Thread: Seating die damaging projectiles

Get em perfect and the deer will fall

Get a Lyman M die to flare your case mouth.Loading 95gr and 90gr Nosler BT's. No problem. Then Hornady 95gr SST. Collapsed the the neck and shoulder. M die to rescue. All brass had been annealed but those Hornady were so hard to seat with out some help.

Just buy the A-max seating stem. cost about $20

Typical, can find amax/VLD/OEM seating collets for 30cal, 6.5cal, 22cal, 7mmcal but nothing for 270

Have also discovered I'm only getting this problem using new winchester brass, the Norma is fine, think I need to do a bit more prep to the Winchester stuff

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Today I decided I might load up some development rounds using 150gr LRABs, im loading them for a 270wsm and im having trouble seating them as the collet is damaging the projectiles, its kind of pushing down onto them and getting stuck, a few of them it even pulled the projectile back out of the case when trying to release. These are compressed loads, is it just that the bit extra effort required to compress is causing the collet to damage them or should I be looking at a different die or other solution? Have no problems with VLDs. Dies are hornady new dimension.

Hope that makes sense and thanks for any advice

Caught between a rock and a hard place, ie you cannot compress a solid. Compressing is quite dodgy to say the least in terms of pressure spikes IMHO, rather you than me. You could try a different stem as I have different ones for a secant ogive (Hornady a-max) v a tangent one (Lee) die for HBCs/Sierras and Nosslers I load. I'd suggest a denser powder to reduce or remove compression if that is an option? As an example Ive switched to BM2 from 2208 in my AR as my AR likes loads at or just slightly above max and its starting to compress 2208 at that point. Having damaged / stretched a no4 action due to a faulty digital powder scale I dont intend to do that twice.

I had thought about trying a load using W760 as it's a ball powder you can get more in the case for less room taken but found with my 270win I got pressure much earlier with it and couldn't get good speeds, also it was really inaccurate with every load I tried. I might do some research into powder choice as with the 2225 I am getting very good speed (3180 with 150s) and no pressure but very compressed loads

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

Typical, can find amax/VLD/OEM seating collets for 30cal, 6.5cal, 22cal, 7mmcal but nothing for 270

Try the 7mmm one

Originally Posted by Ryan_Songhurst

I had thought about trying a load using W760 as it's a ball powder you can get more in the case for less room taken but found with my 270win I got pressure much earlier with it and couldn't get good speeds, also it was really inaccurate with every load I tried. I might do some research into powder choice as with the 2225 I am getting very good speed (3180 with 150s) and no pressure but very compressed loads

Drop a few grains and try 2217.

All the info you need is in post # 4

Originally Posted by 7mmsaum

Drop a few grains and try 2217.

All the info you need is in post # 4

Yes. I quoted in a post on 270wsm somewhere that I use 2214. I actually meant 2217. Works well. Not compressed.

Redding dies.
And if they don't work (they fixed this problem for me), sell the remaining LRAB's to me. ;-)

Ref: Ryan's concern about recycling projs-

Symmetric deformation to the front end of projectiles should make almost no difference.
Messing with the back end, especially if it's asymmetric, will def not help accuracy.

Happens on my 9.3 as well, not as bad but still looks ugly.
Hornady dies, hornady bullets but I think too much powder, I've just bought the long drop thingy.
If that doesn't work I'll go from 2209 to 2208,

Originally Posted by Gibo

Try the 7mmm one

What he said!

Originally Posted by 300_BLK

What he said!

If you chose this route be careful as Hornady dies use two different diameter seating stems, old and new dies have different stem diameters.

And be aware that any ammo you make needs to be concentric, hence why my reply in post #4 recommended bedding the seating stem ogive to the projectile.

Then just purchase another standard seating stem for when other projectiles are used.