Bullet Seating

[kbstenberg]

I know I'm doing something wrong in seating my bullets. But for the life of me i cant figure out what.
First some # on my 30/30. The bore measures .3085. The fired cases in the neck measure .330. I am working with the Lee 30cal 150gr measuring .309 after Lubing.
I am trying to seat the bullets without a crimp.
I have the seating die adjusted to the depth i need. But every time i am seating on the last part of the press arm movement instead of leaving the neck flat it will ever so slightly bulge the case neck just in back of the end of the case neck. I can feel the bulge being made in the handle.
I can seat the bullet an just feel before the neck is bulged. But if i stop at that point i still have some of the flair in the case mouth (about .02/.03 above chamber neck dia.). If i put the case back in an put the teeniest but of pressure on the presses arm the neck will bulge
I am not inserting the case into the die to the point where it would normally put a crimp on the case.
PLEASE HELP!!! ANYONE!!!
Kevin

[Larry Gibson]

I am not inserting the case into the die to the point where it would normally put a crimp on the case.

Are you sure? If you are FL sizing the cases they are stretching and are longer than when you set the seating die. Turn the die 3/4 of a turn out and see if it happens.

Most of us have learned, with the30-30 in particular, to seat cast bullets and then crimp on a seperate operation. The seating die can easily be adjusted for this; after seating the bullets back off the seating stem and turn the die in until a proper crimp is achieved. A seperate LFC die is also very handy o have.

Larry Gibson

[Doc Highwall]

I agree with Larry, seat in one operation and crimp in another.

[lead Foot]

+2 with Larry & Doc. might pay to trim your case's to. You are not alone ~ it happened to me to the other day.
Lead foot;

[jsizemore]

Kevin, I would back the body of my seating die out a turn or two. It could be that with a larger diameter boolit then a jacketed bullet you are actually crimping when you don't intend to.

If this isn't the problem then I would try a 308 seater die. According to the SAAMI spec the 308 has a thicker neck and the case is shorter then a 30-30.

If the 308 seater doesn't do it then the long neck of the 30-30 could be the problem. Neck could need to be expanded more.

[nicholst55]

Kevin, I would back the body of my seating die out a turn or two. It could be that with a larger diameter boolit then a jacketed bullet you are actually crimping when you don't intend to.

If this isn't the problem then I would try a 308 seater die. According to the SAAMI spec the 308 has a thicker neck and the case is shorter then a 30-30.

If the 308 seater doesn't do it then the long neck of the 30-30 could be the problem. Neck could need to be expanded more.

+1; unscrew your seating die a turn or two and see what happens.

[kbstenberg]

Thanks for your suggestions to fix my prob. on seating my bullets. I did turn out my seating die a full turn, then slowly turned it back in to where it took most of the flair out of the neck. Which is where i had started from. An any more turning in of the seater started to bulge the necks.
I then turned to jsizemore's tip to use a 308 seater to straiten out the rest of the flair. Well my 308 seater had a neck that was larger than what i needed. So i turned to the 308 sizer die. Well it was exactly the write size to take all the remaining flair out of my casses. So i have to add 1 additional step but hopefulley i have a fix to my prob.If i wasn't so cheap id get a new 30/30 die.
This week i will load some an see how everything irons out. Thank you all
Kevin