Is there some thing wrong with my seating die.

[Knight]

I had a similar problem with Hornady Dies in 308. I called the company and the tech told me it was the bullet seating stem.
I received two stems in my kit. I changed out the stems and problem solved. Hope this works for you.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Are you using Hornady's specific seating stem for the 212 ELD-X? If not, all bets are off.

I think it is ridiculous that they have to make specific seating stems for specific bullets to exactly match their nose profiles....but they do. I have found ELD-X and ELD-M to have very soft noses on their jackets, and inconsistent neck tension will cause the stem to slightly deform the jackets at the nose when not using Hornady specific stems, causing huge CBTO variations.
One of the many reasons I dislike Hornady.

 

[rsnell]

The seating stem could be your problem. Remove the seating stem from the die and see if the bullet is making good contact with the stem. This problem is common with older dies and ELD bullets. Hornady may make a seating stem that will solve your problem.

 

[brotherbear67]

You could be getting spring back when seating the bullets if neck tension isn't consistent from case to case

 

[tnek13]

Neck tension, case spring back, compressed powder, variation in bullet dimensions, seating stem fit, etc. Measure everything and come up with the variance you are comfortable with and go shoot, of course, make sure you do not jam the bullet to tightly into the lands. I measure from the ogee and try not to think of the COAL since it varies unless I sort all the bullet, by OAL, Base to ogee, weight, etc. and it just does not matter that much to me as I always allow a jump. And as suggested already clean. your die, make sure it functions properly, get the stem that fits the nose profile of your bullet. Hornady has a stem for their VLD profile bullets.

 

[WildBillG]

I do not have the specific seating stem for the 212ELDX so that will be one issue. As was mentioned I did notice quite a mark on the nose of the seated bullets. My thought at one point was to see if some one made VLD seating stems but only found the Hornady specific ones. As for neck tension the cases were freshly annealled and I was hoping that would help this issue. Does it take more than one annealling to make neck tension more consistent.

 

[WildBillG]

Should add I am using Weatherby brass.

 

[lancetkenyon]

One annealing should bring you back to soft.
Depending on your die maker, you should have at least two options for stem profile. Normal and VLD stems. Try the VLD stem if you don't already have it. Might help limit/reduce deformation.
You could also try an expanding mandrel to open up your neck tension a bit to also reduce deformation when seating. I usually only try and get .001-.002" neck tension. So a .306-.307" expanding mandrel might help too.

 

[GLTaylor]

If you are getting a " ring" on the nose of your bullets you are getting deformation and have the wrong seater for the profile of your bullet. Get a VLD seater stem. For one of my rifle bullet seaters I had to send bullets back with the seater to get them to polish and modify the cone inside the seater to stop marking my bullets. Those particular bullets had rather extreme vld ogive shape

 

[cape cove]

Should add I am using Weatherby brass.

Do you have any of the loaded ammo on hand. If you do then pull some of the different lengths and measure the heads with a comparator. This will tell you if it is the bullets. If not the bullets then I believe it would be the seating stem. JMO

 

[David Emerson]

The 300 has a long neck and it can take a lot to seat the bullet.What seating stem?Are you getting a ring on the bullet from the seating stem? That may be your problem with the thin jacket bullets

 

[David Emerson]

The 300 has a long neck and it can take a lot to seat the bullet.What seating stem?Are you getting a ring on the bullet from the seating stem? That may be your problem with the thin jacket bullets

If you have a smith close trot down to see him with your seating stem and bullets and valve grinding compound so he can match the stem to the bullet in the lathe.

 

[WildBillG]

Just measured the length of about 15 of these 212ELDX. Most ran at 1.589 some at 1.586 but one went 1.598. This would effect the OACL wouldn't it. In all my years of reloading I have never measured the lengths of bullets before at least for this purpose. I am begining to see a fly in the ointment now.

 

[Tulsa Reiner]

are you measuring to the tip of the bullet or bearing surface? You'll never know how consistent your loads are unless you measure to the bearing surface.
[/QUOTE]
Are you using something like the Hornady Bullet Comparator to measure from case head to ogive?