I Need Inline Bullet Seater

  • 2.9K Views
  • Last Post 04 July 2014
OU812 posted this 30 June 2014

My Redding 308 Competition bullet seater has a throat diameter of .3085 so this does not work with .3115 lead bullets. My Hornaday inline seater has a throat diameter of .311 and works OK, but it is still too small. What are you guys using to get good concentricity when seating larger lead bullets?

Attached Files

Order By: Standard | Newest | Votes
OU812 posted this 01 July 2014

Wilson will make me one. Here is their response:

Hello Keith,

We actually need a few samples of your bullet and cases. Then we take a standard 308 seater and open it up to work with the leaded bullets.

There is a $15 modification charge along with the cost of the special ground seating stem, which will have a finish of .312.

Please call to order.

Thank you,

509-782-1328

Attached Files

onondaga posted this 01 July 2014

http://www.castbulletassoc.org/view_user.php?id=8191>OU812 Lee bullet seating dies have a larger opening to be cast bullet friendly and also have a floating bullet seating plug within the die that automatically self centers. I use Lee dies in .308, 30-06 and 7.62X39 with no difficulty concentrically seating bullets to .314” diameter. Of course, case mouth flare is necessary for starting cast bullets easily and I generally use the Lee Universal Expander case mouth flaring die to expand case mouths .005” before seating cast bullets.

Periodic mineral spirit cleaning of seating dies is usually needed due to the lubricants used on cast bullets to keep the floating plug in the Lee seating dies free moving.

Gary

Attached Files

RicinYakima posted this 01 July 2014

Wilson opened one up for me 20 years ago, and I have never looked back at any other seater for cast bullets for matches. Nothing is any better,(and I am still looking for something, it is my hobby!) and it will last 20 lifetimes. FWIW, Ric

Attached Files

357Maximum posted this 01 July 2014

Hornady dies are tough to beat for accuracy vs money and can be lapped by anyone with a split dowel/wetdry paper/and a drill.

Attached Files

OU812 posted this 01 July 2014

Thanks for the good replies.

I called Redding and they will not open up their Comp seaters larger for cast.

My Hornaday seater does not align the whole case, just the case neck. I believe the whole case must be aligned for best concentricy.

I may bite the bullet and get the Wilson, but first I will look at the Lee version.

When seating bullet for a slip fit into case when chambered (no crimp), is an inline seater really necessary? Afterall the lead and thoat are what lines up the perfect fitting bullet?

Attached Files

357Maximum posted this 01 July 2014

The combination of a CO-AX press and Hornady dies (modified if required) gave me better accuracy/less runout than the Vickeman style seaters....sometimes letting things “RIDE” "FIDGET” and be where they wanna be beats a stranglehold on the situation I think.....but that is just one mans take on it.  The guy that bought my vickermans thought I was nuts....my targets say otherwise however....I tend to believe the targets over any other notions.

Attached Files

R. Dupraz posted this 01 July 2014

There is way too much play in the sliding sleeve in those Hornady seating dies. And the sleeve is too short as it only fits over the neck and shoulder of the case even if the bullet chamber was big enough for cast.

A friend made a new seating sleeve out of a piece of .30 cal barrel that was just a sliding fit inside the die body. And then used a .30 chambering reamer to open up the sleeve and bullet chamber for cast so that it fit over about half of the case.

The die works as it should now and is the way Hornady should have made them.

I use Wilson st. line seating dies exclusively. After making an expandable small hole lap out of a section of an aluminum shotgun cleaning rod, I opened up a part of the bullet chamber just ahead of the case by lapping to get the diameter that I wanted for cast.

With straight cases and round bullets, the concentricity will run between 0-.003” which is good enough for me.

Attached Files

gnoahhh posted this 01 July 2014

For an extra $15 I would simply get the Wilson die. What's $15 these days? Heck I spent more than that for a couple of beers yesterday.

