bullet alignment tool

[BJung]

I want my bullets aligned to the case when the bullet is being seated for my 7.7 Arisaka.

But I only have an RCBS and neither Hornady or Forster or RCBS could help me. Frankford arms has a universal seating die but for .308 and not .311.

I drove to the hardware store to look for things that would fit my needs. There, I found a 1" plastic spacer, a 1" tube with thick walls. The hole was just large enough for my .311 bullet to slide through. There were other tubes with small holes. Tomorrow I will drive to Harbor Freight and buy a drill bit set. At home I'll drill one hole half the way down the length of the spacer for the neck to line up. Then I will drill another larger hole about 1/4 the way down the length of the spacer for the body. On the other undrilled end, 1/2" is dedicated to lining up the bullet to the case neck and body. My cost. 57 cents.

[country gent]

Look at the straight line wilson seaters. they are used in a small arbor press. The case is a good fit the bullet channel is very close to the bullet and seating stem. With your thumb over the case end the seating stem vacuum seals. The other to look for is the lee wack a mole die set. basically the wilson straight line die.

I dont think you will get the fit and tolerences you want with just drill bits. A good lathe and boring bars yes just drills probably not. The other is using plastic for the die there will be issues with compression and expansion.

[TNsailorman]

I did not realize he wanted to make his own. james

[Delkal]

I want my bullets aligned to the case when the bullet is being seated for my 7.7 Arisaka.

But I only have an RCBS and neither Hornady or Forster or RCBS could help me. Frankford arms has a universal seating die but for .308 and not .311.

Do you have a 7.7 Jap die set? All reloading dies align the bullet before seating so I don't understand why you need a separate match grade bullet seater (especially for shooting in an Arisaka). A new Lee die is not that expensive and used dies are often on Ebay.

[country gent]

The other method was in one of the NRA how to books from the 60s/70s.
cut a piece of conduit pipe 3/4-1" a little longer than needed (1/2"-3/4") seal one end with tape well. Put a loaded dummy cartridge in the shell holder and coat with several coats of release agent. Use a good epoxy like steel bed or JB weld. mix to instructions set case into conduit with a gap on one side then pour dribble epoxy in to full and center cartridge in conduit shim between shell holder and case helps keep it straight and centered. Let cure and remove c dummy round. I recommend the dummy round as epoxies generate heat when curing and its better safe than sorry.

When cured this will seat the original bullets to the same depth or longer as is with shims under the die it will seat longer. Or with a lathe it can be drilled thru center to bullet dia or just under and a rod threaded stem made to seat bullets into the cases.

The epoxy backed up by the conduit makes a very strong die. Again you want to use this in an arbor press.

[BJung]

I bought a drill bet set today at Harbor Freight. Returning home, I took the drill bit that fit in this white plastic tube and chucked the bit into the drill spindle while clamping a vice-grip. i then took a C-Clamp vice grip to clamp the regular vice grip to the table. I replaced the drill bit with a larger bit that was the same diameter as the OD case neck. For some reason, the bit was off a tad so I tapped the C-Clamp with a hammer to line it up. Then, I drilled a hole half-way down the tube. I changed out the drill big and chucked in a bit the same diameter as the plastic tube. This angle lines up with the shoulder. I haven't tested a seated bullet for concentricity but that's for tomorrow. I couldn't download the photo but will try tomorrow

[justindad]

Seating the bullet in two steps will improve concentricity. The first step is to seat the bullet just the right amount, bring the die out & allow things to come to rest, then final seat. I usually seat with a tapered Hornady die for good initial alignment, then final seat with a flat seater for consistent OACL… but it depends on the particular bullet & cartridge.
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This idea originated from a while back when I was designing a press-fit station for bearings in a manufacturing environment. In cartridges, I like to flare the brass minimally but that can create shaved lead some times. A 2-stage seating process will eliminate that shaved lead, because [I believe] the boolit is being seated straighter.
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But I only do pistols, so take all that with a grain of salt.