Home Forums Reloading Varmint Rifles setting seater die

Tell me how you set seater die when you first use it? The RCBS instructions do not say how to set the seater die plug. I followed the instructions and tried a bullet on a non-charged case to see how it goes and when I brought the shell down the 50gr NBT was in the case. Do I start out with the plug all the way out and then measure and adjust down if I need more seating depth? BTW when I did this I did not make any adj with the plug so that is my problem but how do you start out with the seater plug?

When I set up my seating die what I will do is first back off the bullet seating plunger and then back the locking ring toward the top of the die. I will then insert an empty case and run it to the top of the stroke. Once at the top position I will screw the seating die down until the case neck just touches the crimping ridge in the die and then back it off 1/4 turn then turn the locking ring down tight without turning the die and lock things in place. Next I will set a bullet on and raise the ram to it's top position and then screw the seating plunger down until it touches the bullet. I will then progressively screw the seating plunger down and reseat the bullet doing this until I get the LOA that I want.

it seem a little different from what the instructions say to do. for example the instruction says to place a sized case into the shell holder and then run to the top of the stroke. screw the seater die into the press until you feel it touch touch the mouth of the case. then back the die up one full turn and set the large lock nut.

why are you backing out 1/4 turn instead of 1 full turn?

BTW...wit the OAL and comparator I measured 2.940" on my caliper. Nosler book says max OAL is 2.260". Even with seating off .020" that makes my measurement at 2.920" which is still more than max OAL. Where am I getting this wrong?

I think I got it right. I started the spindle high and back down little by little until I came to 2.922 from the max of 2.940. So I am .018" off the lands.

I thought about backing out a little until I came to 2.930 but did not want to screw with this any more. hehe. The comparator guide says for hunting rounds to seat off .020 from the lands but I had thought to try .010 off the lands. However since I got a dummy round set at .018" I am going to try this and see how it goes. Tomorrow morning I am going to load 30 founds with Benchmark starting at 24.5 and increment 0.3 until I come to 25.5 or a bit more. Max according to Nosler website is 26.5.

Will post my results if I go on Sat or Sun.

I made a post about the NBT 55gr having same oal of 2.940 and since I have my dies set up I am thinking maybe I can also load some 55gr and see if they shoot any better because of the 5gr weight increase in the bullet. I know for Benchmark with 55gr NBT the range is 23.0 to 25.0 so I should be able to set this all up and try 'em out.

That's good advice gatuner gave you. I do the same. You can back your die out 1 full turn if you want, but don't expect your run out to be very good

bsa,

so you are saying that you can back out the die say 1/4 of turn and this will prevent much runout? I've a loaded some test load so next time I can try the 1/4 turn. This is a chore to keep swapping out dies though but guess a T7 is in the thinking process lol.

To answer your question why only 1/4 turn is because I uniform my brass prior to reloading so 1/4 turn is more then sufficient to prevent any crimping. Reloading dies are 7/8 by 14 thread. One full turn will move the die 71 thousands, 1/4 turn will back the die off right at 18 thousands and that is plenty of room to prevent crimping while giving the case good support. I am a bit confused on your Length Over All. LOA, dimension, 2.922 and 2.940. Unless you have the capability of accurately measuring the LOA for each type bullet I would go with the recommended LOA published in your reloading manual. I made a specialized tool that I can take any bullet and measure what the LOA is for that bullet to touch the riffling in the rifle I am loading for, then I can, if I want my bullets seated 10 thousands off the riffling I just subtract 10 thousands off the Maximum LOA and keep trial seating and making adjustments to the seating stem until I get the length I want.

I am a bit confused in your measurements and your understanding of what is published in a reloading manual. Let me say that the LOA published with any reloading manual is not the length to touch the riffling for that particular cartridge and bullet combination and if you want to seat your bullet .015 off the rifling you should subtract .015 from the LOA published. This would be virtually impossible to do as each manufacturer, Ruger, Remington, Winchester, Savage, et. all. probably has a slightly different throat length.

If you are truly interested in seating your bullets so they are .018 off the rifling then I would recommend you buy one of the gauges that are available to measure this dimension (I have a lathe and made mine) or you can find out what this is by seating a bullet say .015 longer then the LOA published in your manual. Then using a candle smoke the bullet and chamber it in your rifle. If you get resistance closing the bolt stop, remove the round seat the bullet .005 deeper, re-smoke and repeat. Do this until the bolt closes without resistance and the carbon just shows the rifling lands just touching the bullet. Measure the LOA and you now have the LOA for that rifle with that bullet. If in the first step described here you have no resistance closing the bolt and no rifling marks on the bullet you need to pull the bullet and seat it out a bit longer and start the process. Now, if you want your bullet .018 off the rifling move the seating stem down until your LOA is .018 less then the Max LOA. I have one .22 centerfire that is throated so deep that I cannot seat a .55 grain bullet out far enough in the case to touch the rifling, but it shoots great.

I hope this information is of assistance to you if I can answer please let me know via a private message.

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