Boolit seating tip....

[Bucks Owin]

Picked this one up from the free Barnes Bullet CD...(Check their site)

When seating bullets, don't run them all the way into the case in one fell swoop. Rather, seat them to about half of the travel of your press' handle stroke and then lower the case and turn it 180 degrees. THEN seat the boolit all the way home. Supposed to give better bullet alignment in the case and it makes sense to me......(Especially when your seater stem's nose profile is far different from the soft cast bullet you are attempting to seat!)

They advise the same technique for handheld tool primer seating for a consistant and square primer seat....

FWIW,

Dennis

[cherok9878]

It works Bucks, been doin'it for years

[John Boy]

Well, I'll be darned. Now I know why my groups aren't clover leafs [smilie=1:
Seriously Dennis, thanks for the tip. :drinks: It's a new one for me.

But I have been 'registering' my reloads for a long time. Accuracy does improve, especially with lead bullets.

[kodiak1]

X2 - 9878
Ken

[Blackwater]

This is kinda' similar, after a fashion, but something I've been doing for quite a few years when seating bullets, both red and lead, is "bumping" the press handle up and down gently, sort'a seating the bullet into the case in several steps. I don't usually turn the case, but from the experiments I did some 20+ years ago, the ammo loaded thusly DID have a small but consistent advantage over bullets seated in one long press of the handle.

Something I've been doing that also seems to help, is when I trim using the Lee case spinner, I'll trim, then chamfer and deburr with the Lee tool for same, and then I'll take a swatch of 0000 steel wool and polish the case mouth. Only takes a second or so, and bullets seat with noticably less pressure on the handle of my non-compound leverage press. This indicates to me that the polished case mouths don't cause friction, and that the non polished cases DO cause friction. Early on in my reloading, I'd notice tiny shards of bullet metal being scraped off the sides of some bullets I'd seated. This just didn't seem like it'd enhance accuracy, so I tried polishing the case mouths, and lo and behold, it DID help. Works for both handguns and rifle, though it's harder to tell in most handgun calibers. Still, when it only takes about 1 second per case, it's just something I do from force of habit, I guess, even with the handgun rounds where expanding the neck should eliminate the effect, but doesn't always. I think with the handgun brass, maybe the formation of the crimp, either taper or roll type, creates a different bullet pull when the case mouth is sharp or burred, vs. when it's smooth and polished??? Just the Blackwater theory, but .... works for me anyway.

[John F. Lang]

Buck,

Been doing that for years, since I was a novice competive shooter and the old shooter coaching me said do it "because I told you to". Otherwise you ain't gonna hit sh**!

I did it because I was told to and groups proved him right. Later as I got tools to check bullet runout, he was proven right again!
Often we get in a hurry to burn the powder and we produce some "banana" ammo that just dosen't shoot to our guns capability.

JL

[BOOM BOOM]

HI,
Good tip, I didn"t know this eather.
THANKS.

[Edward429451]

My dad started me doing that with boolits & primers since I was a kid helpin him reload. I thought it was a given that everyone knew this!

[AnthonyB]

An oversize bore brush mounted in a cordless drill does a great job of cleaning the inside of case necks and eliminates the need for lube inside the neck when sizing. Tony

[tom barthel]

I been doing it for years. Someone must have told me about doing this for a reason. I never really thought about. Now, It's just habit.

[robertbank]

Noticed that word "free" in your post. How do you get one? Oh heck go to their website ritght?

Take Care

Bob

[Edward429451]

Speaking of cleaning the case necks...

How important is this? I've never bothered to clean or lube the case necks and can't really say that it's been a problem. The most I do is to brush out the media dust with a soft neck brush. I also chamfer the inside of the mouth slightly to aid in seating and take particular care in seating as discussed. My understanding is that brass prep and boolit seating are probably the two most critical steps to accuracy...

But what are the pros of cleaning/lubing the necks. (Thw cons are obvious money&time!)

[felix]

Cleaning case necks (inside and out) for bottle neck cases before outside sizing is only necessary for close fitting chambers, i.e., BR chamber necks so reamed. Otherwise, gritty inside necks help pick up motor mica, which is another way to lube the insides for easy sizing when using an expander plug. All lubes can be eliminated by using an M-die for neck expansion. Loads will have to modified for some guns to maintain proper ignition, because any inside lube, mica or other, including powder grits, will decrease boolit pull when compared to a dry neck. ... felix

[Edward429451]

Tanks Felix. I'm no BR'er so, step saved! yay.