.358 WW boolits getting stuck in 9mm seating die...

[bizzledude]

I cast some .358 diameter, round nose (1 ogive), 150 grain, wheel weight alloy boolits (and tumble lubed with Alox).
I went about adjusting my seating die to the correct overall length (1.095) and boolits keep getting stuck in the seating die (Lee carbide).
I can get them out quite easily by disassembling the die and giving the nose a gentle tap with a screw driver...
My first thought was lube the die; did so with some alox. Thought it helped at first, but boolits kept getting stuck.
Second thought, increase the flare. I did so substantially (1/2 turn on flaring die) and this did not seem to help either.

I've slugged my bore at .356 diameter and have read many people have great accuracy with .358 lead boolits in their 9mm.

Am I doing something wrong, or do I need a different seating die? I'm so confused!

Thanks!

[thx997303]

First, clean the alox out of that die right now.

And second, I assume you are lubing with Lee Liquid Alox, and it has a habit of gunking up seating dies.

Edited to add: The right now was supposed to be funny, but I forgot the smiley.

[goste]

I've had the same problem, with some of my Lee dies.. The boolit is to fat to go thru the hole, in the center of the crimp ring, and hangs up.. My solution was to take a tapered reamer, and relieve a bit of the metal, so the boolit will go through the hole, without hanging up...

[mooman76]

I also have had that problem. Once I was seating a long boolit and it kept getting seated deeper and deeper. When I discovered what was happening it kind of turned me off alox for awhile and I bought a lubesizer. I still use alox occasionally but realize that's just a thing that needs to be done. Also it helps to not coat your boolits as thick and thin the mixture down. They really don't need to have as thick of a coat as you might think.

[bizzledude]

Guess it's the alox and large bullet diameter...Cleaning alox out now![smilie=b:
In regards to tapered reaming, will I be reaming the 'nose cone' (that determines seating depth) or the inside (first couple millimeters) of the die?
Should I take off .001" at a time and test it?
Thanks!

[goste]

bizzledude, as to reaming, what I did, was un-screw the bullet seater stem, and shake out the seater plug, Then from the bottom of the die, insert the reamer with bit of oil, and give it a few turns. I had one of my boolits on hand, and I reamed the die, until my boolit would slip through without hanging up....

My Lee 125 drops at +/- .358, and it shoots very well in 5 Diff. 9mm's, with almost zero leading. I use Alox/JPW/thinner, with a little Marvel thown in ...

[chris in va]

BTDT. On sage advice from guys on the board, I backed off my case crimp to zero so the die just removes the flare. Seriously, unscrew that sucker a few turns. Then crank down on the seating screw to proper OAL. Taper crimp as necessary with the FCD.

Also do yourself a favor and switch to JPW/mineral spirits. It dries in two hours under a fan to a wax coating, not that nasty, goopy junk like Alox.

I load the Lee 358-125-RF mold and no longer get that issue you posted about.

[HeavyMetal]

I've had a few Lee dies that would seat a boolit with out a seating punch in it!

Turned out the die was to small to let the boolit pass the crimp area. This was a 45 Colt set that was set up for .451 J bullets. Had several phone calls to Lee before they finally "got" what the problem and decided to fix it because, don't you know, Lee never makes a mistake!

One the die had been returned and fixed it worked well but then I sold the 45 Colt Pistol to a bud and had no use for the die set.

Suggest this test: pull the die apart hit it with a heat gun to remove any boolit lube then spray it down with carb or brake cleaner. Then take you boolit and see if it drops through the die while it's stripped down. This only works with dies that have the very large seating adjustment like the Lee's by the way.

This will tell you where your problem is.