.35 Rem bullet seating issue

[jason280]

I have a Remington 7600c in .35 Rem with an 18" barrel, and I would like to load up some hard cast lead bullets to use as hog loads. The bullets are gas checked and weigh in around 220gr, and I am loading them over Varget. Problem I am having is the bullets are sticking in the bullet seating die (Lee), and aren't seating correctly. I'm assuming it's from using a round nose seating die, but not sure. Any suggestions?

[haynk]

Suggest you take apart seating die and clean it to remove possible caked bullet lubricant. Not too likely that 's what's happening , but doing that would remove one possibility.

haynk

[jason280]

Shouldn't be any caked on lube, die has only been used to seat jacketed bullets...and it started sticking almost immediately with the cast bullets. That being said, I'll still take it apart and clean it up.

[runfiverun]

look at how the edge of the seating die is grabbing the boolit while your in there.
you might be able to ball up a little aluminum foil and push a boolit in there to make a false seating stem that fits and covers where it's snagging.

[imashooter2]

I had the same thing happen with a .30/30 set. The crimp ring on the seating die was too small to allow the over sized nose of the boolit to pass. It would wedge in and the boolit would pull when I lowered the ram. I solved it by lowering the seating stem to its limit and screwing the die body out to adjust depth. Then I crimped with a factory crimp die.

[vzerone]

Yup, just like I said in other posts that most dies are made for j-word bullets and you have to work on them to seat cast correctly.

[gusbratz]

my lee seating die leaves an unsightly ring around my lead bullet where it pushes it in. like it's sharp on the edges and not touching in the middle. but I am using the lee 35 rem bullet mold that's flat on the tip.

[geargnasher]

my lee seating die leaves an unsightly ring around my lead bullet where it pushes it in. like it's sharp on the edges and not touching in the middle. but I am using the lee 35 rem bullet mold that's flat on the tip.

Flip the seating stem around the other way.

The OP has the classic "dies made for jacketed bullets" syndrome. Crimp ledge designed to roll the case mouth into the deep cannelure of jacketed bullet which also has smaller overall diameter and a slimmer nose profile than typical cast bullet designs. Cast bullet nose is bigger than crimp ledge and scrapes it, gets sized by it, or just gets stuck in there and pulls out of the case when the press handle is lowered.

Gear

[jason280]

Would I be better off swapping in a different style seating stem?

[geargnasher]

Would I be better off swapping in a different style seating stem?

What's wrong with the one you have?

Gear

[jason280]

Maybe I used the wrong word, but the portion of the seating die that contacts the bullet.

[imashooter2]

There is no way to change the die body. You could try a different brand, but are likely to get the same result. Try running the seating stem in all the way and backing out the die body to set boolit depth.

[vzerone]

Well usually seating dies aren't harden as hard as the sizer die. Take the guns out and polish out the part the bullet it contacting. If I remember the Lee there isn't very much of a bullet guide area in the seater die and should be easy to open up some. Use a that you will be loading as a gauge.

[imashooter2]

If you open the die it will no longer have the crimp feature. If that doesn't bother you, have at...

[dondiego]

It also sounds like you may not be flaring the case mouth to properly accept the lead projectile. Not necessary for jacketed bullets but required for lead boolits.

[jason280]

Thanks for the suggestions, I'll give them a try.

[dubber123]

You can clean the cup end of your seating stem, warm it up fairly hot and fill it with hot glue. It will conform to the nose of your desired boolit,and is easily reversible if you change your mind. I just did this to my .416 Rigby dies that worked fine with jacketed, but mangled my new flat nose lead boolits.

[jason280]

Ok, never did try and clean up the Lee dies, but I was able to pick up a set of RCBS dies in .35 Remington. I'll probably go ahead and clean both sets up, and see if the problem continues with the RCBS dies.

[jtaylor1960]

I have had that same problem with more than one caliber. To fix it I first adjust the seating die up a turn or so.You will not be able to crimp like this.I use the Lee factory crimp die for most calibers.You will need to run the seating stem down to compensate for the change in die height and adjust for correct seating depth.The adjustment should get you away from that tight spot.The shape of some cast bullets just won't let them work like the jacketed bullets the dies were designed to handle.

[Menner]

I had the same issue, the seating stem is made for a J-word and it would pull the 35-200 rcbs boolit out of the case when the handle on the press was raised. The hot glue solution is not as permanent as the one I used, I used a little JB Weld to conform to the nose of boolit problem solved I like the idea of the hot glue, will use that next time
Another issue I have had when using over sized boolits in lee seating dies is the guide hole is small ( say .309 for my 308 ) when I am sizing to .310 or .311 I use a dowel rod with a slit cut in the end about an inch to an inch and a half and use emery cloth to hone out the guide hole to allow the boolit to go through and get to the seating stem
Ton