I began loading for a guy at the hunting lodge who has a 270win. I ordered the collet dies because they have been up till now, very concentric. I checked the seater plug by inserting a 130gr NBT into it and it just wobbled around. The plug seems to only contact it at the portion just past the yellow tip and for only a very short distance. The rest of the pill can be rotated around the outside dimension of the plug angle,..an extremely sloppy fit to say the least.

After chucking a bullet in the drill with lapping compound on it and spinning it in the plug,..it became evident that there were not enough hours in the day to accomplish a good lapp-in fit. So I resorted to systematically drilling down into the plug to open up the dia so as to accomodate more of the ogive and closer to the bearing surface. I then re-lapped and got a far better fit,..but runout is still in the .007" range

anyone else think this may have been the incorrect seater plug that was put in the die? I have never seen a sloppy fit like that with most any die company, and certainly not one that only contacted the ogive behind the tip for maybe the thickness of 1 1/2 nickels. interested in your thoughts from those who have a set of lee collet dies in 270win.

Thanks

Calling today for a replacement.

Don't know, but it prob. couldn't be a good fit due to the different shape of different bullets.

The last Lee seating die I bought, the whole thing rattled around and the directions boasted of a wizz-bang "floating" seater.
JL

JAL, I know the plug floats (something which at first took me back as well),..but I bought a set in 30-06 that are consistently .001" runout. I have worked with 2 sets in 300win and both are good for .002" runout, and the 22-250 set falls right in to low numbers as well. This seater plug was just a bad fit,..even after opening it up, I don't have the equipment to lapp the bullet in correctly. It seems the whole plug was just all wrong. I have not encountered a plug that much off no matter what pill I used. This one was good for .010" runout at first go

I wonder if the 150gr soft points could be that different in their ogive profile to cause that? anyone have one of the NBT's and a heavy soft point or even a round nose to be able to lend me a bit of info here?

thanks

I may not even know what you mean, but if it's the fit of the bullet into the seater "cone", don't people use a goop, stick the bullet in to get a perfect fit and away you go for that bullet type only?

I use a Vickerman seater. I bought one die body and innards for 22, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28,and 30 cal. Just switch the guts, and it loads straight ammo.
Lyle

JAL,..I have not heard of that method. I usually will take my bullet (for LR purposes) and apply lapping compound and spin it with the drill to make the seater plug match the ogive of the bullet. You would be suprised how much runout that takes out of a seater die.

But this here seater plug seemed like it wasn't even made for this caliber,..like it was for a round nose of some sort in the larger bore dia.

anyway,..Lee just sent me out a new plug to try,..FREE.