Your seating depth deviation?

[Sendit6.5]

I'm curious how much deviation you get with your seating dies? Not what you *want* to get but what but what deviation you're actually getting? Please list your deviation, the die and the bullet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[digrazir]

I use nothing but Wilson Seating dies with an arbor press. The only variation is with the ogive on the bullet, a thousand or two. I don't worry about a variation in oal as long as it feeds from the magazine. Ray

 

[spife7980]

I use nothing but Wilson Seating dies with an arbor press. The only variation is with the ogive on the bullet, a thousand or two. I don't worry about a variation in oal as long as it feeds from the magazine. Ray

Agreed. I have a redding micrometer for my 223 and on my coax last night the nosler rdf blems I loaded were ~80% the same with the other 20% being a max of .001 higher or lower using the hornady comparator. Most that werent dead on werent a whole .001 off though, my hornady calipers have a 4th digit that only goes in half increments, aka they are not 4 digits precise but it is enough to let me know that its just a hair off, lets say 3.5 digit accurate. The OALs were all the same though.

That +/-.001 is close enough for me as its as close as I can define my lands and is narrower than my seating depth test ranges. .001 isnt much of an issue when Im shooting for groups with .005-.010 differences between the tests.

 

[canezach]

I use Redding Type S dies and my seating die has the micrometer. From Berger to Hornady to Barnes to Nosler, my largest deviation is the same, for the most part, as what Spife said. I'll get 80% to 90% that are all the same, then the 10% to 20% that are off by 0.001". The only exception was a bad lot of Barnes 6.5mm 140 Match Burners that were wildly inconsistent. I measured a box and had bullet base to ogive discrepancies as much as 0.008", so it played hell with the seating depths as you'd expect

 

[Fursniper]

Same experience as Canezach & Spife using the Redding competition type S seating die with bergers & nosler bullets. If measuring from the ogive, then a 1-2 thousandth variation on a few of them is about it.

 

[Sendit6.5]

Thanks guys. Been struggling with a Redding Competition seater for my Creedmoor. I'm getting as much as .004 deviation. I normally set my other Redding Comp seaters with a light cam-over. This time I read the instructions and left a gap between the shell holder and the bottom of the die. Now I'm having all this deviation so I called Redding. The "tech" says, " that's normal. I always get .005-.005 deviation in seating depth. If you use cam-over on the dies you'll ruin them." I'm thinking- WTF?? This occurred with meticulously sorted and prepped new Lapua brass and Nosler BTs. Yeah, they're not the HVLDs I normally load but that much deviation seemed excessive.

I'm going back to setting up with some cam-over. Screw Redding support. Great products but shabby tech support.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[AIAW]

Also consider (depending what type/length bullet that you are seating) that they could be seating off of the meplat versus ogive. VLD's have this problem as the ogive is so far rearward.

Redding does sell VLD seater cups to resolve this if it is truly "the issue". Just something to consider if your die adjustment doesn't work out.

I do not personally cam on a seater die.

 

[Fursniper]

AIAW brings up a good point here that I for got about. I use vld seating stems on my dies. I don't think you should need to cam over on a seating die, that just seems wrong to me.

 

[gigamortis]

There's so many variables we reloaders have to deal with. We even know that bullets can vary on base to ogive somewhat even in the same manufacturing lot. Any more, I just choose bullets with a tangential or hybrid ogive where minor seating deviations don't really show up as increased group sizes. This way, I get to spend more time shooting without constantly sweating minor details at the loading bench.

If I was to try some VLD secant ogive bullets, i would start at .040" off the lands and go shorter from there. Berger has an article on their site that says if VLDs refuse to shoot well at the lands in your rifle, the back up in .040" increments until you find the sweet spot. As a barrel throat errodes, I surely don't want to have to keep tweaking my overall length just to maintain a tight group from a finicky load developed right at the lands. If I have a load that doesn't mind jumping, then surely +/- .005" on seating depth isn't going to ruin a good group.

 

[elfster1234]

I'm curious how much deviation you get with your seating dies? Not what you *want* to get but what but what deviation you're actually getting? Please list your deviation, the die and the bullet.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

usually when i see people that are having seating depth deviation, it #1 because they just purchased a new set of dies and they didn't strip the die down to its bones and clean the die parts with brake cleaner and then some dry lube... #2 is making sure the stem is always clean and lubed with dry lube.... why i clean my seater die after each use

 

[Sendit6.5]

Changed back over to a very slight cam-over and I'm back to .001 deviation at most. That was the issue.

Also consider (depending what type/length bullet that you are seating) that they could be seating off of the meplat versus ogive. VLD's have this problem as the ogive is so far rearward.

Redding does sell VLD seater cups to resolve this if it is truly "the issue". Just something to consider if your die adjustment doesn't work out.

I do not personally cam on a seater die.

I haven't had any trouble with the VLDs - I was having the issue with Nosler BT's - but thanks for letting me know about that stem. I may get one to see if I get any better results with it when I'm seating VLDs.

usually when i see people that are having seating depth deviation, it #1 because they just purchased a new set of dies and they didn't strip the die down to its bones and clean the die parts with brake cleaner and then some dry lube... #2 is making sure the stem is always clean and lubed with dry lube.... why i clean my seater die after each use

I did a really thorough cleaning job but I did not think to dry lube the stem. I'll give that a try. Thanks elfster!




Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Rthur]

Good to hear you found a fix.
Also, inconsistent neck tension can cause this.
Usually a result of brass needing annealed.

R