Ok Berger vld shooters seating die questions?

[zr600]

I'm making up some rounds for my 6mm custom at and was loading Berger 87g vlds I have the amax seating steam in a hornady seating die and my seating depths are all over the road. This die has worked for me in the past on this lot of bullets. Who has an idea what's going on, I'm about to give up on the Berger bullets because of this haven't had any issues with any other bullets. I'm measuring off of the ogive. I also did measure the bullets off of the ogive to before seating and they were the same just the bullets.

 

[spclark]

You need to take a look at how the pointy end of those 87’s fit with the working end of that seating stem. My guess is that they’re not compatible, that the Bergers don’t have the same shape as the A-Maxs ahead of the ogive, even if their lengths are the same as you seem to be suggesting.

Most die makers offer to provide custom seating stems for bullets their ‘standard’ stems don’t work with, so I’d give Hornady a call, see if they can help.

 

[LCazador]

Take the seating stem out and make a custom stem with epoxy. Hold the stem upside down in a vise or clamp and fill the seating cavity with epoxy. Coat a bullet with grease, oil or wax, and insert it into the epoxy. Let it sit till it hardens. This will probably be the only bullet the stem will fit but it will work perfectly. Extra stems can be bought from manufacturer.

 

[ImBIllT]

Yeah sounds like the stem just won't let it in there. I can tell you that I'm highly disappointed in my Hornady 6.5 CM dies. The bullet cavity was dramatically oversized, allowing the bullet to sit at an angle inside the die and the seating stem fit sloppily. This can't be good for run-out. On top of that the sleeve doesn't fit a CM. It's just a generic seating sleeve that will fit any cartridge. This means the neck is oversized and nothing else contacts the case for guidence. The guys shooting good groups with these dies must be using very long seating depths in guns with good throats, allowing the run-out to correct itself when chambering the round. The VLD ogive shape makes this effect even more difficult to achieve, because instead of a gentle transition from land diameter to grove diameter, which would allow the bullet to be forced into alignment, the transition is very abrupt, and can result in just jamming the crooked bullet in the lands at a bad angle.

You may have a better set of dies than me, and the custom sleeve made with epoxy might cure your problem, but you might consider a new set of dies. I built s custom sleeve with a barrel stub, a .2645 reamer for the bullet channel and the chamber reamer for the other end.

 

[243winxb]

Secure the seating plug under a 3/32" bit and drill further into it. The distance should never be increased more than 1/4". LEE seat die.

Bullet nose should not make contact.

 

[msinc]

Bullet nose should not make contact.

This!!!! Using epoxy will guarantee that the tip is in contact, so if you go this route you will still need to drill out the very center. If you take the bullets and measure them for length from base to tip {or "meplat" if you really want to sound like a genius} you should find that they are not all the exact same length. That tip is what is hitting the seater stem and that is why you are getting different readings on the ogive. You can probably just drill out the seater stem so the tip no longer touches first and cure the problem.

Edit: I think you might also find that having little to no bullet runout does not always equate to more or better accuracy. Just as very low SD/ES numbers may not either.

 

[Ledd Slinger]

I agree. Sounds like the bullet tip is making contact. If the bullets themselves are measuring consistent from base to ogive, then the tips must be making contact in the stem because no bullets are very consistent from base to tip.