.22 hornet bullet seating issues

[Milsurp_Obsession]

Loading (or trying to) up some .22 hornet for the first time in a long time and I am having some issues seating the bullets to the proper depth.

I am using 40gr Hornady Vmax and an older set of lee dies. The hornady manual says an COL of 1.810 for these bullets. I have my seating die adjusted out just far enough to avoid crimping the round, and the depth adjustment screw is bottomed out.

Unfortunately, I cannot seat the bullet deep enough to reach the listed COL spec in the manual.

I also tried a Frankford arsenal universal seating die, but it wont even come close to seating a .22 hornet bullet without the die body bottoming out.

Any of yall out there load the 40gr VMAX's in your hornets, and if so, what seating die do you use to get them to the proper COL?

[Mk42gunner]

Lyman 310 dies worked for me the last time I loaded pointy red coated projectiles in .22 Hornet cases. Both VMax and Varmint Grenades.

Robert

[country gent]

You can add a washer between the seating stem and adjustment knob on some lee seating dies to gain a little more. a small washer may do it

[Reg]

Remember. COL is a subjective thing. You seat too deep and you can raise pressures. Seating out depends on several things. Normally you would want to go out to the point of just touching the rifleing for accuracy but if your rifle requires feeding from a magazine then that is a consideration.
If you have a single shot you would want to go for the accuracy.
If you feel your situation requires more seating depth then you may want to invest in another brand of seating die.

[Milsurp_Obsession]

You can add a washer between the seating stem and adjustment knob on some lee seating dies to gain a little more. a small washer may do it

I did give that a shot but the seating stem itself is also bottoming out in the die body. These dies pre-date any tipped bullets with high BC's. They work with SP bullets fine, but now that I picked up a 250rnd box of the VMAX, I might as well try to make them work!

[Milsurp_Obsession]

Remember. COL is a subjective thing. You seat too deep and you can raise pressures. Seating out depends on several things. Normally you would want to go out to the point of just touching the rifleing for accuracy but if your rifle requires feeding from a magazine then that is a consideration.
If you have a single shot you would want to go for the accuracy.
If you feel your situation requires more seating depth then you may want to invest in another brand of seating die.

Unfortunately, its not a single shot. I have no worries since I'm not even able to get to the published COL yet. I will start low and work my way up accordingly.

[country gent]

Where are you located at mil surp I can turn you a new one .125 longer easy enough but need the old one or a good drawing to do so. PM me with the info

[openbook]

Lee also makes a "collet 2-die set" that comes with a neck sizer, and a "dead length bullet seating die." The dead length die has no crimp shoulder on it. I don't know if buying new stuff is what you were going for, but, FWIW.

[Rapier]

I use Redding dies, with no problems.

[jmorris]

I am using 40gr Hornady Vmax and an older set of lee dies. The hornady manual says an COL of 1.810 for these bullets.

Make sure you are not looking at K Hornet data. My Hornady 4th Ed says max COL of 1.780 for (regular) 22 Hornet.

[Milsurp_Obsession]

Yeah, I am in the 10th edition.

On the main 22 Hornet page, it actually says maximum COL is 1.723

And 10 out of the 12 bullets they have listed show COL greater than the maximum COL listed on the main page.

Makes sense to me :confused:

I don't mind buying a new set of dies or a seating die. Was just wanting to see which one works for those of you using the 40gr Vmax.

313153313154

[Milsurp_Obsession]

I have a new Lee collet set with the dead length seating die. Wanted a collet die anyway. Will report back once I have a chance to try them out.