Bullets seating crooked

labrador76

labrador76

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I am loading up some rounds for a .270WSM w/once fired Winchester brass form my rifle. I backed out my FL die to so as to neck size brass and I am seating 140gr. Accubonds over 60gr. 7828ssc. About 6 of the 20 rounds came out of the seater with the bullet crooked. If I lay them down on the bench and roll them I can see a wobble as the bullet tip goes up and down as the case rolls.

What gives? Any ideas?

I figured maybe the neck/shoulder was bent so I pulled a couple of them and FL sized the cases. After re seating, one was true, and the other was not. Kind of maddening, especially since I don't have a puller for the magnum case so I have to bubba it.
 
How much of the bullet shank are you seating into the case? A shallow seated bullet will often be crooked. You want usually at least one full bullet diameter of shank (the part that contacts the rifling, ignore any boat tail portions) inside the neck.
 
LUTNIT said:
How much of the bullet shank are you seating into the case? A shallow seated bullet will often be crooked. You want usually at least one full bullet diameter of shank (the part that contacts the rifling, ignore any boat tail portions) inside the neck.
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These are fairly long bullets and while they are only about .005 off the lands, there is still about a half inch of bullet inside the case, (not including the boat tail.)
 
I would pull the expander plug out of the resize die and resize a case to see how much it was necking down. It may be greatly oversizing and then really tugging hard on the expander plug on the way out. I just reworked a hornet die that was necking down over 8 thou.
 
labrador76 said:
These are fairly long bullets and while they are only about .005 off the lands, there is still about a half inch of bullet inside the case, (not including the boat tail.)
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Crooked seating is almost always in the seating operation. If you are using long VLD type bullets and the seating stem is not designed for that, the stem will push on the very tip of the bullet without properly holding the bullet straight. Your options are to use a shorter, less pointy bullet, to modify the seating stem so it will work with the VLD bullet or to use a different seating die.
 
Suputin said:
Crooked seating is almost always in the seating operation. If you are using long VLD type bullets and the seating stem is not designed for that, the stem will push on the very tip of the bullet without properly holding the bullet straight. Your options are to use a shorter, less pointy bullet, to modify the seating stem so it will work with the VLD bullet or to use a different seating die.
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^^^^
This is what I think is happening as well. When I got up from the bench this afternoon I had decided to try to take apart my seating die to investigate and try to remedy the problem. I will give it a whirl the next time I get in there. Thanks.

PS.I like VLD, pointy bullets!!
 
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I kind of like the Lee seating dies. They have a sliding sleeve that the bullet sits in and only touches the sides of the bullet (most of the time). I have seen the end of the sleeve get built up with crud and do some strange things tho. The good thing is that they are super easy to take apart and clean. Have a look at that die for sure.
 
1. More reloaded cases have excess bullet run-out than any other cause because the expander button is locked down off center.

2. If the case does not have equal case wall thickness the case can warp when fired and when resized the neck can be pushed off center even further.

runout.jpg
 
Thanks for all the information gentleman.

*I had a look inside the sizing die and I didn't see any dirt or buildup, but I will take it apart and to look more closely.

* Dirt in the seating die should no longer be a problem. I took it apart and I figured that the plug was contacting the bullets too far toward the tip so I drilled it out to allow the bullets to go deeper into it and therefore the plug now contacts the bullet further back toward the ogive. Hopefully this will promote better alignment. I will update the post after I load a few more.

Case gauge looks real handy! What is one of those worth?
 
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The Neco case gauge is $119.95 without dial indicator and up to $183.95 with the better dial indicator (U.S. prices)

The main point of my posting is if you get a bad batch of cases they can warp badly when fired and resizing makes the matter worse. The thin side of the case will always expand more when fired and warp the base of the case and it will no longer be 90 degrees to the axis of the bore and the case actually ends up banana shaped. These defects will normally need gauges to be found and there is no way to correct them.
 
Understood. Thanks Ed. This may well be the case as I had previously reloaded a batch w/ different brass and didn't notice any problems. This was the first reload of this current brass.
 
finstr said:
Here's a concentricity guage I built myself using some aluminum cut-offs and some UHMW (plastic). The dial indicator Is from my ball joint checking tool but they're easily obtainable from Princess Auto for fairly cheap.
Here you can see a few thou of runout on a 300 Weatherby round. I know this doesn't help you much with your die problem but now that you have it sorted out this type of guage will help check future loads :)

l.jpg
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Nice work! Not sure I have the skills, (or material) for a project like that, but I do have some friends in that kind of talent. Maybe I'll try to get one made. Thanks for the info.

zuke said:
Did you disassemble the LEE dies and clean them, as per the instruction's?
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I honestly don't remember if I took apart the FL die, but it was new when I got it and I had only sized about 30 cases before this problem appeared. Do you think they would "foul" that quickly? The seating die I did disassemble, clean, (and modify) but not until after I had the problem.
 
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