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Lee dies...what am I doing wrong???

Its probably the seating stem/plug isnt deep enough to support this action. I had same issue with lee dies and bought a hornady set with eld seating stem and micrometer. All good.
 
.005 shoulder bump I assume its on a gas gun so your still magazine limited. I will say the 105gr Hornady bthp while not the highest B.C, where most forgiving, shorter than comparable 105's and still shot great easily to 1k. Cheaper too. And Barnes 105s.
 
I've not encountered many issues with Lee dies that didn't have an operator error going on, amd I use them as my first choice, where available. Call them before you just ditch them for another brand.
 
You can mix and match dies. My Grendel turret has a lee sizing die and a redding seating die. With a LFC die. I ran into a similar issue while using long bullets. Redding die fixed my problem. So the lee stem may fix yours.
 
Thanks everyone! I think I'm going to cut down the stem so I can keep the die body down like it's supposed to and then add a micrometer seating dial on the top!
As for the brass losing its lubrication properties after annealing, I think you're correct. I could feel the bullet dragging more as I seated them. I'll be sure to check neck tension after annealing.
Also, to clarify, yes, it is a gas gun, and I'm running the Hornady 103gr ELDX in the cartridge.
I also got my hands on a Ruger Gen II in 6mmARC that I'm starting a load up for. It gave MOA groups out of the box with factory ammo, so I'm excited to load for this bolt gun.
 
Chranah said:
Thanks everyone! I think I'm going to cut down the stem so I can keep the die body down like it's supposed to and then add a micrometer seating dial on the top!
As for the brass losing its lubrication properties after annealing, I think you're correct. I could feel the bullet dragging more as I seated them. I'll be sure to check neck tension after annealing.
Also, to clarify, yes, it is a gas gun, and I'm running the Hornady 103gr ELDX in the cartridge.
I also got my hands on a Ruger Gen II in 6mmARC that I'm starting a load up for. It gave MOA groups out of the box with factory ammo, so I'm excited to load for this bolt gun.
Click to expand...
Best of luck. Shoot on!
 
So you annealed and never mandreled or resized in any way? I don't think that's a viable sequence. You will at a MINIMUM burn off all lube and/or carbon residue (lube too). And probably the heat/cool sequence reduced the diameter of the neck.

Body shop guy I know would shrink a body part that had been enlarged though stretching (beating it back into shape), by heating it up and letting it cool. That was steel. I personally have no proof/knowledge about how brass behaves, but I do anneal and I certainly at least run a mandrel with some graphite though the neck after annealing..
 
My Lee 25-06 seater is possibly the most useless thing I own. I would look for any alternative as fast as possible.

That said, I cooked some brass a little well done and got similar blown shoulders. Actually I hd some do it before annealing so I was misusing that die but annealing made it way worse.

But still. Hornady doesn't have a set? Their
Seater is a huge upgrade for short money.
 

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