Difficulty with .30-30 dies/reloading

Chuckbuster

Chuckbuster

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Tonight I encountered an interesting problem while putting together some reduced .30-30 loads for my daughter.

I assembled a batch of light cast loads with no problem whatsoever. Then I switched to a youth hunting load with jacketed bullets. After problems seating the first two rounds, I figured the culprit must have been gunk from the cast bullets. And sure enough, there was all kinds of lead and wax inside the die. So, I took it apart and removed all the crud. And then, the exact same problem: bullets seemed to be sticking in the seating stem/plug. I have never had this happen before, ever. The only way I could get a few jacketed bullets loaded up was to reverse the stem, which flattened the bullet tips somewhat, but at least they seated. Anyway, I put it back correctly, retried, cleaned again, repeat etc etc, but the bullets refused to seat with the stem oriented correctly.

In terms of trouble shooting I adjusted die depth up and down as well as that of the stem. The cases were full length resized as I usually do with rifle rounds, and I'm using a Lee 2 die set. And before the Lee haters say that is my problem, bear in mind that this is the first time I've had this happen in 25 years of reloading with Lee dies. At any rate, I need a new O ring for my seating die now as I mangled it while getting frustrated in repeatedly screwing and unscrewing the seating stem...and since that means a temporary end to my frustration, I am going to have a Bone Shaker pale ale to ease my frustration.

Any ideas as to what the issue is, or what I may be doing incorrectly?
 
Technically the seater plug should have the same shape as the top of the bullet and make uniform contact. The problem is many times only the mouth of the seater plug touches the bullet leaving a ring around the bullet. You can try polishing the seater plug mouth and remove the sharp edge or send the seater plug and two bullets back to Lee and they will make you a custom seater plug for the bullets you are using.
 
You can also wad up a bit of tinfoil and put a dab of wax in the seater plug, put the tin foil in the seater plug and slowly seat a bullet in the case. The tin foil will take the shape of the nose of the bullet and when you are done you can just remove the tin foil and away you go. You can also do this for the top punch on a lube-sizer to get around an odd ball shaped nose profile so you don't deform the bullet as your sizing it.
 
In looking around online, I came across (several times) a burr or other irregularity with the shape of the stem as the culprit. It's interesting that the cast bullets I am using have a wider nose profile than the jacketed bullets, and there were no issues at all with the former. Since I may well use a variety of bullets for my 30-30s, I think I will pursue your other recommendation of polishing the seater...which was also recommended by other sources.

ETA: tinfoil, eh? I may have to give that a try...after I make a trip to replace the O ring.
 
Lube gunk in the die isn't unusual after loading cast bullets. Happens regularly with handgun dies. Anyway, you've got the wrong seater plug installed. They come for RN's and not RN bullets. Should have come with the die set.
Either way, the front of the bullet doesn't matter. Only the base matters. No bits of tin foil or chewing gum or anything else is required.
Bottle necked rifle cases do not get flared like handgun cases. Their case mouth gets chamfered and deburred.
 
Bottle neck and straight rifle cases both require flaring for cast bullets. Lee makes a universal flaring tool(so-so), Lyman makes an M die(short and long for .30's). For limited cast bullet use, use a tapered shank steel tool, like a large centre punch, tap gently into neck to flare or trombone same. This will stop the lead & lube shaving in your seating die. Remove flare after seating with crimp die. best of luck.
 
Also, it makes me wonder how dry the bullet lube is.
I use the Johnsons paste wax and alox lube in about a 50:50 ratio diluting with mineral spirits if it gets too thick, and if the lube isn't dry enough, I get gumming up like you mention, but when dry, it's just a bit of a crumbly mess that gets cleaned up with wd40 or some such.
I also flare my 30-30 necks. I was using the lee neck flaring kit, but now I just use the needle nose pliers on my gerber multi tool, and spin the case a time or two, just enough to seat a bullet past the gas check, then I'm good to go.
 
I just do an exaggerated chamfer on the inside of the case neck, or sometimes I'll just lightly bump it onto the next size up expander stem and get a light flare, 30 on an 8mm say, or 338 on a 35 stem, it works for the few I use. As far as the bullet sticking in the stem, I have encountered this a lot and have found that if the stem isn't leaving a burr ring on the bullet, it is just sticking in the taper of the stem recess, I give the stem recess a light wipe of RCBS case lube and all is good. No more sticking bullets.
 
c-fbmi said:
I just do an exaggerated chamfer on the inside of the case neck, or sometimes I'll just lightly bump it onto the next size up expander stem and get a light flare, 30 on an 8mm say, or 338 on a 35 stem, it works for the few I use. As far as the bullet sticking in the stem, I have encountered this a lot and have found that if the stem isn't leaving a burr ring on the bullet, it is just sticking in the taper of the stem recess, I give the stem recess a light wipe of RCBS case lube and all is good. No more sticking bullets.
Click to expand...


Huh! I never thought of that. But for right now, I went to the local pusher and he just gave me the seating stem from a spare 30-06 die he had lying around. It's significantly longer, but it worked today as I loaded up another batch of ammo for my daughter. I'll have to try your solution out with the next batch.
 
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