Are you tired ?

[Ben]

Are you tired of the noses of your cast bullets being marred and distorted by the seating stems inside your seating die ?

I was using Lee 38 Special dies today to seat some SWC bullets in 38 Spec. cases.

The seating stem, as designed by Lee, is a half hearted attempt to shape the end of the seating stem so that it will seat SWC, RN, and W/C s . In reality , it doesn't do a perfect job on any of them. Mine was a shallow concave depression in the end of the stem.

About 98% of my reloads in 38 Special and 357 Mag. use a bullet with a flat meplat on the end. I decided today to modify my seating stem.

I put the seating stem in a padded vise , used a flat file and flattened the end of the seating stem ( keeping it square ) , then I polished it.

Seats all my cast bullets now with zero distortion.

WORKS GREAT !

Ben

Here is the flat punch after it has been flattened ( remember, if for any reason you want to return to the original factory version, Lee will send you one for a couple of dollars ) :

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p545/Ben35049/001_zps49d39ad2.jpg (http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Ben35049/media/001_zps49d39ad2.jpg.html)

Now I get loaded rounds without distorted and deformed noses.

http://i1155.photobucket.com/albums/p545/Ben35049/003_zpsaed52c3d.jpg (http://s1155.photobucket.com/user/Ben35049/media/003_zpsaed52c3d.jpg.html)

[HangFireW8]

Good work!

My 38 dies come with a flat head seater as well as round nose. On some brands you can just flip it over.

[Ben]

The Lee pistol won't allow the " flip ", with Lee Rifle, yes.

Ben

[bedbugbilly]

I use Lee dies for loading my 38s - I load my cast lead WC, SWC & RN and have never had a problem with the seating stem deforming any of them so I guess I'm lucky. The seating stems are pretty inexpensive for the Lee die - some folks just fill the concave with JB weld or similar for seating flat nose. The solution of filing the face would solve the problem for seating FN boolits but how is it working on seating RN? It's kind of too bad that Lee doesn't include different seating stems with their die sets. Looks like you made a good alteration to solve the problem!

[HATCH]

I use JBweld to custom fit the punch to the nose.
I don't get any marks now

[Ben]

If you're using a flat meplat bullet nose like me, it is just common sense that a flat end seating stem is your best bet.

Ben

[Garyshome]

I like the JB weld Idea!