seating die

[cracker57]

whats the best seating die for JHP, I love or should I say my guns love the Precision Delta 124 JHP for my 9MM's
the die I use gives me very big swings on OAL. I use mixed brass and know that will give different OALs but I would like to keep it reasonable.

 

[scooter123]

I like the RCBS seating die, have two for 9mm, one for flat point and one where I used a center drill on the seating stem for round nose bullets.

 

[Rlg#17]

Dillon is what works best for me. You can also seat and crimp with them at separate stations which is something that I do for all my reloads.
Also, and I know this is a pita, I sort brass by manufacturer. I have found that the dies may need a slight adjustment to fit in AND out of the case gauge reliably.

I have dies from most brands. Dillon seems the best.

Regards, Rick Gibbs

 

[Forrest r]

whats the best seating die for JHP, I love or should I say my guns love the Precision Delta 124 JHP for my 9MM's
the die I use gives me very big swings on OAL. I use mixed brass and know that will give different OALs but I would like to keep it reasonable.

Interesting.

I see this statement all the time and for some reason I just can't wrap my noodle around it. "I use mixed brass and know that will give different OALs"


???

 

[Ivan the Butcher]

I see this statement all the time and for some reason I just can't wrap my noodle around it. "I use mixed brass and know that will give different OALs"

Factory ammo is crimped in such a way as the bullet type will cause minor case length variations, so when reloading these MAY show up in cartridge over all lengths. Seldom a problem with handgun ammo in straight wall cases but shows up in a major way with bottle neck rifle cases.

Ivan

 

[TheTinMan]

I would say that if your guns love bullet X the way you are seating it now, don't worry about what your calipers say regarding OAL.

 

[toad67]

I would say that if your guns love bullet X the way you are seating it now, don't worry about what your calipers say regarding OAL.

Great point, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. A guy can spend a lot of money on things that aren't worth the price of admission.

 

[gwpercle]

Take the dies you have now and give seating the bullet in one step ...w/o crimping ... and then crimping the bullet in a seperate step w/o seating deeper . The two step seat / crimp will give you the most consistent OAL the linkage in your press will allow .

A lot of reloaders don't realize if the linkage is sloppy ... the OAL will vary and It Aint the seating / crimping dies ... it comes from the tolerances in the press .
Check out the press and tighten up linkage and do the two-step seat
- crimp dance and see if that helps .
Gary

 

[Nevada Ed]

With "Mixed Brass" or cases, you will get different OAL lengths,
it can not be prevented, due to the differences in the ..........

Wall thickness of the different companies cases and their make up,
let alone if the starting OAL is different and never been trimmed to
all the cases being the same OAL.

When belled for the bullet, the inside dia, has to be different
letting the bullet enter, deeper or less than the other company cases.

As long as you take out the belling and the round "Plunks" in your barrel
there should be no problems, if just target ammo.

 

[rockquarry]

whats the best seating die for JHP, I love or should I say my guns love the Precision Delta 124 JHP for my 9MM's
the die I use gives me very big swings on OAL. I use mixed brass and know that will give different OALs but I would like to keep it reasonable.

No best. I've probably used most or all of them; they're all fine. Get the right seating stem. I've used mixed brass and still use some. It may work fine but it will never work better than brass of the same batch or at least brass with the same headstamp.

There are always exceptions, but generally the different OALs don't mean much, if anything, for shooting purposes because the differences aren't that significant. You'll run into this particularly with mixed brass. If you want to verify this, shoot some 10-shot groups from a benchrested position at 25 yards and compare with groups fired with cartridges that have exactly the same OAL.

 

[Green Frog]

+1 to what rockquarry said. I've even seated round nosed 125 gr lead with the seating die in an old Lyman 310 tong tool. It's the crimp that counts.

 

[rockquarry]

As for crimp, regardless of the type used, crimp as little as possible; just enough to prevent bullet movement under recoil and no more. Many crimp too much and this can adversely affect accuracy. If you buy into the "heavy crimp makes for better ignition" theory, fine, but I've yet to see any evidence of this, regardless of cartridge.

 

[jjrr]

I agree with Forrestr in post #4, I can't see how mixed brass or length of brass can affect oal.

 

[rockquarry]

I agree with Forrestr in post #4, I can't see how mixed brass or length of brass can affect oal.

Some measure the OAL of jacketed bullet rounds; they will have different OALs because the length of the bullets themselves vary. Cast bullet length variance will be less, maybe much less and this will be refected in overall cartridge length.

For reason or reasons unknown by me, different brass and brass of different lengths can cause OAL fluctuations, even wth cast bullets of the same batch. None of these variations are of any real significance for shooting purposes.

Significant variations in length are something entirely different and a serious problem. I don't believe that's what we've been discussing in this thread.

 

[jjrr]

My experience with reloading is that OAL is the length from where the base of the cartridge case sits in the shell holder to the bottom of the seating stem in the reloading die when the the press ram is raised to the top. This should not vary with respect to how long or short the piece of cartridge brass is. If I see OAL variation I would look at the shape of the tip of the bullet and how it sits in the seating stem. Just my thoughts.

 

[TheTinMan]

I agree with Forrestr in post #4, I can't see how mixed brass or length of brass can affect oal.

If you are doing a HARD roll crimp, it's possible that the bullet gets seated a little deeper during the crimp stage. Different case length might affect that. However, I always back off the crimp if that's happening at all.

 

[rockquarry]

My experience with reloading is that OAL is the length from where the base of the cartridge case sits in the shell holder to the bottom of the seating stem in the reloading die when the the press ram is raised to the top. This should not vary with respect to how long or short the piece of cartridge brass is. If I see OAL variation I would look at the shape of the tip of the bullet and how it sits in the seating stem. Just my thoughts.

You might have something there.

 

[Nevada Ed]

A good seating Die will have

two types of units to seat a RN or FP bullet design.
The correct unit will "Help" seat the style bullet, a little better
than the other unit, per test.

Crimping is a whole new "Ball Game"

The case can be;
too short
correct or
too long

for a crimp to be placed on a case.

Don't make it hard, folks.

 

[BLUEDOT37]

...whats the best seating die for JHP
...the die I use gives me very big swings on OAL.
...I use mixed brass and know that will give different OALs...

I encountered the same problem, it's not the mixed brass, it's the face of the seating die stem's shape.

Most standard seating die stems have a curved face that contacts the nose of the bullet. The slight variations from nose to nose cause the COAL" swing.

Most jacketed hollow-points (that don't have a polymer filler plug in the nose) are actually flat-nosed bullets.

Using a flat seating die stem will make all of the difference in the world.

I have many Lee die sets & I went to their website & ordered flat seating stems from them to replace all of the standard curved/round nose seating die stems I currently have.

Big difference!

.