Seating die problem

[Viperdoc]

Reloading some 223 with Hornady V-max bullets, and noticed that my Redding competition seating die is leaving a concentric imprint ring on the bullets, where the seater makes contact. Using around 0.003 neck tension only. Lapua brass.

Any ideas?

 

[Preacher]

It will not hurt a thing accuracy wise......
Lighten up on the neck tension and it will go away......

 

[Old Navy]

The bullet base is not down in the donut area is it? Later! Frank

 

[infantrytrophy]

It makes a difference when you chamfer the necks with a 23 degree VLD-type chamfering tool (Sinclair) and lube the necks with graphite. When I first tried seating bullets into Lapua 6BR or .223 brass (.002 neck tension), the seating force seemed to be excessive, or at least more than with other brands of brass. After chamfering the necks with the VLD chamfering tool and applying powdered graphite, the bullet seating force was noticeably less and there was no visible ring from the seating stem.

The neck thickness of the Lapua brass is thicker than that of LC, Win or Rem brass. Even with the same "neck tension" (difference between neck O.D. of loaded rounds vs. sized brass), the seating force required for Lapua brass is more than with other brands of brass. This might cause the ring you referred to.

Randy

 

[Viperdoc]

Seemed to be more of an issue with the Hornady V max compared to Berger or Sierra of similar weight. Perhaps the V max jacket is thinner? Brass is all new Lapua, so donut is possible but unlikely.

 

[Viperdoc]

Even the new Lapua was prepped by full length resize with a type S bushing die, and then a length/chamfer pass through a Giraud trimmer. Wall thickness runs around 0.0125. Also have an electric neck turner, but found it didn't make much difference, and didn't want to mess with changing bushings.

 

[6BRinNZ]

Hey Viperdoc,

I had the exact same thing with 55 and 75grn V-maxes, I was still learning about reloading with bushings and had way too much neck tension (close to .004"), it was enough on some rounds the jacket bulged slightly.

I have found with the 88grn bergers even when forcing them into the donut (another learning curve) they hardly even notice it (in terms of marks on the jacket).

So for V-maxes I use less than .002" and while there is a slight mark it is so small and faint it is not a concern...possibly if I polished the stem even that mark would go away.....I just don't want a learning curve on how to polish stems ;-)