Seating die skins boolit

[DeanWinchester]

I'm using a Lee 160g TL mold [actual weight is 168g w. check] in my 308 and having GREAT results. Here's rub though.... literally. I size to .311. When i use my Lee seating die, the dang thing will skin the side of my boolit. I load so many different things for 308, I forget about this and set up the die like I always do. See in the pic the skinned side? Ggrrrr! It doesn't affect accuracy and I have a solution, but it's irksome. I have to screw the seating plug down tight and control bullet depth by screwing in the die body.
Does anyone else ever have this happen? I'm thinking of investing in another seating die specifically for this boolit. I wouldn't normally do that but this boolit is worth it for the results I get. My other thought was to set up the die in my lathe and open the through hole a little, provided it's not hard [I'm sure it ain't]

Anyway, it's just one of them thangs I guess.

http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/skinnedboolit.jpg
http://i1216.photobucket.com/albums/dd371/Reloadingfool/die.jpg

[462]

I used to have that problem, too. My solution was to get rid of all the Lee dies, and replace them with Lyman, Hornady and RCBS.

[DeanWinchester]

Somehow, I knew that answer would come quickly. :p

This is the only thing that even comes close to a problem with Lee dies.

[leftiye]

Bell the mouth more.? Deburr the case mouth more? Maybe lap out the die a little? Shouldn't anything in the die that could scratch the boolit. If the top punch lines up the boolit correctly, there can be .010" clearance all around the boolit and seat straight and etc. Conversely, the die scratching the boolit means that it probly WON"T seat straight and etc..

[Certaindeaf]

I'd say bell and or chamfer.

[DeanWinchester]

No no, I chamfer and use an M die. The problem is the hole in the die is tight on the boolit. This never happens with a jacketed bullet as the taper of the nose is much more pronounced. This particular cast boolit however has a very short tapered nose.

I can fix it, I just wonder if anyone else has ever run into this before.

[DeanWinchester]

Actually, if I don't have the seater plug screwed in far enough to seat the boolit at least half way, it will get stuck in the die and pull the boolit back out of the case. All the more reason I have to push the seater plug all the way down so I can be absolutely certain the boolit seats straight with out anything interfering.

[geargnasher]

I have that problem with my Lee .30 caliber dies too. My solution has been to hone out the crimp shoulder a bit with sandpaper and a dowel rod. The dies are made for .308" bullets. I'd offer you one of my .303 British seater dies (I have several brand-new extras) but the fat shoulder on the .308 won't go up in there very far anyway. You might try an RCBS seater die instead, they seem to work better with cast boolits.

Gear

[runfiverun]

nothing wrong with having a different seater for cast.
i use the neck sizer from the lee on my 223's. but the redding seating die for cast.
i use the lee to seat and the redding to crimp with jaxketed.

[Sonnypie]

In a word, No.
But you need to remember that loading cast bullets puts you into a more finicky sort of area of reloading.
All of the manufactures I know of make all of their dies to work with Jacketed bullets.
They can't adjust their operations for the Unwanted Red Headed Step Children's limited needs.
The only one who seems to even attempt to accommodate us are Wilson Dies. And that is only in the neck sizing area.
I coulda swore I saw assorted special sized expander balls in one of the catalogs in the Throne Room. (That just does not sound right...)

If it were me, I'd be peering down in the seating die and figuring out what might be causing the rub. Then fixing that.
Things that come to mind are a defect inside the die, or the way the bullet aligns as it enters the guide area before the poosh begins. Find out if it always shows up at a certain place on the die, and marking the die with a felt pen before removing it.
Maybe there was a booger on a bullet and it got stuck in the die, causing a rub.

I didn't like the pusher in my Lee Dead Length Seating Die. It's fine for Palma Match bullets (http://i1195.photobucket.com/albums/aa382/Sonnypie/PC060043.jpg), but sucked for my RN cast bullets. So I inverted it and the other end was flat. Which works fine.
But I made my own B.S. Plug (http://leeprecision.com/b.s.plug-30-06-30-30.html) for the die that has a rounded cup to fit my bullets.
(No BS, Lee calls it a B.S. Plug (http://leeprecision.com/b.s.plug-30-06-30-30.html).)

So you might need to put on your Sherlock Holmes Hat and do a little detective work before buying different dies.
What if you buy 20 different dies and it's your shell holder that's to blame? :holysheep :killingpc

[frkelly74]

I have reamed out the seater die on my 6,5 jap Lee die and now it works with my somewhat fat 6.5 boolits. As geargnasher said, I believe that is your answer.

