Thread: Bullet seating centricity any tricks and tips?

Hello guys, I recently bought some nice Lapua 6.5mm brass and some ELD-M 130gr projectiles to load up and after knocking out 50 thought I'd test them in a home made centricity gauge. Bugger me, more than half are not seated straight! Pretty pee'd off! All I can think is this type of projectile doesn't like Lee seating dies. Anyone else found this? I checked the end of the projectile wasn't bottoming out which it isn't but it engages close to the top marring the projectile. I've bought a nice Forster Ultra micrometer seating die from ebay that is more optimised for these types of bullets.

Any tricks to get the best centricity? Brass prep? Tried turning the round through 180 degrees during seating. No good! Maybe standard Lee dies are just not great for precision loading?

Originally Posted by omegaspeedy

Hello guys, I recently bought some nice Lapua 6.5mm brass and some ELD-M 130gr projectiles to load up and after knocking out 50 thought I'd test them in a home made centricity gauge. Bugger me, more than half are not seated straight! Pretty pee'd off! All I can think is this type of projectile doesn't like Lee seating dies. Anyone else found this? I checked the end of the projectile wasn't bottoming out which it isn't but it engages close to the top marring the projectile. I've bought a nice Forster Ultra micrometer seating die from ebay that is more optimised for these types of bullets.

Any tricks to get the best centricity? Brass prep? Tried turning the round through 180 degrees during seating. No good! Maybe standard Lee dies are just not great for precision loading?

Attachment 72169

First off I would make sure my case necks were concentric before I worried about seating.

If your brass necks are concentric then you can look at it being a seating die issue.
If the brass is not concentric at the neck then you likely have a FL or neck die issue or worse a chamber issue.

I have shot ammo that was over 7 tho out and it shot as good as stuff with no runout @ 600 yrds.
Not sure it is as much of an issue as it is made out to be.

Still it is one thing less to worry about when fault finding.

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Nathan Foster was talking about these on his site the other day....some of them are so long and skinny they will hit at tip before the ogive?? enguages the seating die...50 quid to a knob of goat turd you cant see ring around loaded projectile where die was pushing....... black one out with a felt tip pen and see if Im correct.
and there is nothing wrong with lee dies.

New Lapua brass can be quite undersized in the neck generating heavy neck tension. Some seating dies may deal with this better than others. Things could straighten up on once-fired brass when you get to control the neck sizing yourself.

A second thought worth adding; I also had a concentricity issue recently and it turned out to be from wear in the press.

found reference it was it latest blog...talking about the 7mm 180grn suggests tip is hitting button in seating dies and says may have to get seating button reemed out... as said before black a pill with felt tip and see if ring can be seen when seating.

Neck thickness variations will pay a small part too.

Originally Posted by R93

First off I would make sure my case necks were concentric before I worried about seating.

If your brass necks are concentric then you can look at it being a seating die issue.
If the brass is not concentric at the neck then you likely have a FL or neck die issue or worse a chamber issue.

I have shot ammo that was over 7 tho out and it shot as good as stuff with no runout @ 600 yrds.
Not sure it is as much of an issue as it is made out to be.

Still it is one thing less to worry about when fault finding.

Sent from my SM-G935F using Tapatalk

Thanks, I'll check these out to see if they are out. It's brand new brass and premium at that. I assumed it would have already been up to Lapua specs. I also checked an earlier batch of Hornady (New) and Sierre Match King and they were also wobbly. They did shoot pretty good surprisingly.

I was taught to put projectile in half way, turn case 180 degrees and then the final seating. If that makes sense

Hamish

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Originally Posted by Micky Duck

Nathan Foster was talking about these on his site the other day....some of them are so long and skinny they will hit at tip before the ogive?? enguages the seating die...50 quid to a knob of goat turd you cant see ring around loaded projectile where die was pushing....... black one out with a felt tip pen and see if Im correct.
and there is nothing wrong with lee dies.

As mentioned, I checked if they were bottoming out and they weren't. The Lee Die is definitely marring the copper!

Originally Posted by Puffin

New Lapua brass can be quite undersized in the neck generating heavy neck tension. Some seating dies may deal with this better than others. Things could straighten up on once-fired brass when you get to control the neck sizing yourself.

A second thought worth adding; I also had a concentricity issue recently and it turned out to be from wear in the press.

Actually yes the necks were very tight and I thought this was contributing to the issue. I ran a die through the neck of 40 remaining which allowed an easier seat, but still crooked. Maybe once I fire this brass it will come right. I've also noticed the brass is annealed and harder than Hornady because I used the Lyman deburring tool to ensure a good start at seating and it was quite hard.

Originally Posted by bully

Neck thickness variations will pay a small part too.

I guess if I set the DTI on the inner I should see this? Lapua is good stuff and I'm thinking the Lee die just doesn't like the tightness of the brass and the style of projectile. This Forster die is optimised for VDL type bullets so fingers crossed that after firing the brass will condition and the Forster will seat more accurately.

How far out of centricity is considered a problem?

Originally Posted by HNTMAD

I was taught to put projectile in half way, turn case 180 degrees and then the final seating. If that makes sense

Hamish

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Yes checked some Youtube videos and tried this but it didn't help, probably because the neck is so tight and the damage is done as soon as seating starts.

been there done that.
unless your shooting bench rest or elr go and get your ballpeen number and beat your concentricity Guage into little bits.
hornady make a eld seating stem that I use that stops the marking on the projectiles

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Originally Posted by andyanimal31

been there done that.
unless your shooting bench rest or elr go and get your ballpeen number and beat your concentricity Guage into little bits.
hornady make a eld seating stem that I use that stops the marking on the projectiles

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Yes your probably right, I'm going to join my local long range so just want to get it a little better than what they are now. Hoping that the Forster die which is optimized for VDL will be a bit more accurate.

Read an article that mentioned that if not central the bullet will head down the barrel slightly deeper on one side in the riffling than the other which is fine until it leaves the barrel then it will tend to move in space put off by its centre of mass asymmetry causing a wider group at the end. Just want to eliminate a bit of this.

I'd get rid of the centricity gauge , shoot what you've loaded and see what happens