Seating die on the ogive?

Silverado

Silverado

CGN Ultra frequent flyer
Rating - 98.6%
143   2   1
I've been thinking more about the issue of inconsistency in the OAL of bullets in a given box. I've measured lots of different ones, and found variations as high as .010" between bullets.

Just thinking a little more, I suspect that the variation would be measurable between the tip and the ogive... not just the tip and the base. I would hope the base to ogive measurements are consistent... I'm going to go check some on my comparator right now!

UPDATE: I just measured 20 or so SGK from the same box with my comparator. The base to ogive measurement only varied a max of 0.0015" (thats one and a half thousandths) between all of them.

Is there a seating die, possibly of the inline/bushing type, which seats the bullet on the ogive, rather than pressing on the tip?

Would that not eliminate the issue? You would still have variations in OAL, but all the case head to ogive measurements would be identical by virtue of the design of the die...
 
Last edited:
"...inconsistency in the OAL..." That's usually caused by inconsistent case lengths or loose dies. Never seen nor heard of a seating plug that uses the side of the bullet. A seating plug made for spizters should work just fine even for SP bullets. Never had an OAL issue loading them myself.
 
Rifle seating die stems contact the tip of the bullet? The very end?
I think all the seating stems I have are hollow or coned on the end, so that the stem contacts the bullet somewhere on the ogive.
 
tiriaq said:
Rifle seating die stems contact the tip of the bullet? The very end?
I think all the seating stems I have are hollow or coned on the end, so that the stem contacts the bullet somewhere on the ogive.
Click to expand...

Looking at mine, they are hollow/coned, but not at the bullet diameter. Depending on the bullet, you might be catching it on the slope or on the tip based on how long the hollow is.

What I'm thinking is a seater for 30 cal for example which seats the bullet at the .308 ogive.

After a google search I found some threads on BR Central; apparently some guys make such a thing using a chamber reamer so the seating profile of the die is exactly like that of the chamber leade...
 
Why not? If the seating portion of the setup were to contact the bullet ogive just at the "sweet spot" of the ogive, so to speak, it should be possible to produce cartridges which would be extremely consistant from the standpoint of ogive to leade dimension. I use seating dies with the floating bullet holder, in an attempt to keep things co-axially aligned, but his doesn't directly address seating depth.
 
The seating die should never contact the tip, if it does drill it out so it doesn't. Remeber only to drill out the bottom of the cone, don't touch the part of the seating die where its supposed to sit on the ogive.

I've found most of the length variance is near the tip past the part where the seating die normally presses on the bullet. To test this, depending on the die you have, I take the seating part out of the die and place it on bullet and then measure the OAL. With every bullet I've reloaded the difference in OAL shrinks dramatically when measured this way as compared to the normal OAL to the bullet tip.
 
sunray said:
"...inconsistency in the OAL..." That's usually caused by inconsistent case lengths or loose dies. Never seen nor heard of a seating plug that uses the side of the bullet. A seating plug made for spizters should work just fine even for SP bullets. Never had an OAL issue loading them myself.
Click to expand...

What does the case length have to do with the OAL.:confused:
 
savage223 said:
I've found most of the length variance is near the tip past the part where the seating die normally presses on the bullet. To test this, depending on the die you have, I take the seating part out of the die and place it on bullet and then measure the OAL. With every bullet I've reloaded the difference in OAL shrinks dramatically when measured this way as compared to the normal OAL to the bullet tip.
Click to expand...

I did this, and got the same variations as when measured with the comparator: less than two thousandths.

I suppose I'm trying to solve a problem that doesn't exist here LOL

Wouldn't it be perfect though to have a seating die reamed with exactly the same reamer as your chamber? Provided that your shell holder and bolt face were both square and concentric, I guess you'd have ammo about as perfect as possible, no?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom