Who makes good brass

I only edited for really bad spelling...I see stubble got a bot more aggressive with his. No harm done but thanks for cleaning it up stubble...your comments seemed a bit out of place!
 
no one needs to be offended...tigrr simply stated he had never collapsed a shoulder in 40 yrs of reloading...I didn't read it as being pointed at anyone in particular...you all took it in another direction...
sheep...stubble...take it outside :p

My comments are a bit out of context with all stubble's edits...the 40 year comment was not directed at tigrr...just a comment stubble made. Sorry for all the confusion...hopefully the OP solves his mystery
 
"...collapse of the shoulders when seating bullets..." that has nothing to do with the brass. Your die isn't set up correctly. The shell holder should just kiss the bottom of the die with the ram all the way up. Then you adjust the seating plug to give you the oal you want.

Wrong! This will almost always result in collapsed shoulders, because the die will be crimping the case mouth into the bullet when the case is all the way in. If there is no crimp groove in the bullet aligned with the case neck, the brass will buckle.

Set up your seating die right. But a piece of brass in the shell holder and raise the ram. Then acre in the die to touch the shoulder. Then back the die off half to a full turn.

Right!

Ted
 
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I only edited for really bad spelling...I see stubble got a bot more aggressive with his. No harm done but thanks for cleaning it up stubble...your comments seemed a bit out of place!

My posts are sometimes quite frank and to the point, but they are nowhere near as aggressive as some of your behavior on another forum that you used to frequent. Of course you had much more influence with the admin on that forum, and you certainly didn't hesitate to use it.
 
My posts are sometimes quite frank and to the point, but they are nowhere near as aggressive as some of your behavior on another forum that you used to frequent. Of course you had much more influence with the admin on that forum, and you certainly didn't hesitate to use it.

If you take time to read my post, I was actually referring to your edits as aggressive. As in you really edited the heck out of the posts I was replying to. You could likely avoid a lot of confusion by reading more carefully and perhaps result in less "frank" posts. :) I appreciate your fascination with me and that you track me across the internet but I honestly have no idea who you are nor do I care. I just offered a suggestion to the OP...you made it personal....I have no desire to follow suit....I'm done.
 
If you take time to read my post, I was actually referring to your edits as aggressive. You could likely avoid a lot of confusion by reading more carefully.

Sometimes I post what I feel, and then edit to make my post more politically correct, so as not to offend anyone, and have them run to the admin to complain that they are being picked on. I am sure that you can understand that.

That being said, still no reply from the OP as to whether he has figured out the cause of his problems.
 
I am back. I was out hunting. Thank you all for your advice. I usually set up my seating die as follows:

1) put a round in the seat and lift the ram up
2) With the OAL plug backed off I screw the die down till it just touches the shoulders then back off a half turn or so then set the lock ring
3) I seat the bullet to the desired length by adjusting the seater plug.

for the most part this has always worked but when I was having problems was with WSM brass with the wide and sharp shoulders.

If I am making mistakes please let me know. Thanks

BTW I've been at this for more than a few years and have had very very few issues until I ran into this with wsm brass and I usually size my brass then clean them all off to remove lube before priming, charging and seating.
 
What happens if you run a sized case through the seater die, without trying to seat a bullet? If that works okay, then I would double check the interference between bullet OD ,and inside neck ID, as well as ensuring that you have a nice long chamfer on the inside of the case necks. If you have too much interference, a neck bushing sizer die can be used to reduce the interference. If the case necks are hardened, so they don't want to expand when you seat the bullets, annealing the necks might help.
 
I think you may be right on the chamfer as the case has no issue with collapsing shoulders when a bullet is not being seated just when seating the bullet. I may have to look at getting one of those chamfer tools designed with the longer taper used for VLD bullets
 
I have always set up my seating dies using a common, garden variety nickle.

I put a nickle flat on the shellholder, and raise the ram to full height.
Then I screw the seating die in until it touches the nickle. I then lock the ring there.

Never had a collapsed shoulder in thousands of rounds loaded. [I do load 270 and 300 WSM and 7mm SAUM]

The only stuff I crimp are pistol rounds, 30-30 and 38-55 in leverguns.

Regards, Dave.
 
Lapua is amazing brass and i swear by it if i am shooting for precision. Ultimately you get what you pay for. On the other hand i use solely remington brass for my hunting or "plinking" loads. I usually use for 3 reloadings before retiring them without any problems
 
Something sounds weird about your setup, but regarding brass quality, many manufacturers do different qualities of brass for different calibres, but I have found the most consistent and high quality manufacturer to be Lapua by far.

Expect to pay accordingly for excellence.
 
I see alot of people don't like federal brass. Why is that? I have over 150 pieces in 30-06 and it seems to do the job fine for me. What am I missing?
 
I have piles of IVI brass for my .303s, they do quite well. Each gun has a bunch that is specifically married to it, so I'm sure it was just the first firing that was toughest on them. I check each one before reloading and don't see seperation signs.

For 30-30 I have mixed brass, but I divide it based on the load. For the 'light' plinking loads, I bet I'll get to reuse the brass twice as much as I might for standard/hunting loads.
 
I see alot of people don't like federal brass. Why is that? I have over 150 pieces in 30-06 and it seems to do the job fine for me. What am I missing?

Tends to be really soft. I got 2 firings out of mine before it went in the recycling. I use winchester mostly now and get around 6-8 easily
 
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