Hornady Bullet Feeder Die on RCBS Pro 2000 Press

[prickett]

I installed the Hornady Bullet Feeder die on my RCBS Pro 2000 press. It works reasonably well, but the bullet doesn't seem to be inserted very deep into the case. Every so often, the bullet leans - not having been placed deep enough into the case. I've adjusted the die so it touches the shell plate, so I can't adjust it to press the bullet further into the case (I believe depth of the die alters the "seating" depth).

Does anyone think that grinding off the bottom of the die by 1/8" to allow deeper "seating" would work? (I quoted seating, because the die isn't really seating the bullet, just placing it on the case)

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

You need to post what cartridge you're loading for. That said, get yourself a Lyman M-die type expander insert for your powder measure and you'll get better results. Also, polish interior of Hornady bullet feeder die to improve it's feeding a bit aka polishing a bit with fine sandpaper. Do a net search for pictures on how to do this. You can also tune the die to feed lead boolits and that information is out there as well.

[prickett]

This is for the Lee 200 gr. RFN boolit.

I've seen the instructions on polishing and all, but it hasn't seemed necessary. It feeds my boolits (coated with HI-TEK) consistently, just doesn't seem to place the bullet deep enough - though that might be as deep as they normally go. The M-die also sounds like a good suggestion. Here is a picture of how deep it gets placed in the case:

134102

[DaveInFloweryBranchGA]

The die doesn't seat the bullet. It can't, as it wasn't designed as a seater. Hence the need to adapt your case mouth with a Lyman M-die type expansion. Notice I didn't say Lyman. NOE sells inserts for Lee case activated powder measures that will expand that perfectly. You can also find folks on this forum to make a custom M-die type insert for a Dillon, Hornady or RCBS case activated powder drop setups. They're not horribly expensive and worth it.

That said, if you're boolits are seating straight at the seating station, I wouldn't worry about it. I would only fix it if there's a problem with cockeyed boolits.