tonight i loaded my first batch of 280 rem. on my new lee turret press using there collet die set.while seating the bullets i found that i was getting a variance of .010 in seating depth.this is going to be a problem for me as my chamber is 3.290 and the min.oal listed is 3.325.ive been trying to seat to a depth of 3.280 but am getting depths of 3.275 to 3.285.im going to reduce my start charge 15% and go from there.has anybody had this kind of problem or have any ideas what im doing wrong?any imput would be great.have a nice day-gunruner
How are you measuring the length? If you are measureing the the end of a soft point bullet variations are normal. You can fix this problem by using a comaparator that measures the length to the bullets ogive.
Gunrunner, are you measuring your OAL from the base to the tip of your bullet? The lenght of bullets from tip to base vary by quite a bit and will give you a large variation in OAL. Your seating die seats from the ogive of the bullet, not the tip and should be quite consistant. I use a stony point oal guage to check my die/OAL setting. This tool measures from the ogive of the bullet and gives a much more accurate measurment than useing the tip. Once you find the lenght to the lands in you gun you can use the tool to seat your bullet at any distance from the lands you want. I`m sure others will add to this.
Posts: 2535 | Location: Michigan | Registered: 20 January 2001
i checked my chamber with 2 methods.1 using a bullet seated loose and 2 seated tight.i did this 25 times each and am pretty sure my bullets are ingaugeing the rifling at3.290 +or- .005. at 3.290 the bullet lodges itself into the bore and it takes a little help to get it out.im worried about seating the bullet to far into the case and having pressure problems.thanks guys for the help.gunruner
Trust your seating die as long as you have it adjusted properly. Did you make sure all your cases are trimmed to exact specs from your relaoding book for length. Make sure the die is not adjusted to crimp and seat the bullet at the same time. Bullets seated into the lands can cause pressure problems. Bullets seated into the case only infringe on powder charge. You better check your reloading manual as to reducing your starting load by 15%. Almost all reloading books say reduce maximum load listed by 10% and that is your starting load.
all my cases were inspected(factory rem. rounds fired once in my rifle) then trimed,chanfered and cleaned. my dies were adjusted and checked by making dummy rounds and checked again.im using a turret press and the dies will stay in that turret(main reason i bought a turret press is so i can set the dies and not have to adjust them when reloading a specific cartrige).as for the charge,after much thought and hours going through all my loading manuals i reduced the start charge from 49.3 grains to 49 grains.the max load is listed at 54.9.my collet die set does not crimp the bullet but i am using the factory crimp die after the bullet is seated and checked for oal. i am new to this site and would like to thank all those who have helped me with there imput.i am a regular on some of the other gunsites and will checking this one on a daily bases.wish i were an expert on reloading so i could add to the site but i am not so i will be here to learn from those that know.have a nice day-gunruner
I to use the Lee factory crimp dies for my 25-20 and 32-20 and depending on how heavy I crimp the OAL does grow somewhat so I compensate on the bullet seating before I run all the rounds through the crimp die.
