Seating help

[Jeffvn]

I’m currently going crazy trying to figure out what is going on with my reloading technique. I recently,as in less than two weeks ago) swapped out barrels on my 7WSM from a short throated magazine fed OAL of 2.86" to a long-throated single-feed OAL of 3.090". Nothing else has changed in my reloading process, the same bullets, press, reloading order, etc. Before teh change in seating depth, I was able to produce loaded rounds with an average of 0.001 runout at the bullet ogive of the loaded bullet,running from less than 0.001 to 0.002 – not bad for a slacker tactical shooting former Jarhead). Now that I am seating the bullets further out, I can’t get the runout averge down below 0.002, and some rounds are coming out in the 0.004 to 0.006 range.

I didn’t change anything in my procedure,I seat 1/2 way, rotate and seat the rest of teh way), but I know that the bullet is not entering the case as nicely as before because of the resistance when I seat the bullets.

I'm still using the same Redding Competition seating die, shell holders, single-stage press, and bushing neck sizing dies. Nothing has changed except teh seating depth. What gives? My only thought is that because of the longer OAL, the bullet sleeve in now much further up inside the die and the time it takes me to let go of the bullet and pull the handle, the bullet is slipping off to one side or another and being seated crooked. Would switching to L.E. Wilson dies and an Arbor Press seating dies fix my situation?

JeffVN

 

[billmo]

What does the brass runout look like before you size it? Straight out of the chamber!!! Bill

 

[bg]

switching to a Wilson chamber seater will improve your results about 100%. buying a blank Wilson chamber seater and having a gunsmith ream it out to your calibers minimum saami spec will improve your seating about another 100%. the ultimate seater would be to purchase one from Neil Jones. he will need a case that has been fired several times in your rifle without any resizing and it will need to have a bullet seated into it. he will make a custom die that fits your brass with a bushing inside that fits your necks and centers the neck in the die.

by the way, I am loading 130gr Barnes Tipped TSX bullets in my 300 Win Mag and I noticed that if the bullets bearing surface was only half way down the neck the run out was about .002-.003. when i seated the bullet so that the bearing surface was all the way down in the neck my run out was only .001 using a standard Wilson chamber seater.

 

[roaddog]

How much would Neil Jones charge for this service,custom-made seating dies)? I use a Redding and ha ave had pretty good results, but we can always do better.

 

[bg]

his web site is www.neiljones.com look under Micro Dies at the bottom of the page. they are approx. $100

 

[roaddog]

thanks for the information, bg.