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posted this
16 August 2021
Well guys my son thinks he has found the problem with the model 99. He got to thinking he didn't have the problem with Speer bullets. [He didn't mention what type of Speers} nor did he have the problem with Hornady 180 gr. round nose bullets. The problem started with 150 grain Hornady interlock spire points.
He uses a Lee hand press and Lee dies. He looked closer at the reloading process with this equipment. Looking at the loaded round he discovered with the Hornady 150 that the bullet had a lot of run out. Simply not in the case straight. Crocked enough that he admits he should have seen it sooner. He said he tried to straighten one out with a pair of pliers and discovered the bullet was loose in the case. He loaded a couple of dummy rounds using new prepared brass and his used resized brass. The results were the same.
He was easily able to get the bullet at least looking straight in the dummy rounds by hand. Then he ran them through a carefully adjusted Lee factory crimp die. The rifle functioned flawlessly.
Loading up 10 live rounds and going to the range the rifle shot well and functioned fine.
He measured the expanding button and found it measured 307.5. The bullets exactly 308. I guess that should produce enough neck tension. I'm thinking the shape of the seating button is not compatible with the shape of the bullet causing the problem.
This all brought back an incident I had with Lee 6mm Remington dies that a friend of mine bought and had me reload some ammo for him. I had the same noticeable run out. I found that by wiggling the ram on my Rockchucker press while applying light pressure I could get the bullets seated to look straight in the case.
My son is calling Lee and see if they have suggestions or will replace the dies.
To be fair I use Lee dies for my old 30.06 and have no problem with them.