Lee 230 RN top band scraped while seating

[ghh3rd]

I cast some 230 gr RN from my new Lee mold, and added a couple of coats of Hi-Tek... it's rough - I shook them too long, but its on there good and passed the smash test.

I set the expander die and started seating them and noticed a little bit of sliver at the top of the case. When I pulled them most of the coating is stripped off and the lead is actually scraped.

I belled the cases more and more with the same result on each seated bullet that I pulled. In fact I belled the some cases so much that the mouth of the case was sharpened as it rubbed against the sides of the seating die -- but the same problem with the top band persists.

I am perplexed. I hope someone can pinpoint what I'm doing wrong and point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

Randy

[Bzcraig]

Had a similar problem that turned out to be an adjustment issue on the die.

[Dusty Bannister]

What is the finished diameter?

[tazman]

The die is crimping before the boolit is finished seating. This is why I seat and crimp in separate steps.

[ghh3rd]

The finished diameter is .452


The die is crimping before the boolit is finished seating.
I backed the die out 3 turns before I started but haven't checked it since... that will be the next thing I do.

Thanks

[mnewcomb59]

Chamfer your brass. I run powder coated bullets and I have to chamfer whether I seat and crimp separately or not.

If I don't chamfer, and I DO seat and crimp in separate steps, I still get occasional scraping. Many lots of brass nowadays look they're cut with a pipe cutter and have a huge burr on the inside of the case mouths.

Once chamfered I can seat and crimp in the same step.

[nvbirdman]

Tazman gave you the answer.

[ghh3rd]

I backed the die out to 4 turns but still having the problem. I was hoping that was it, although I felt the die was already far enough back.

[KVO]

Entry diameter to seating die may be too small, closing flare just enough to scrape while the boolit is aligning. No amount of flare or chamfer would fix this. May need to open up the seating die ID. l've experienced this twice, Lee 380 ACP and RCBS 38/357. Try flaring a case, mic OD of flare, run empty case through seater and mic again. See if a boolit will still fit in the case mouth.

[Larry Gibson]

What seating die are you using?

Larry Gibson

[ghh3rd]

I am using a Lee die set.

Now that you mention it, while I am seating the boolit on these I often hear sort of a metallic crunch/scrape. I thought it was the press and oiled up everything, but it persists. You are right, that may be the brass scraping the die - I will check that.

Although the boolits have this issue I went ahead and loaded up 50 of them over 4.8gr of W231 and put them downrange in my Walther PPQ. I had a couple of streaks in the barrel but nothing serious, and they were very accurate.

I'll try what KVO suggested. If I need to open the seating die a bit what's the best way to do that?

[KVO]

Depends on how much metal you need to remove and tools available. Lathe is the best way, save for that if you only have a few thousandths you could use a split dowel and emory cloth. Spin, clean, measure, repeat. Flared case is your gauge. The Lee .380 seater that was giving me fits seems to have missed a final machining operation as it would completely remove any flare from the case mouth within the first .020" of the case entering. Surprisingly, that one was hardened and required annealing prior to work. I'm embarrassed to admit it, but despite having lathe access at work at that time, I did the job at home with a hand drill and the next size HSS drill bit over case diameter. It worked but I'd use better judgement in the future. That being said, consider a new seater say from Hornady, RCBS, etc. is only about $25.

[Love Life]

Fixes:
1. Chamfer brass
2. Open up die
3. New die with hopefully larger inside diameter.

Here are my thoughts on it. I'd seat some sized, but uncoated lead bullets and pull them. They are probably being scraped too. .452 is .452.

[mdi]

If you are not seating and crimping in the same step and from your description (huge flare, but still scraps coating off) I would say the coating isn't adhering to the bullet enough to withstand the pressure from the case ID. Not necessarily scraping but rubbing the coating off. Perhaps the sound you're hearing is the case mouth scraping the ID of the seating die...