Bullet seating problem *pics*

DanTorz

DanTorz

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Ok so these are my first batch of 180 grain .30/06 shells.


Bullet on the left is seated to the rim on the slug, bullet on the right is seated deeper, should I just dicard the few shells that are seated alittle deeper than the rim or can they still fire and function ok?

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Use a puller , and make 'em all the same to load book specs , normally rn bullets have a canulure that you can also use as a guide, center it there.:) I never crimp, but the lee factory crimp die I do use on 30-30 loads.
 
That's quite a difference in OAL you have there. What went wrong?

Levi is right. Hard to get consistant performance unless you strive for consistant ammo.
 
The specs you have for this load will tell you the min. over all length OAL. You will have to measure the round to see if your OAL is ok, I am guessing it is not, you will have to get a bullet puller for those one's. Check your bullet seating die and ensure it is installed properly in your press. You may need to crimp your bullets a little more if you are using a semi auto. Check your MIN OAL on your load data for this round.
 
blindman said:
You may need to crimp your bullets a little more if you are using a semi auto.
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They look well crimped to me! Are you blind, man?:p

Just kidding, but the left round looks like it's got a mean crimp on it.
 
if you are runnung near max. load the bullets seated deeper will be higher pressure when fired. if you don't have a puller, throw the shells away. or use vise grips to pull the bullet and just throw the bullet away.
 
Your crimps appear to be very aggressive. Are you using a Lee Loader to load? If you are using a loading press I am surprised you did not crush the necks. If you wish to crimp using a loading press, try the following;

Seat all the bullets so that the case mouth comes level to the top of the crimping groove. Back off the seating die several turns, and raise the seating stem several turns so that it will be no contact the bullet. The best way to crimp is as a separate operation from the bullet seating. Place the cartridge in the shell holder, and run the ram to the top of it's stroke. Now turn the seating die down until you feel it contact the case. Lower the ram, turn the die down about 1/8th of a turn, then run the ram back up to the top of it's stroke. You may want to now drop the ram and give the case a half turn in the shell holder then run it up again. Inspect your cartridge, and if need be adjust a further 1/16th turn. Your cartridge now has sufficient crimp. If you repeat this process with each cartridge you will be allowing for differences in case length which is not possible if you set the die to crimp then lock it into place.
 
"If you repeat this process with each cartridge you will be allowing for differences in case length which is not possible if you set the die to crimp then lock it into place."

Thats why you trim your cases to the same length--so you don't have to do the fine adjustment with each round loaded. If your cases are all different lengths you can use the Lee factory crimp die--but you still have to make sure your cases are not too long.

44Bore
 
44Bore said:
"If you repeat this process with each cartridge you will be allowing for differences in case length which is not possible if you set the die to crimp then lock it into place."

Thats why you trim your cases to the same length--so you don't have to do the fine adjustment with each round loaded. If your cases are all different lengths you can use the Lee factory crimp die--but you still have to make sure your cases are not too long.

44Bore
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If you are using an "off the shelf trimmer" it is unlikely that the trimmed brass will be precisely the same length, unless you pay unreasonable attention to detail. I was not happy with this situation so I bought the best trimmer I couod find, and the results are far better. In any case, the biggest advantage to trimming is that the case neck does not extend into the chamber throat resulting in high pressure.
 
the rifleman said:
No need to crimp your bullets. They will stay in good and tight if you resized your brass.
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Not always true. Sometimes crimping can aid in consistant ignition. But for the most part, yes.
 
joe-nwt said:
Not always true. Sometimes crimping can aid in consistant ignition. But for the most part, yes.
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Additionally to what Joe says, I own a rifle which under recoil will drive the bullets down into the case if they are not crimped. Crimping can also be an aid to accuracy as it uniforms the bullet pull weight.
 
Well I been shooting 375 h&h sans le crimp , and sans the problemo. A properly sized case has awesome holding power on the bullet, maybe some cases are dirty or bullets have oil for some source or another that would cause this for some folks.
A tube mag rifle of medium caliber , I will crimp with a factory lee crimp die. But not much of a crimp, medium I guess.
And some bullets with a canulure, I will light roll crimp in canulure, if it ends up at that depth. :runaway:
 
I have a .375 Ultra round in front of me here which may help explain why I crimp. This rifle is almost always loaded, and I often add rounds to the top of the mag without changing out the rounds on the bottom. So let's do some measurements.

I resize my .375 cases with a Redding sizing die, and seat the bullet with a Forster seating die. A freshly loaded round has an OAL of 3.557", and a case length of 2.835". The shoulder of this case measures .512".

By contrast the round which had several firings take place over it, has an OAL of 3.515, case length of 2.833" and the case shoulder measures .521"

The bullet from the round at the bottom of the magazine shows evidence of impact, but was a flat tip round nose to start with. The unfired round has the forward edge of the crimping groove visible, the round from the bottom of the magazine does not. In my opinion, if there is enough recoil energy acting on that round to drive a crimped bullet into the case until stopped by the forward edge of the crimping groove and to expand the case shoulder, then I suspect that the bullet, if left uncrimped would be driven into the case until stopped by the powder column.

In addition to the potential of a bullet moving in the case neck, if we consider the fact that a properly crimped bullet produces a more uniform pull weight than does a non-crimped bullet, there would seem to be no downside to crimping if;
A) the bullet has a crimping groove
B) the bullet is not seated long enough to contact the grooves in the barrel.
 
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I have always crimped my rounds, I shoot semi autos, so you have to crimp! If I were to shoot a bolt action, I would neck size my cases only for better accuracy. For my semi auto rifle I full length size and crimp.
 
What is the OAL of the load supposed to be???? I dont know how you decided to seat to the "Rim" on one and way too deep on the other.

Whate are you using to seat these bullets??
 
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