Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Crease in bullets

Loaded some 155 scenars in .308. my Hornady custom die is putting a crease in them when I seat them.

Am I doing something wrong or is the a faulty die or no big deal? Thanks....

The internal contour of the seating plug doesn't suit the Scenar ogive, so all the seating force is concentrated in that narrow ring.

What's the "neck tension" in thousandths?

Thanks man, but hell if I know. I just follow the directions that came with the die. I'm dense about this stuff. To reduce neck tension do I screw out the stem or the die body? Apologies for being a nitwit. ..

This^^^

The seater plug is is a gross mismatch for the bullet or there is some bodacious tension on those bullets.

What we casually call neck tension is really the amount of interference fit when the bullet is seated.

For example, the outside diameter of the necks of my sized cases measures .332". When the bullet is seated it's .336", so that's a .004" interference fit.

Not a nitwit at all. It’s part of the learning curve.

It might have less to do with the seating die. The problem started during the sizing process.

The sizing die is sizing the neck to a smaller than needed diameter. Part of this can also be caused by thicker neck walls.

Also, the expander ball may be a bit undersized.

What brand and type of sizing die are you using?

Ok, I see what die you’re using.

As MM says, the seater plug is concentrating the force during seating on that ring seen on the bullet. I know nothing about Hornady dies or the seater shape. I wonder if Hornady offers a different seater plug for their die.

If it was me, I would get out my Dremel, a felt wheel, some grinding compound and modify the angle of the seater plug so that a larger area of the seater plug contacts the bullet.

Or buy a different seater die. I realize it’s your money I’m spending here.

Thanks for the help. A different seater die might cost less than crappy ammo. I thought I was stepping up from the rcbs with "Hornady custom". Suppose this is one reason for Forster? Nothing is ever easy.

Forster.

It’s only money……🙂

You could call Hornady. I know Lee will make you a custom seater plug if needed for their dies for a couple bucks. Send them the bullet you're seating and they will make a seater plug to fit it. Perhaps Hornady will do the same.

I know this because of loading 17 Hornet for a guy using the Nosler 20 gr tipped VMG bullet. Opposite problem you're having. Bullet tip only was hitting the top of the seating plug and making it very difficult to seat the bullet concentric.

Or chuck a bullet in a drill, put some grinding compound on the bullet tip and run it into the seating plug. Go a little at a time and seat some sample bullets until you’ve eliminated or minimized the pressure ring. Also do check your interference fit as MM describes.

I’ve never tried it that way but others have said it works well! One of these days I will….

I had the same issue with my RCBS die. I decided to contact RCBS and pay to have a seating stem custom made for the scenars. You send in 3 bullets of your choice, mine being the 155's, and in about 2 weeks, they mail you out a new stem custom made for that bullet. I'm sure that Hornady does the same. Now I also use the 130 ttsx and the original stem leaves mars on those as well. So I took 1 ttsx, and coated it with shoe polish. I then took the original seating stem out of the die and put JB weld into it. pressed the polished 130 ttsx into it and the JB oozed out. I let ir dry and trimmed off the excess. Now I have a stem specifically for the 130's and the 155's. No more marks on bullets.

Oh and one more thing, unless I missed it, you can drill out the stem deeper so that the tip of the scenar isn't bottoming out. Then come back and polish as mentioned above. I ran into this with the berger vld's in my 7 mag die. here is a good video on how its done.

Seating stem mod

Thanks so much everyone. A wealth of knowledge here. I'll check some measurements and see which way to go. I appreciate the help and suggestions.

A dab of JB Weld (in the seater plug) and a bullet with some wax on it will make a perfect mold as well. I will usually drill the tip out (JB weld) a bit after so the bullet tips cannot touch.

Yep. Never know when a bullet and seater stem might have a serious mismatch. Combine that with a lot of neck tension and there you go. I have a Forster die setup right now that is doing the same with .223 and the 77TMK. Need to sort it out.

Do they make a VLD seating stem for those Hornady dies?

The JBWeld hack mentioned by beretzs is the quickest and easiest way to fix this situation.

↑ This, I've done several. I choose my straightest bullet for the mold and the runout is always decreased after bedding.