Bullet seating problems

[tonysnoo]

I spent the better part of a day trying to seat a bunch of test rounds at precisely .003 deeper than the previous 4 test rounds. What an exercise in patience!....whew!

My setup is a Hornady (nonprogressive) press with a redding comp seater. I am using a Hornady comparator to measure length. I took the seating die apart and cleaned and oiled it. I make sure and run the handle down real slow to try and stay consistent.

The seating depth can differ as much as +/- .002, with same die calibration, but generally is no closer than .001 unless I take every round and start long working closer to my goal length. Slow! Tedious, but I have gotten all of my seating test rounds made in .003 steps (+/- 1/2 thou)

What am I missing or doing wrong? I see the spot where the die pushes on the bullet is a much smaller dia than the ogive comparator. Is bullet inconsistency messing with me? My press?

Once, I figure out an optimum seating death, will .002 tolerance be an issue?


Ideas? Advice?

 

[brett]

If your using factory production bullets, they are made on several different dies
And all of them are going into one pile, then they are packaged into smaller lots.
So with that being said use your measuring tool to measure bullets from base to ogive and put those into different lots.
It sounds like your just getting variations in base to ogive length or if your seating a compressed load with light neck tension and there moving after seating I've had this to happen with a 30br.
Unless your rifle is extremely accurate you will probley never notice any difference in accuracy with 2 or3 thou difference.

 

[Nomad47]

I use a set of flat blade feeler gauges. The thinnest is .0015", then .002", then .0025". Slide the feeler gauge between the shell holder and case.
Its sorta like "trickling up" with powder measures. ;D