problem with bullet seating

[jrdoty]

I have a redding competition bullet seater and I am getting about .2 variance in seating depth when measuring from the ogive to the base of the brass. Is this normal or did I get a bad die. the load is: 308 win. Lapua brass, 44 grains of varget, and a 178 grain A-max thanks in advance for your help.

 

[davewilson]

i would take the die completely apart and clean it. might be something in the sleeve holding the bullet that's not letting it slid up against the stem evey time. 2 tenths of an inch is a huge amount of variation. something major is wrong.

 

[steve4102]

Seems to me that the sharp tip combined with the "Secant" ogive of the Hornady A max is the problem. The shape of the bullet and the shape of the seater plug does not allow for the bullet to be seated off the Ogive but rather off the tip.

 

[300win]

Just wondering if you mean .002 or .2 which is a huge amount. I use several redding comp seaters and have never seen one touch a bullet tip. As someone else said take it apart and clean it. Make sure the is no crud inside the bullet seating stem itself. I have also seen a primer that protrudes slightly causing a false reading. If the bullets are seating hard a slight amount of brass flex is also possible. Lapua brass is good stuff and is usually trouble free. Check s few things out and let us know.

 

[Rob01]

Measure the bullet itself from the base to the ogive. You will get the same .001-.003" variances. It's not the die. I load the 178s also and that's what I've found. My load is 44.8grns Varget, Lapua brass, CCI primers and the 178s. Also it doesn't seem to make a difference in accuracy so load them and don't worry

 

[Jtomlinson]

[ QUOTE ]
I have a redding competition bullet seater and I am getting about .2 variance in seating depth when measuring from the ogive to the base of the brass. Is this normal or did I get a bad die. the load is: 308 win. Lapua brass, 44 grains of varget, and a 178 grain A-max thanks in advance for your help.

[/ QUOTE ]

Do you mean .2" which is over 5mm or do you mean .002" (two thousands of an inch), the former is a vast amount , the latter almost de minimus.

Manufacturing tolerances on individual bullets (dependant on the particular press tool each bullet came from) will readily span 2 thou or more as has been said above, setting a seating die to a given depth will often result in a slight tolerance difference in O.A.L from round to round often no more than 3-4 thousands of an inch, this is normal and should not affect accuracy, this is why a measurement is often taken of the ogive with a seating comparator rather than across the meplat.

If indeed you are correct with a discrepancy of .2" then indeed something major is going on and needs sorting and as a start you should look at the seating die.

As you say you are getting variance in seating depth I take that to mean that some of the rounds you seat are to correct length, this being the case I can only summise that nothing major is wrong with the die and that the dimension .2" is indeed a typo and should read .002" which is to be accepted as a manufacturing tolerance on the bullets.

Forgive me if that is the wrong interpretation but that is my guess from the information you give.

Hope this helps

 

[jrdoty]

Oops .2 is a typo. I meant .02 which is still pretty bad I think. I will take it apart and clean and see if that helps. thankyou

 

[HoytemanPA]

Is the ogive checker OK? I haven't found one yet that was repeatable out of the box. I chuck up a bullet in a drill and lap it with JB. On a new seater die I take the seater out of the die hand lap it with JB to the bullet I use most. But 20 thousands difference, maybe primers not seated up in all the way?