Does anyone other than Lee make replacement seater stems for Lee dies?

[C. Latch]

My .45 ACP dies have a seating stem that is cupped, more or less to match a RN bullet, and as such the stem rounds off the nose of my hollowpoints when I seat them. It's pretty significant; the HP closes up by over 50% depending on how hard the bullets seat. These are sized to .452 FWIW.

Lee says they'll make custom seater stem lugs for very little money, but their lead time is stated at 6-8 weeks.

Does anyone make a suitable stem that I can get my hands on faster?

[troyboy]

Clean and degrease seater, wax bullet, apply epoxy to seater, impress the bullet into epoxy and let dry

[DougGuy]

That's one way, I did one with superglue but it eventually fell off. You could get a replacement seater plug for about $2 from Lee and modify the end of it so it goes inside the hollowpoint and presses in the bottom of it to seat the boolit.

[Mike Kerr]

I see a couple of other folks have temporary solutions as well.

[blikseme300]

Make friends with somebody who owns or has access to a lathe and ask them to make you one. I have made a number of parts for my reloading equipment using a mini lathe and it is probably one of my best tool investments.

[DougGuy]

Actually, you could put a post up in the WTB section, asking for someone to make you a custom seater stem. WTB: Need Seater Stem Made For LEE .45 ACP die.

[C. Latch]

Actually, you could put a post up in the WTB section, asking for someone to make you a custom seater stem. WTB: Need Seater Stem Made For LEE .45 ACP die.

Not having access to a lathe, and knowing that an epoxy plug will eventually come loose, that's not a bad idea.

:grin:

Being cheap, I'll probably start with the epoxy plug.

[dragon813gt]

Why would the epoxy plug come loose? The top punches I have done this to are still working flawlessly w/ the epoxy intact after tens of thousands of rounds. I use the quick drying JB Weld formula.

[C. Latch]

Why would the epoxy plug come loose? The top punches I have done this to are still working flawlessly w/ the epoxy intact after tens of thousands of rounds. I use the quick drying JB Weld formula.

Perfectly applied epoxy fixes can last a long time, but the even best won't last forever and the worst won't last long at all. If you got 10k+ cycles out of an epoxy fix, you're doing very well IME.

I still may try it, though. :)

[pergoman]

I had the same issue with certain bullets and asked the RCBS guys while at the NRA convention. They said custom seaters were not a problem. Send them a check and a few of the tips and they would make a perfect stem for their dies. I have since switched to using mostly Dillon dies these days. The 2 dies for seating and crimping makes sense with soft tips.

[orbitalair]

Dunno if this will work for 45, but I did this with the 30-06 dies.

I found a .380 case, it fits inside the aluminum cap just right, then I used the epoxy trick to mold it to my flat point lead bullet.
I added a small spacer from my junk box, and it works.

You might also simply trying turning the bullet seater around, its probably flat on the other end.

Honestly tho, I ordered a custom bullet sizer die, had it in 2 weeks. This was about 3 months ago.
I think they say 6-8weeks just to be generous to themselves.

[anotherred]

Make an epoxy one to hold you over for 6-8 weeks while lee is custom cutting a proper one. You'll have to find someone rather generous to cut one for the price lee does it for.

[DLCTEX]

PM Buckshot. I'll bet he can make one. My epoxy modified nose punches have sized thousands of boolits. If it did break it can be redone easily.

[C. Latch]

Well, the other day a member here, Wizwheel

(http://castboolits.gunloads.com/member.php?23942-Wizwheel)

.....saw this thread, got inspired to make his own seating plug to solve the same problem, and sent me one to try out. Its nose is as flat as a board, which means that it perfectly matches my bullets, and I just gave it a test-drive and it worked perfectly.

Thanks to all for the help and ideas, and thanks to Wizwheel for the new seater plug!

[C. Latch]

...and the ammo I put together last night using the new seater plug fed through both 1911s today. :D

Thanks again, Wizwheel.

[FergusonTO35]

I've been frustrated with 9mm boolits getting grabbed by the seater stem so I cleaned it really good and filled it up with epoxy. I use nothing but flat point slugs so I figure it should work well.

[dudel]

I've been known to use a wad of paper and boolit lube to custom form a seater plug. Stays put; but can be picked out if needed.

Can't take credit for the idea, I glommed on to it from an old Dean Grennell book on reloading.