Greetings All,
New member here. On seating 35gr V Maxs in 22 Hornet cases my die has started scoring the bullet at the point where the seating rod contacts the bullet. I've loaded 300 or 400 rounds with this die and this has not happened before. The scoring pretty much encompasses the entire circumference of the bullet. I would think this whould have to affect bullet performance. Any suggestions?

Have you already taken the die apart and had a peak? Were the prior rounds loaded using this exact same bullet? If the scoring isn't very bad, accuracy may not be effected at all. The rifling of the barrel scores the bullet up pretty badly after all. Hope that helps, but I'd sure have a look at the seating plug first and foremost.

Lightly Champfer the "Inside" of the Case Neck and "Polish it with some 0000SteelWool wrapped around an ole 22cal Bore Brush. Just a couple of twists will remove any tiny Burrs from the Champfering and "Slicken" it right up.

If that dosen't work, often the Die Manufacturer can supply a different Seating Stem that better matches the Bullet Ogive.

And lastly, you can coat a Bullet with Wax(Release Agent) and put some two part Epoxy in the Seating Stem and push the Bullet in to make a Custom Fit. The "trick" is not using too much Epoxy and getting the Bullet Straight while it is drying outside the Die. A Paper wall around the Seating Stem does pretty good. Then Trim off or Polish off any "Flashing" outside the Stem and you are ready to go.

Then the manufacturer will probably change the Profile.

Best of luck to you.

If it has always done it then you might have a sharp lip around the mouth of the seating rod. New shape in bullets can cause a different point of impact to the rod. I've also had it where my die was set just a touch deep so it was forming just a touch of a crimp requiring more pressure to seat the bullet.

If you are seating and crimping at the same time I've seen if often due tot he extra pressure to seat.

Unless it really deforms the bullet I doubt you will see an accuracy issue.

Many thanks everyone for the suggestions. I had thought about chamfering but wondered if the steel might be too hard. Likely would not have thought to polish it after chamfering I'll give that a go. Thanks again to all

I've had the same problem with the seater for years. It seats cast SWC just fine, but there will appear a faint ring around the circumference of the JHP noses, or it will flatten the lead slightly. I have thought about lightly radiusing the seater, or going to the round nose seater, which squeezes the JHP lead, but have not seen the real need. I have noticed no ill effects at all, from the slight marking, flattening or rounding. YMMV.

You can easily polish or even reshape a seater plug to your particular bullet but as stated above, that's just about the time that the bullet manufacturer will change or discontinue the bullet. Just clamp your electric drill in a vise, chuck the seater stem in the drill chuck (be careful not to bugger up the threads) and turn the drill on. Now you can polish easily or even use a stone to reshape. If you screw it up, you can always get another seater plug.

Thanks for the additional comments and again to all. The chamfering and steel wool buffing did the trick. They're coming out unscathed now. I was not getting any scoring on the 40 gr V Max, 45 gr Hornady Hornet, or Sierra 40 gr HP. Eyeballing the 35 gr V Max, the ogive looks different from the other more tapered bullets. I suspect that must have been the issue.

Deef and All: thanks. I am using a lee collet die and seater for my hornet. I was having the same problem with my VMAX 35's (everything else ok).
Deef, did you just polish or did you chamfer as well. I don't have a champhering tool that will touch that hard steel...

Thanks in advance.

rd

RD, I chamfered and then polished with the steel wool. But now that I think about it, not satisfied that I had done anything with either, I worked on it a bit with 600 wet/dry sandpaper. I wonder if it was the sandpaper that actually did the trick. I have an old L.E. Watson chamfering tool. I guess that's as good as they come, but I was not certain that I was getting any purchase with it on the die steel.