Uncle R.
07-18-2008, 01:33 PM
I have a set of Lee dies in .375 Winchester. It is pretty near impossible to seat a bullet straight in the case. I've been using the 220 gr. Hornady and no matter how careful I am or what technique I use the bullet will be visibly crooked. No need for my RCBS case gauge to check runout - I can SEE the bulge on the brass at the bottom of the seated bullet varies as it goes around the cae.
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Accuracy to date has been just what you'd expect from ammo with visibly crooked bullets - minute of paper plate with the loads I've tried so far.
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I suspect that the sizing die is a little extreme - and I suspect that there's a lot of clearance in the seater that allows the bullet to tip. I had this problem years ago with a set of Lyman dies in .44-40 - they would size the cases WAY down to a very noticeable bottleneck configuration and then seating the bullet left the case neck bulged visibly larger than the mid section. It made some funny-looking "hourglass" ammo, the bullets were almost always crooked as well, and they shot like it too. That experience soured me on Lyman dies for a long time.
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Cheez! You'd think that seating a relatively long bullet into an almost straight case would be pretty easy to design dies for! So - what's going on with my .375 dies? Is this a "Lee" problem or am I doing something wrong?
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Uncle R.
<
Accuracy to date has been just what you'd expect from ammo with visibly crooked bullets - minute of paper plate with the loads I've tried so far.
<
I suspect that the sizing die is a little extreme - and I suspect that there's a lot of clearance in the seater that allows the bullet to tip. I had this problem years ago with a set of Lyman dies in .44-40 - they would size the cases WAY down to a very noticeable bottleneck configuration and then seating the bullet left the case neck bulged visibly larger than the mid section. It made some funny-looking "hourglass" ammo, the bullets were almost always crooked as well, and they shot like it too. That experience soured me on Lyman dies for a long time.
<
Cheez! You'd think that seating a relatively long bullet into an almost straight case would be pretty easy to design dies for! So - what's going on with my .375 dies? Is this a "Lee" problem or am I doing something wrong?
<
Uncle R.