Change To Lee Bullet Seating Dies

[leadman]

I recently bought a Lee die set for the 7.7 X 58 Arisaka to load cast. This set comes with a factory crimp die. The problem here is ALL of the Lee bullet seating dies now are their "Dead Length Seaters". This means there is no crimping function in the die for any of their die sets.
This would not be too bad except I use a Lee Classic press to load my rifle on and with the sizing die, Lyman M die, powder drop die, and bullet seating die there is no room for a crimp die. I really do not want to have to change turrets or go to another press to remove the bell in the case mouth.
The Arisakas and Mosin Nagant rifles I have take such a large boolit (.314" to .316") that the flare does need to be removed so the case will enter the neck smoothly.

Even if you load jacketed bullets and want to crimp the seating die will not do this for you.

[Mr Peabody]

I know; I went back to RCBS because of it.

[dragon813gt]

That's why I took to sizing and priming before doing the rest on a LCT. Expand/Powder/Seat/Crimp are the four stations. I don't know if it adds more time because I have to tumble after sizing to remove the mink oil I use. And the on press priming seems to give me issues to often.

My biggest issue is that the seater die always puts a ring around the nose of the bullet.

[Frozone]

..... My biggest issue is that the seater die always puts a ring around the nose of the bullet.

Lousy LEE QC. It's the sharp ridge at the bottom of the collar that leaves the ring.

a piece of wood dowel pointed at the end and a little piece of 320 grit on it, spun in a drill removes that edge nicely.
No ring after that

[TNsailorman]

Lee makes very good stuff when it meets your needs. 2 of the mentioned problems here is a case in point. When I crimp, it is nearly always with a second seat/crimp die that has the seater stem removed and is used to crimp only. That is the reason why I have and am still buying extra seater dies for the calibers I load for. I only use Lee's Factory Crimp die for jacketed bullets, never cast. Works for me. james

[dragon813gt]

a piece of wood dowel pointed at the end and a little piece of 320 grit on it, spun in a drill removes that edge nicely.
No ring after that

Thanks, now I won't try a bunch of stupid ways that don't work to fix it :beer:

[geargnasher]

I chuck the seater stems in my drill press and de-nib that sharp edge with sandpaper and a stick, then mix a small pill of cheap, 5-minute epoxy putty, drop it in the seater, and poke a boolit nose up into it. Perfect fit every time, just make certain the boolit and the seater are perfectly aligned when you make the nose impression in the putty.

I didn't know Lee had moved to the "dead length" style for all their rifle dies, that sucks rocks. That's ok, more business for Forster anyway, the Lee dies tend to seat boolits crooked and I don't use their seaters much anymore.

FYI, even the BR Forster seaters, at 50-75 bucks a pop depending on the model, have sharp, ragged edges on their seater stems that leave a ring on most cast boolit noses. Like Lee, they're designed for jacketed nose profiles, and "one size fits all" for jacketed is a much more "pointy" ogive than most of our cast boolits have, so really you can't blame the manufacturer who isn't especially designing them for cast boolits in the first plae.

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