you have been crushing bullets for a long time...

... obviously, since the notice in the Redding catalogue "suggests" to you, then you have no real experience in this area.

Do it and show us.

Inquiring minds want to know...

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.

 

[Raythemanroe]

"You are probably using a lot of neck tension which then requires more force to seat the bullets which will cause those marks"…


Probably this is foreign to guys using lite neck tension, maybe a VLD stem would help.