Thread: Seating stem

Looking for some advice on what next in regard to seating 75g ELDM's. The best OAL I can get is .079 off the lands due to my Lee seating die being maxed out for length and also the tip of the projectile bottoming out in the stem. I did seat some longer that shot better but wasnt ideal as was very fiddly.
Is drilling out the inside of the stem so the projectile will seat on the ogive an option?? Would fix the bottoming out and give me some more length.

When I started using VLD projectiles I did some research on seating stems, I read about a few people who had drilled their seating stems out. Others had used the projectile they wanted to seat and lapping compound. Hornady sells an actual seating stem to suit the ELD-X and ELD-M projectiles that suit their dies, in 6.5 creedmoor anyway. Something that might be worth noting is some people reported that the seating stems were case hardened which made drilling them more of a challenge. Lee was the only manufacturer who didn't offer a VLD seating stem and IIRC you needed to send them the projectile to have something made by them, never verified this myself.

I've just started experimenting with that exact bullet in my 223. I'm in the fortunate position where a friend lent me a Hornady die with the specific Eld-M seating stem included, and another gave me the use of a Forster seating die.

First I tried the Hornady die as I assumed the specific seating stem would make consistent seating easy and hassle free. I was wrong. Next batch of loads I tried the Forster seating die - works like a dream! Did the 75g Eld-Ms and a batch of 53g V-Max (also very pointy). Definitely the way to go. Beautifully made and finished. And relatively expensive like many excellent products.

I'll be buying my own or talking my friend out of the one I have use of currently ��

I had the seating stem in my 270win lee die machined by gunworks to match the eldx projectiles I use, works a charm ad was cheap as to about $20 from memory all they needed was my stem and a sample projectile.
Just a thought...

Cheers guys

I grew impatient so drilled it
Probably should have made a trip to town

Ended up getting a Hornady seating die and eldm stem from Workshop Innovation. Loaded 3 up this morning and shot a group but ended up seating them deeper than I wanted as I mucked up the first one.
Was meant to be a 3 shot group but loaded a 4th after pulling the 3rd shot. Will probably still tinker around with it though....

Nice shooting, that 1st shoot seems a fair bit faster than the rest, certainly worth loading a few more and checking consistency.

@dannyb I was hoping that was the cold barrel shot?

Originally Posted by charliehorse

@dannyb I was hoping that was the cold barrel shot?

Cant say I've experienced that much gain in velocity from a cold barrel or any appreciable difference in velocity from 1st to 3 shot when shooting groups.
Usually shoot 1 fouler if from a cold clean barrel then 3 to zero and the make adjustments and 3 to confirm job done