Dillon XL750 seating depth problems

[Billydonk]

I am having troubles getting consistent bullet seating depths on a Dillon XL750.

I just got the press and have only reloaded a couple hundred rounds on it. I am reloading 6.5cm- hornady 140 eld. I have tried a forster ultra micrometer and a hornady micrometer seating dies. Between the 2 dies, I had better luck with the hornady. I am unable to set up the forster per forster's instructions using the whidden floating tool head- die body not long enough. I previously loaded on a single stage and had great results with seating depth. Last batch I just did on the Dillon varied +/- .015 using a comparator. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

 

[David Christian]

@Billydonk, can you upload a pic of the forster die setup? Without the pic my first thought would be to move the lockring below the toolhead. I have done that with several dies that were not long enough.

If you are interested in primer seating depth, have you considered swapping out the index block? This is what I use. It gives variable control to how low the ram goes.

Amazon.com

Related to bullet seating or sizing, have you honed your shell plate and are you using a thrust bearing. Both of these items will remove the slop in the shell plate. See here:

https://www.amazon.com/s?k=Dillon+thrust+bearing&i=sporting&crid=1P2QZ4Q6D9489&sprefix=dillon+thrust+bearing%2Csporting%2C157&ref=nb_sb_noss

Best,
DC

 

[Twdmar]

Are you trying to size, decap, prime, load etc on a single tool head? The dillon works better with a separate sizing tool head and one just for loading.
The dillon toolhead works just fine and if you want a little float for your die, put an o-ring under it.
As mentioned before, getting the slop out of the shell-plate helps.

 

[NZ_Fclass]

A while ago, I was having a similar issue with 308 in my 550. I traced the issue to inconsistent fit of the bullet in the seating stem. I polished the stem (Forster VLD) with Cratex in a battery drill. The sharp edge was contacting the ogive, putting a chamfer on cured the issue.

Another issue I had was with the bullet contacting the powder and getting pushed back out. Changed powder charge, and later brass, for some with a larger capacity.

 

[Billydonk]

Thanks for the answers guys.

@David Christian- on the whidden toolhead the lockring floats and is aligned by pins that are located on the top of the toolhead. I will try both of your other recommendations: the Armanov and thrust bearing. Your links were extremely helpful! cheers!



@NZ_Fclass - I have had the same issue with seating stems- I know the hornady stem works well with the ELDs as I used this combo in my single stage previously.

Thanks again fellas.

 

[Zero333]

Make sure all the stations you're using are working all at the same time while seating the bullet.

Remember if using only 1 station, then 2 station, then 3 stations at the same time, the tilt of the shell holder will change enough to change the seating depth.

 

[David Christian]

Thanks for the answers guys.

@David Christian- on the whidden toolhead the lockring floats and is aligned by pins that are located on the top of the toolhead. I will try both of your other recommendations: the Armanov and thrust bearing. Your links were extremely helpful! cheers!

View attachment 1464136

@NZ_Fclass - I have had the same issue with seating stems- I know the hornady stem works well with the ELDs as I used this combo in my single stage previously.

Thanks again fellas.

I now understand your sentence and what you are trying. I have 2 suggestions that I have done with my Whidden tool heads.

1. Remove the set pins and drill the holes all the way through the toolhead. For your shorter dies this will allow you to put the lock-rings under the toolhead and you can still float them by replacing the set pin with a small allen wrench inserted from the top of the toolhead.
2. Don’t float the die while still moving the lock-ring to the bottom side of the toolhead.

Here are a few pics showing the ring below, as well as a toolhead drilled out and the use if an allen wrench.

 

[Billydonk]

@David Christian Thanks man- the pics are great. Did you see an advantage in floating the seating die?

 

[David Christian]

I did not see an advantage to the float, but tried just about everything.

 

[cm1021]

The biggest thing I have found that throws off the seating depth is not having all stations in the shell plate loaded, if that make sense.

What I mean is that you need a casing in every single station that has a die in it, WHEN you set up your lengths. In my 750 I will process brass with one tool head, then I load on a separate one. In my loading tool head I keep a lee universal decapper in one, powder of course in 2, 3 is open or has a bullet drop, 4 seats my bullet, and 5 is open or has a FCD.

You will notice the largest change in OAL if you try to set your COAL without anything in the powder drop station. It gets exponentially worse when you go to floating dies and shell plates. We put some float in our stuff to help with runout, misalignment, etc, but that also gives room for play.

Sorry for the long post, just wanted to throw out what I've found with my 750. I love it to load most stuff. If it's precision rife, it moves to the single stage. On my 750 I'm happy with .001-.002 COAL variance. Anything else that I want more precise goes to single stage.

 

[Rsadams]

As per the directions on my 550 when setting up the dies you need to make sure each on is loaded with brass or brass and bullets that way the toolhead is loaded when you apply the stroke....