Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles 223 remington

As others have stated, you need to determine your max COL and/or magazine length for whatever rifle you're loading for. However, as I understand your post, that's not the question you need help with. If you can't seat deeper then 2.280, then you either have a die issue, or more likely, you have a die set up issue. To set up the seating die, bring the ram (with the correct shell holder inserted) all the way to the top. Then, screw the die down to touch the shell holder and give it one additional turn downwards, Then lock the die lock ring down. Next, back the seating stem out several turns and start working on your seating depth. If the above method doesn't get you sorted out, you have a die issue.

I’m not sure about the Lee dies but you generally don’t want to touch the shell holder with the seating die base as you will either crush the case and or put a heavy crimp on the bullet. I use a 1/8” disk on top of my shell holder and extend the ram fully then screw the die down firmly touching the disk. With the coarse threads of the die you can hold the die tight and set the lock ring which keeps the die straight inline with the ram. I then adjust the seating depth to your desired length and I put the loaded round back in and raise the ram back to the top of the stroke. I lock the seating stem ring with the round in place at the top of the stroke which I believe helps with runout issues. I hope this makes sense and helps.