I am new to this. After some reading and researching I purchased a lee aniversery reload kit. It has a single stage press.I also got a set of carbide rcbs dies for 9mm. I noticed that some of my bullets are not going on straight when I seat them, I see some wobble if I was to roll them on a table. I wonder if its something to do with my flare, as I dont really know how much of one to put one the case. Any suggestions?

One thing you can try is to seat the bullet a little at a time, while backing out the load and rotating the brass about 1/4 turn. Each time you run the cam up to the die, you seat the bullet just enough to where you feel the resistance. Back it out and keep repeating until fully seated.

Make sure you die is tight in the press as well.

Yes I tried that I think it helped some, thank you for the tip. I tried a batch again today and using your tip and also holding on to the bullet with my fingertips all the way in as I bring the ram up helped. thanks

Does the profile of the seater match that of the bullet? If not, get one that fits; round nose, semi-wadcutter, etc.

Only bell the case enough to accept the bullet base, then set the bullet on straight, not cocked sideways.

I have never been satisfied with the Lee seating dies. Too much play in the seater plug allows bullet to wobble around while seating. I like the Hornady seating dies with the floating alignment sleeve. Similar sleeves in Redding Competition, Forster Benchrest, and RCBS competition seating dies.

Andy

Im glad I got a RCBS master kit(the old rockcrusherII press) and bought redding dies when I first started reloading rifle carts.

quote:

Originally posted by BigJakeJ1s:
I have never been satisfied with the Lee seating dies. Too much play in the seater plug allows bullet to wobble around while seating. I like the Hornady seating dies with the floating alignment sleeve. Similar sleeves in Redding Competition, Forster Benchrest, and RCBS competition seating dies.

Andy

Are these fancy, schmancy dies available for joel clark's 9mm pistol?

My plain jane RCBS dies for .45 came with seaters for both semi-wadcutter and round nose, and have loaded untold thousands of rounds with no issue.

make sure you have the right seater or get dies that do. I have never been impressed with anything from Lee and avoid their products whenever possible.

I believe most problems with seating bullets straight in short (pistol) cases is failure to flare and champher the case mouth sufficently to let the bullets heel enter properly. Get the case flare so the bullet can actually start fully into the case without cutting the heel is the best solution.

Seating die brand or type really doesn't much matter if the flare is not right. What happens is the heel of the bullet gets caught on a portion of the mouth, then, as seating begins that part gets damaged a bit AND the bullet is tilted somewhat. And that tilt is rarely totally corrected as seating is completed, no "partial seating, spin the case and finish seating" can fully correct it.

After a bullet has properly started, the degree of final bullet tilt is largely determined by its fit in the bullet guide portion of the die. If that's a sloppy fit the bullets WILL vary in concentricity! Most die's bullet guide chambers are a bit sloppy, no matter the brand.

My test measurements of (rifle) dies/ammo showed me that, first, even within a brand, there are some significant tolerance variations in seaating dies and, second, none of the common type seaters, including Hornady's, can be depended on to be very snugly fitted. In fact, Hornadys sliding ring seater idea is not unique at all, simular designs were marketed many years ago by Lyman, Herters and others. The sliding guides didn't do an exceptional job then and they still don't, IMHO, because of the limitations rising from only securing the neck end of the case. Within the common brands, Lee's "dead length" seaters work as accuratly, on average, as any other.

Two exceptions: Both Redding and Forster make full chamber seaters that pretty well duplicate the seating accuracy of BR type hand dies.

Redding does make a good seater for 9mm but I doubt that many shooters or pistols are sufficently accurate to appreciate the small difference in ammo.

My experiments with careful concentricity measurements have proven to me that ALL other brands/types of seaters are tied for a distant second place for consistancy. No brand stands out as "best" or "worst"!

And, as an aside, no expander does the job of sufficent expanding without over doing it on longer cases as well as Lyman's "M" two diameter expanding dies.

I have "M" dies for every cartridge I shoot, both rifle and pistol, and use them rather than the normal sizing expanders. "M" dies leave necks straighter than any other expander I have tried, including the carbide ones.

YMMV.

The amount of flare/bell you need is enough to allow the bullet to sit on top of the case, you shoul dbe able to see it. A seating stem/plug that matches the noce helps, tough to seat a Rn buleet w/ a FN punch.

I appreciate all of the suggestions all of you mentionned. I tried at it again the other day and after doing a little adjustng here and there I realized I wasnt giving enough flare on the case, pretty much as Jim C mentioned on his reply to my question. I loaded up about 100 rounds yesterday and shot about 80 I had no problems
I think my next step is relaoding for my 357 mag. I will have to learn how to crimp the bullet on the case now, hopefully no problems there. Thanks for all your replys.