Gents,

Your assistance or thoughts on the below issue, please. I'm starting to work up loads for the M94 30-30 I recently acquired and refurbished, and when I went to seat bullets in the test loads last night, I encountered the below issue. Dies are Hornady Custom Grade, RCBS Reloader Special 5 press, RCBS shell holder. Cases are new Federal Premium, and I'm seating 170gr. Speer FN bullets. I had no issues resizing the brass. It happened like this:

1. Remove bullet seating stem entirely from die.
2. Screw seating die into press part way.
3. Insert sized case into shell holder, ram up all the way.
4. Screw seating die down until top of case hits crimp shoulder, then back off 1 full turn and tighten lock ring.
5. Partially insert seating stem.
6. Place Speer 170gr. FN bullet in case, ram up all the way.
7. No matter how far down I screw the seating stem, I cannot get the bullet to seat!
8. It ends up hitting the crimp groove on the die, which messes everything up.

It's almost like the body of the seating die is too long and/or the seating stem is too short. I double-checked everything and even came back this morning to get a fresh look at it but experienced the same results. No matter how far down the stem goes, it never makes contact with the bullet - at all. It's very strange, and I've never encountered this with other Hornady dies or any dies, for that matter. Anyone else experienced this and can offer suggestions?

quote:

8. It ends up hitting the crimp groove on the die, which messes everything up.

I understand everything except #8. Is the "it" in this sentence the bullet, or is "it" the seating stem?

If it is the seating stem, then it is likely that someone at the factory simply screwed the wrong seating stem into the die. Have you checked to see how the nose of a .30 caliber bullet fits into the stem? Maybe it is a seating stem for a larger diameter bullet and therefore fails to bear on the bullet's ogive.

Sorry about that. No, the "it" in that step refers to the case mouth. It's like the seating stem pushes down on the bullet guide, pushing it into the case mouth and crimping the case.

Here's a picture:

I think I figured it out! The actual seating stem is totally missing from the dies! I compared the 30-30 die to another, and the actual cylinder that presses down on the bullet is nowhere to be found. These were brand new, shrink-wrapped dies from Hornady, so it would seem one slipped through the QC without all the parts. Looks like I'll be calling them in the morning for a part. I would have never thought to look inside the die to see if all the parts are there, but that goes to show you everyone goofs up once in a while.