Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Ask The Gunwriters JB, customized seating plug?

John, have you made up any seating plugs for a specific bullet profile? I am thinking about using JB Weld for the mold. Maybe Imperial wax for a release.

How do I get the bullet straight into the plug/JB Weld? Drill press and drill press vise?

I am not happy the way Woodleigh RN flat base bullets are seating. There is only a tiny ring of contact as is with the Redding .358 plug. Thanks for any tips.

That sounds like it would work. What I'd probably use to make it is a dummy round with the bullet seated straight as possible. I assume you have a cartridge alignment gauge? Would put the seater in your press, and run the dummy round up inside it.

I like that. I can check concentricity first with a plumb dummy round.

Are you saying use JB weld in the plug while it's in the die? Won't that drip out before it sets and get into the die? Thinking if I used a drill press the JB would only drip onto the dummy.

In my experience JB Weld is pretty thick stuff, but yeah, the drill press might avoid trouble.

I did it right in the die. Just run an oiled rag up through the die to give it a good coat (release agent) and you should be good. Same on the bullet and casing. You don't need much, just enough to support the tip of the particular bullet, so it shouldn't be running out everywhere.

I am calling Redding this week and ordering a couple of plugs. I think I will chuck up the dummy and put the plug in the base vise filled with JB. Plumb it all up first. Lower the dummy bullet point down into the plug that is covered with a release on the outside and let it dry. Should work and by having the plug upside down no voids or gaps should form and only a little JB should be squeezed out. I will let you know how it works. Thanks

That will work or you could just drop an appropriate sized ball bearing into and upside down stem. Just be sure it has lots of release agent or it will be there for good. I did the method you described before VLD seater were readily available and it turned out fine.

In my 35 Whelen (RCBS dies) , I've taken the seating stem/plug out of my .357 Rem pistol dies to seat certain bullet profiles. Might be worth a look.

Redding has another plug on the way to me. No charge too. Tech said the JB Weld thing is a common fix.

Well, the JB Weld and the drill press worked. It made a great mold of the Woodleigh profile and now the roundnose has complete surface contact. No rocking in the plug! It took a little twist to break the bullet free and I put the plug in the freezer for good measure before I attempted to break it apart.

My 6.5x54 M-S seating plug is next. It is fine for SP bullets but is horrible for the Hornady 160gr round nose. Hardly any of the nose enters the plug and concentricity goes to hell fast.

Redding is sending me another plug a few thousands larger and I will see how that plug works as is or I will give it the JB Weld mold treatment.

I've been routinely doing that trick for decades on nose punches in cast bullet lubricator/sizers. Funny, I never considered it for seating stems.

I put the seating stem in a collett in my lathe. I first drill about a .070 +or- about .100 deep. I then use a micro solid carbide boring bar to cut the desired angle.
Done right I believe the JB Weld method done properly will work.

For making custom ends on seating stems, I found it was easier to work with the putty-like material from an epoxy stick instead of more liquid epoxy mixes.



It's possible to make a set of nose plugs for different bullets using a single seating stem if the cavity of the stem is coated with release agent. (I use leftover release agent from Acraglas bedding kits.)

--Bob