I have used this die very little but I have noticed that round to round lengths vary as much as.015.

I sort my cases and bullets by length so to eliminate such variances.

Accuracy compared to my old dies has fallen off considerably.

Any suggestions?
Anybody use these dies and notice the same?

arky65

The Forester die seats relative to the ogive of the bullet not the nose or tip of the bullet.
To check the seating consistancy of this die you will need what "they" call a bullet comparator. Davidaon, Sinclair, or Stoney Point offer tools of this nature.
http://www.sinclairintl.com
Search their catalog for bullet comparators.

muck

I got my first set of these early this year. With out trying to be a smart a$$, did you set the seater up as per the instructions?

I at first just screwed it in like I would have any other die, and experienced the same thing as your talking about.

After reading and setting it up as per their recommendation, this came to an end, for the most part. I still get a couple thousands here and there but this is due to the bullet ogive and not the die, and the groups are now groups and not patterns.

Also the recommended comparator will go a long way in helping you get this under control. Also if your shooting one particular bullet for all of your loads, you can get a seating stem ground to fit the profile of that particular bullet for about 15 bucks, by Forster.

Thanks, for the response, I do use the davidson comparator to measure the bullets to get them sorted to same length lots +- .002.
And as best I understand the setup instructions I am screwing the die in until it compress the sliding die chamber 1/2". the lock ring is secure as is the seater stem lock nut.

arky65

Do you experience this with compressed loads??
- mike

No, mho these are not compressed.

You are finding bullets of +/- .002" variation when measuring the bullet with the comparator but the measurment is from bullet base to ogive. The variance you find in your loaded ammo comes from the variation in bullet ogive to bullet tip. Once the seater is set up - it sounds like you have it right - leave it be and see how much variation you find in case head to bullet ogive. This is the lenght that we worry about most.

Several things I have found with the Forster Ultra Seater this past 2 years.

1) If you don't apply the same pressure during your presses seating stroke, it WILL vary the OAL at the bullets ogive.

2) Make sure the bullets tip is not bottoming out in the seating stem. It may need to be drilled out a bit to get good clearance with certain "pointy" bullets.

3) Even though you said your loads were not compressed, I have noticed compressed loads will/can 1) vary OAL and 2) ruin your bullets seated runout.

Hope this helps.

I have the same sort of setup with my 30-06 & 338WM. I use the Stony Comparator, and most if not all come (from the ogive) in right on the money… even if the length from the tip is off.

Ol joe, after i seat the bullets and measure from the case head to the ogive is where i am getting the variance. I am trying to get the ogive a consistent .10 off the lands. and it is getting frustrating with this seater die.

Gssp, you may have something with the bottoming out, and consistent pressure issue.

I am going to take smoke the tips of some of the bullets I use and see if i can determine if the are indeed bottoming out. I can see where the points could be causing a problem is bottoming out.

I set up the Redding seater and the variance was much less than with the forster. I am leaning towards the consistent pressure.

Thanks for all your thoughts gives me some thigs to look at.

arky65

Arky,

The way I use my Forester is to back off .01 from my desired length when I seat the bullet. Then I measure from head to ogive. It will be long, I then adjust the micrometer to match the desired length, and seat again. This way every round is to within .001 of each other ( at the ogive). This really does not take very long, and it works every time.


Simdow

I take the Forster seating stem and out de-burr the chamfer by spinning the stem and rounding the corner with fine wet and dry paper.

This ends the problems with "ring around the ogive" and "my bullet is stuck up inside the seater die".

simdow, I used the same technique and with other dies and press it has worked well. but not this combo of dies and press. I really think it is a consistency problem.

The one thing that has changed recently is I have moved this press to a different table and it may be flexing some and giving inconsistent pressure when seating.

tnekkcc, I like that sugestion I do not think it will help the problem but it will take care of that annoying ring around the bullet.

arky65

Arky65, I don`t know where your problem is originating from. I have 3 sets of Forster BR seaters and all will seat a bullet to within 0.001" every time when measured useing a Stoney Point. I use either a Co-Ax or Lyman Orange chrusher when seating, depending on the cartridge and die being used. The tip of the bullet to the base may be all over the map but ogive to base is very consistant. I did have a 7-08 RCBS seater I once drilled out about 2 MM deeper to allow a ballistic tip to seat with out the tip bottoming in the seater plug. This cured that problem. The plastic tipped bullets have a long narrow nose and reach quite deeply into the seater. If the tip of one of these hits it will skew your lenght to ogive badly.

This might sound like a stupid suggestion but... I recently found a problem when measuring head to ogive on loaded rounds. They were varying by up to .005 as a result of primers that weren't seating consistently. Some primers were protruding by .005 or so. I didn't notice until I started measuring rounds to check seating depth. One jaw of the calipers is sitting on the primer. As a say, I wouldn't have noticed except that the measurement wasn't what my die was set up for (also a Forster die BTW).

Takala, that was not the problem, I use the davidson gauge, and the way it is made the case sits on the rim so you measure from case rim to ogive.

I did discover the problem tho, it was the press. I got to my camp and seated some rounds with the press that is anchored and only .002 variance in seven rounds.

The press I was using the other night is not anchored it is mounted on a 2X12 that is clamped to a dinning table, and it gives so I will only use it to make pistol plinking rounds in the future.

Thanks to all for your suggestions, and I did learn a few tricks from you guys.

Arky65