this must been an old question but can you load vlds with lee dies I know that the bullet ogive is longer and heard about the die damaging the nose of the bullet, I don't want to purchase a new die just for vld since im just going to load test using vld, accubonds, and tsx bullets. I have lee pacesetter dies. some say its ok and other say you need a special die if that's the case I would hate to exclude the vld from the test. thanks
- Thread starter colscar
- Start date
Does the seating stem in the die have a pretty deep hole in it? If so it will likely allow the VLD nose to slip in without damage and use the ogive for seating.
I've loaded them in Lee dies and had zero problems. 30, 6.5 and 7mm cals.
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thanks man
I don't use Lee, but I never have had to use enough pressure to seat any bullet (let alone VLD's) that can damage the tip. I do use VLD's for most of my shooting. Quantifying, I don't shoot much over 400 yds. as I hunt only in eastern Ne. Still, I haven't ever seen any deformation of the tips. Good shooting.
I don't think tip deforming is the only problem to watch out for. With some seating stems the VLD bullet will be seated via the tip or part way between the tip and the ogive. This poses a problem because the VLD's are very sensitive to changes in the distance from the ogive to the lands. Its easy enough to check. Take the seating stem out of your die and put it on top of the VLD bullet in question. If it doesn't seat on the ogive you will likely have problems. I do understand that you can drill out the bottom of the seating stem a bit to allow clearance but I have not tried it. I use Redding dies and have the VLD seating stem that they sell.
I just checked my Lee dead length bullet seating die (that I do not use because I only bought the set for the collet die) and it absolutely seats off the tip of the Berger 7mm 168 VLD. Since replacement parts for lee dies are pretty cheap I would bust out a drill bit and go to town on it if it was me. You may also be able to get lee to send you a custom seating stem for a few bucks.
At the end of the day it really just depends on what level of accuracy you are trying to achieve. I have seated VLD's with regular stems in the past and I found large differences in bullet jump and the bullet run out was much higher than using a stem that seats off the ogive. It is also my opinion that if you aren't measuring bullet jump or even care about such things you are probably going to be better off with a different bullet.
I just checked my Lee dead length bullet seating die (that I do not use because I only bought the set for the collet die) and it absolutely seats off the tip of the Berger 7mm 168 VLD. Since replacement parts for lee dies are pretty cheap I would bust out a drill bit and go to town on it if it was me. You may also be able to get lee to send you a custom seating stem for a few bucks.
At the end of the day it really just depends on what level of accuracy you are trying to achieve. I have seated VLD's with regular stems in the past and I found large differences in bullet jump and the bullet run out was much higher than using a stem that seats off the ogive. It is also my opinion that if you aren't measuring bullet jump or even care about such things you are probably going to be better off with a different bullet.
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i was reading that the hybrids are more like regular bullets but the vld do have a longer ogive. how are those hybrids working for ya rhyno... do you have a part number for them
They are still longer, when I get home I'll grab some pics compared to SMK, amaxs, and 178 bthp for comparison. They still have a long Secant Ogive for a nose, but near where the Ogive would engaged the rifling it's changes to a tangent ogive the thought was to create a bullet with the benefits of the Secant ogive but still tolerable to jump.
And they are winners haha. When I shot them they were great, I didn't get them soon enough to use for hunting, then I ended up rebarreling my rifle to 260. But during load development with mag lengthen seating in my factory Remington tube, not a group was over 1 moa, and most were able to be covered by a nickel or less.
I'm hoping they come out with the hybrid hunters in 6.5 caliber soon.
The ones in 308 I used were the 168 classic hunter part number 30570. I jus loaded the rest for a buddy of mine to hunt with out of his 308 DPMS, he also seems to like them.