LE Wilson seating dies

[maltbuck]

Evening folks,

In the never ending task of trying to improve my reloading gear and techniques, I have purchased a Wilson bullet seater die with micrometer for my 7mm-08.

 

My usual process is to resize the brass using a Redding Type S Bushing style FL sizing die, having measured the OD of The neck of a few loaded rounds and selected a bushing to give a .001 neck tension. In the process of loading a few rounds last night I noted that the seater stem is marking the heads with a very neat round circle where it comes into contact with the head.

 

The load of H4350 is a compressed load, and I am aware of the "perceived force" required on the press handle to seat the bullet, but I assume this is the knock on affect of a short handle on my arbor press and hence you are more aware of neck tension issues compared to using a bench mounted press.

 

When I use my Forster bullet seater in the Forster press, needless to say there appears to be little "resistance" to seating, but also there are no markings on the bullet head.

 

So my questions are as follows:-

1) Are Wilson stems more suited to Target type bullets, rather than bullets such as the Nosler Accubond that have tangent type ogive.

 

2) Does this ring affect occur because the jacket thickness on a hunting type bullet thinner than a target type bullet?

 

3) Does this ring affect accuracy, or bullet function?

 

4) what am I doing wrong??

 

Many thanks, from a slightly puzzled,

 

MB

[Ronin]

Arbour presses require more force to attain the same leverage as a standard press - hence the greater percieved effort.

 

The ring - any seater, if it is not a similar shape to the bullet to be seated will produce this ring.

 

An easy fix is to make a inert round and strip out the seated stem - place in lathe chuck and using lapping compound (protecting the lathe bed from the abrasive compound) lap the seater to the bullet shape.

 

You can do this with a electric drill if you havent access to a lathe.

 

 

Youre doing nothing wrong - Wilson sell different shaped seaters for Secant / Tangent formed bullets, but its just as easy to lap the stem to remove the "ring"

[jcampbellsmith]

A drop tube for the powder might help too if you are not already using one? Regards JCS

[gbal]

As Ronin-it's the fit of bullet to seater die-maybe exacerbated by a bit more effort (compressed load?).

There is very unlikely to be any perceivable effect on hunting range accuracy from a symmetrical thin ring-perhaps more softness of gilding than thickness-think of the gouges the rifling makes! Shoot'n'see.

Easy to avoid of course,with appropriate shaped stem,more 'aesthetics',though ( in extremes,it might just affect bullet function,but unlikely with the typical very light marking ring-cf cannelures to hold bullets under recoil.)

gbal

[maltbuck]

Many thanks to the three of you for your replies.

It is reassuring to know that I am not too wide of the mark with my suspicions, and simply now have to consider either looking at the seater stem, or switching to a faster powder such as Vit N150 to possibly reduce the resistance to seating caused by a compressed load.

 

Kind regards,

 

MB

[Vermincinerator]

Take jcambells advive and slowly trickle your charge down a drop tube you will be amazed by the extra space you create, also brush the inside of the neck with imperial dry powder lube this will help the bullets slide in with less resistance

 

Ian.

[andybrock]

A drop tube or after you've put powder in your case touch the side of the case with an electric vibrating tooth brush, it vibrates the powder down nicely.