Bullet Seating Problem

[duckboat]

Greetings
I've got a problem I haven't been able to figure out. I'm loading for a new 22-250 and having bullet seating issues; rings around the tips, different seating depths, resistance during seating. It seems like I'm getting too much neck tension but what have I done to cause this. What I'm using: new WW brass, RCBS X-Die sizer, Redding Standard Competition Seater,non bushing), Nosler BT bullets. All dies were setup as per mfg. instructions. What do you think the problem is, brass, size die, seat die, operator error?
Thanks
Brian

 

[Preacher]

Is this a new factory barrel ?
If it's a custom chamber, check the neck diameter out...
If your showing to much neck tension it seems your die is necking down to much, or the expander is to small..
A barrel on the high side and a die on the low side will conflict with each other...
Try a different sizer and see if that helps any and go from there.....

 

[duckboat]

The brass is brand new out of the bag and has not seen the inside of a chamber. At least that is one less variable to consider. I measured the expander ball on the sizer die and saw a reading of .224' which sounds correct to me. Any thoughts?

 

[TonyR]

It does sound like you are having neck tension problems. If it doesn't happen the same with every case, you might want to try to even them out with an expander mandrel like the K&M used to size necks before turning. The K&M mandrels are the same diameter as the bullet so with springback, I get light and fairly uniform neck tension after I turn my necks. I also have an oversized mandrel I run my fired rounds through to remove any out-of-roundness from handling before I run them into a sizing die. If you are using bulk brass in bags, some of the necks may be slightly out-of-round for the same reason. Most of the people on this forum recommend not using the expander ball because it makes the necks crooked. You might also check the chamfer on the neck. Try seating a bullet in an unprimed case then remove it and see if the bullet shank is scratched if it seated hard.

 

[janderson0]

The ring is from the seating stem and bullet not being an axact match. Many combos will result in a slight ring.

What bullets, and how are you measuring seating depth? If you are measuring OAL you will see variation.

Have you chamfered the brass?

 

[duckboat]

The bullets that I've tried were Nosler Ballistic Tips in both 50 and 55 gr. with the same results. Cartridge length was measure both COAL and using a Stoney Point Comparator. I checked out a random sampling of the bullets and found them to be quite uniform both OAL and using the comparator. Some of the cases did seat the bullets a little easier than others which would explain why some of the loaded rounds measured the same while others varied. I've never used an X-die before so I'm wondering if that could be at least part of the problem,maybe I didn't set it up properly?). I don't own a ball micrometer so I'm having a hard time checking out the neck thickness on the brass but I haven't ruled out inconsistent brass. I'm tempted to buy some new Rem. brass as well as a standard FL die and see what I come up with although I'll save that as a last resort,I hate to just throw money at it). As to the rings on the bullets Redding sent me a hand polished seater stem but the bullets look pretty much the same as they did with the first stem and the force required to seat the bullet still varied.
Brian

 

[expiper]

Hello Brian...,Duckie)....it sounds like the x-die is the root of the problem....I have never used one ..but ...shure wuld recomend a 'conventional' die,Redding type S is a good un...) and to get the neck wall thickness...just measure a loaded round and subtract the bullet diameter and then divide by two...,it is aproximate but close enuff to get u started)...Roger

 

[Travelor]

Brian, I agree with the above - the neck tension is too great. The ring on the bullet is caused by the seater needed excessive force to seat the bullet in and under sized neck.

I know of three 'fixes' and will list in order of $$$.

The first may not help but it is free and I do it on all my cases reguardless of the dies I use - clean the inside of the necks with a bronze cleaning brush before loading. Carbon builds up inside the necks and this step will help by cleaing the necks.

The second is a little more money, but I pretty much garrantee it will work. Buy a Lyman 'M' die, example: http://www.midwayusa.com/viewproduct/?productnumber=623561 ) and use it to size the inside neck diameters AFTER using your dies and before seating the bullets. This die was designed to open the necks up for seating cast bullets. Be careful with it as the expander plug is blunt on the end and can crumple the case neck if you do not guide the cases over the expander plug. It also is a two step expander and you only want to use the first expansion.

The third step and the one I recommend is to buy a Redding Competition Neck Bushing die and get the collet that allows only about .002' neck expansion. This should solve ALL your seating problems and a side benefits is that your brass will last longer as you will not be dragging an expander ball up through an undersized neck each time you reload.

George

 

[mikegaiz]

I have encountered the same problem with Nosler bullets and Redding Comp seater die for 6.5mm. New lapua brass and resized. I sent the seater die back to Redding to check out, no issue there. I gave up it must be the Nosler bullets jackets are thin. Sierra seat fine.

 

[duckboat]

Sounds like I need to try a new sizing die. I've never looked at the bushing dies so I will have to come up to speed on them. Before I do that though I will try loading some Sierra's that I have on the bench to see what happens. I also contacted RCBS and was disappointed in their response which said my problem was caused by the Redding Comp die seater stem,I'm not sure why that is causing excessive neck tension though). Midway is sure going to like me this month.
Brian