Hard to seat bullets.

Rstjean

Rstjean

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I just bought a new rcbs small base 308 dies set and it took a lot of pressure on the press to seat the bullets.
I annealed the brass before resizing then when I was trimming the brass they were really tight in the pilot for trimming. I chamfered and debured them really good but they were still really hard to seat. So difficult that I actually made marks on every bullet from the seater die. This hasn't happened to me before so I'm curious what might cause this. Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks Ryan.
 
Tagged to know about the outcome.

No solution to offer but I will share that in my situation there was an increase in seating force after annealing. Not the amount of force you are expressing, but a definite increase and definitely more consistent force case to case. Everything measured out as before which I found puzzling. It would be interesting to repeat using the same die on non annealed cases. ( I did just to compare.)

Regards
Ronr
 
So, new dies, new problem.
Annealed cases should not spring back as much as work hardened cases. So I would think the annealed cases would be sized more by the expander button. If true, sizing hardened cases should leave the neck even smaller in diameter, so bullets even harder to seat.
I would try a few hardened cases with the same die, see how seating goes.
Also measure cases before and after sizing, compare annealed/hardened neck diameter.
 
Rstjean said:
Ok I just got back and measured the expander button and its 0.306.
Click to expand...

Whidden custom dies sells expander kits with five expanders from bullet diameter to .004 under bullet diameter for the proper bullet grip with "your" case necks.

Many competitive shooters are now saying .002 to .003 bullet grip helps improve accuracy. Meaning the expander is that much smaller than bullet diameter.

Many reloaders after annealing use a copper bore brush on the inside of the case neck to remove any oxidation and ease seating.

A VLD deburring tool inside the case mouth aids seating.

More importantly lubing the inside of the case neck with dry graphite powder greatly reduces seating effort. I wet tumble before sizing and this removes the carbon inside the case neck. Dipping the case neck in Imperial dry case lube replaces the carbon. Graphite is nothing more than finely ground carbon and the expander smears the carbon to the inside of the case neck.

CH3epH9.jpg


Below a closeup view of a new unpolished RCBS expander.....yikes......and you wonder why your case necks get pulled off center inducing neck runout.

This .223 expander was polished to .0025 smaller than bullet diameter and works great and when the case necks are lubed with graphite the bullets seat very easily.

5Rqdvuh.jpg


I also use Forster benchrest seating dies, as you can see below the sliding sleeve holds the bullet in perfect alignment with the case neck. Meaning the bullet can not tilt when being seated and increase seating effort and bullet runout.

MomXeUI.gif
 
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