Attached Files

Ken Campbell Iowa posted this 01 July 2014

ou812 sez My Hornaday seater does not align the whole case, just the case neck. I believe the whole case must be aligned for best concentricy.

if your case neck is not concentric with the case body ... neither is a good answer. the bullet will be misaligned upon chambering ... if the neck * IS * concentric, both are good answers. ( g ) .

this is the main reason mj benchresters turn necks and fireform and turn again .. to get concentricity .. secondarily to fit tight necks, in their hot loads, the brass necks expand before the bullets move anyway, and leave the bullet floating in mid air !! the tighter the brass neck, the less misalignment of the bullet ; a side benefit of tight neck chambers is that brass doesn't have to be worked so much and their $6.00 each brass lasts longer.

turning necks in deer rifle chambers may help slightly, but the initial alignment improvement is partially lost when the expanding neck lets go of the bullet upon firing . if the neck isn't expanding, you wouldn't need to resize it; some puff loads show little neck expansion.

ain't this fun ?

ken

Attached Files

John Alexander posted this 01 July 2014

OU812 sez: "When seating bullet for a slip fit into case when chambered (no crimp), is an inline seater really necessary? Afterall the lead and thoat are what lines up the perfect fitting bullet?"

Ken sez: "the brass necks expand before the bullets move anyway, and leave the bullet floating in mid air !!" ======= It seems to me that these two statements are pretty significant and we should back off discussing what detailed procedure will make the case and bullet line up most perfectly BEFORE IT GOES IN THE CHAMBER and THINK about these two statements and how the bullet is lined up after it's chambered.   Either of the two statements calls into question the value of worrying about the concentricity of the loose round -- specially in anything less than JB quality tight neck chambers. It seems to me that a cast bullet fitted into the throat --  either a long nose bore riding or a tapered “Ardito” type bumped into a die cut with the same reamer as the throat is what counts. The concentricity of the round before it is chambered may not matter. I am sometime told that my loaded rounds look like they aren't concentric by other shooters and they probably aren't.  I can't even find my nice Sinclair concentric checking gage.  But I believe they are lined up after they are chambered because they shoot OK. John

Attached Files

OU812 posted this 01 July 2014

I check cases for runout at shoulder with NECO gauge. Then load only the most concentric brass for serious target work. I turn all my good 308 brass, even those cases with less than .001 runout at neck. All this for a large 7.62 Nato chambered Remington VS, but it works.

Attached Files

TRKakaCatWhisperer posted this 02 July 2014

gnoahhh wrote: For an extra $15 I would simply get the Wilson die. What's $15 these days? Heck I spent more than that for a couple of beers yesterday.
$15 is a GOOD deal for modifying the Wilson. (Even if $15 gets me 30 beers or more.)  ;)  

Attached Files

Loren Barber posted this 02 July 2014

I have the Hornady seater for 308.  I asked hornady to make me an oversized insert.  They did and it works very well.  Wilson did the same for my 30 BR seater.

Attached Files

John Alexander posted this 04 July 2014

OU812 sez: "When seating bullet for a slip fit into case when chambered (no crimp), is an inline seater really necessary? Afterall the lead and thoat are what lines up the perfect fitting bullet?"

Ken sez: "the brass necks expand before the bullets move anyway, and leave the bullet floating in mid air !!" ======= What is it about leading a horse to water-----------?????? John

Attached Files

Chargar posted this 04 July 2014

My uniformed opinion, not backed up by scientific data and extensive controlled testing, is that anything we can do that aids in the production of straight ammo is worth the effort.

Accuracy starts with a chamber straight with the bore and a bolt face square with the rear of the chamber. Now add a case that fits the chamber and does not wallow around therein. Stick a bullet in the case (over powder and primer of course), that fits the throat and thereby does not strike the rifling at an angle. Now we have all the important stuff straight.

I see nothing good coming from bullets seated crooked in the neck. So, like others, I like to use straight line bullet seating, and now to the question at hand.

I like others had Wilson make me a chamber type bullet seater that will accommodate cast bullets having been reamed .3125. Cast bullet are messy and need something a smidge larger than the bullet.

I also had a .3125 bullet sleeve made for my 30 Vickerman bullet seater.

Being on a roll, I fired up my lathe and using chamber portions of some used barrels, made seaters reamed .3125 for the 30-06, 30-30 and 30-40.

All of these gizmos work just find for me.

Attached Files

Categories
Search
Popular Tags
This Weeks High Earners
Hot Topics
Close