[ku4hx]

Chamfer the inner edge of the case mouth; avoid making a knife edge. Flare the mouth a tad more. A Lyman "M" die can do that for you if your expander ball doesn't.

[largom]

As others have said, factory seating dies are made for jacketed bullets. The tighter the bore for the bullet, the more precise the loaded round will be. I have several very expensive Redding competition seating dies, I cannot seat fat cast boolits with them. I now make all of my cast boolits seating dies based on the Hornady and Redding seaters.

My suggestion would be to buy a seperate seating die and open up the bore to fit your boolit. The seating stem should also match your boolit nose profile just like the top punch for sizing dies. You can buy a Hornady seating die seperate for several calibers from Midway.

Larry

[462]

To expand upon my previously posted solution:
For rifle cartridges, Lyman's out-of-production Precision Alignment (check ebay) and Hornady's current crop of New Dimension seating dies incorporate sliding sleeves that assure proper case mouth and boolit alignment. Though the sleeves are machined to jacketed specifications, they are easily enlarged to accept the usually fat-for-caliber boolits. I found enlarging a sliding sleeve to be much faster and easier than removing the requisite amount of crimp shoulder, from a Lee die. Too, Vickerman seating dies are available, and RCBS makes a Vickerman-type die.

For handgun dies, I've not had to modify any Lyman or RCBS seating dies.

[lavenatti]

Do you have an 8mm seating die you could try?

[Larry Gibson]

I have that problem with my Lee .30 caliber dies too. My solution has been to hone out the crimp shoulder a bit with sandpaper and a dowel rod. The dies are made for .308" bullets. I'd offer you one of my .303 British seater dies (I have several brand-new extras) but the fat shoulder on the .308 won't go up in there very far anyway. You might try an RCBS seater die instead, they seem to work better with cast boolits.

Gear

Gear nailed it.

You can hone the crimp part out as suggested or you can get a 7.65 Argentine Lee seater (even the whole 2 die set isn't that expensive) and use it to seat .311 sized bullets in the .308W.....that's what I use. It will also crimp if you want.

That way you can still crimp the .308Ws with jacketed if need be.

Larry Gibson

[geargnasher]

I bought a Lee Argie expander stem one time hoping to get one that was about .310", turns out it was .307" like all the .30 calibers. I'm guessing the seater HAS to be larger, though. Had to order .303 British to get .310 expanders. The RGB dies were only a few bucks more than a stem + shipping.

Gear

[Ben]

DeanWinchester

Take the seating stem out of the seater die, take your .311 " sized cast bullet
and see if it will " free fall " though the die. I'm betting that right now it won't.

I've opened up the neck portion of these Lee dies just like opening up a Lee Bullet sizer die.
I had an identical problem with a Lee Bullet Seater Die in .358 Win. I was trying to seat some .360" cast bullets, the same identical problem existed until I opened up the neck portion of the die to about .362".

Lee would probably open up the die for you, if you returned it to them, for a nominal fee.

Your current problems will not get any better , regardless of how much bell you put on your case necks, until the bullet will " free fall " though the seating die.

Ben

[Larry Gibson]

Gear

Must be why I use a Lyman 7.65 Argie FL die............:smile: Actually my Lee 7.65 Argie seater works with cast up through .314 in the .308W.

My Lee 7.65 dies are 20+ years old and are marked as "Belgian" dies. FL case wouldn't chamber in my M91 Argies. That's when i got the Lyman dies which are 7.65 Argentine dies. I found the cases FL sized in the Lee dies were about .010 too long in headspace. In measureing the headspace of several actual 7.65 Belgian rifles I found they did average about .010 longer in headspace than does most 7.65 Argentines. Strangely the cartridges for both (milsurp ammo) have close to the same headspace dimension. Thus whlie the cartridges are close to the same the chambers are not. I took .010 off the bottom of my own Lee die and it then worked fine. I've also done several others over the years for friends. Lee was supposed to have corrected that with their dies but I don't know for sure as we still get post of "the bolt won't close on the FL sized case" when using Lee 7.65 Belgian dies for Argentines.

Anyways, I use the Lyman dies for the 7.65 Argentine (I NS with a shortened 30-06 Redding bushing die) when loading that, I use the Lee 7.65 seater die for loading .311 cast in my .308Ws and the Lee FL die just sits there and hasn't been used in years......

Larry Gibson