Seating die too short - ever experience this?!

[LRHWAL]

I have a set of regular Lee dies for my 375H&H. I sold a great set of Forsters as I figured it was overkill for a rifle I shoot over short range and my buddy needed a set of dies and I liked a built in crimp ring (which Forster doesn't have).

Anyway, the Lee seater was too short to be able to crimp and seat as one operation. Turned down to the crimp depth the seater plug must be removed from the die or the bullet can't be seated. At no time could you screw the seater plug in even a few turns.

So.... I order another set (yes, I'm a sucker, but I like some of Lee's products). This time a Collet die and Dead Length Seater. I posted elsewhere on how skew the base of the Collet die was cut, but the seater was unuseable.

The body of the seater die is too short. You simply can't even approach the shellholder and insert the seater plug. It makes the whole set-up unstable and the case poorly supported in the die. You need to back out the die and the seater plug. Best of all, the Dead Length die instructions require you to screw the die down to contact the shellholder!

I was like WHAT!!??

These are round nose and semi-spitzers, but this is still crazy, and it's a big problem and looking at the seater plug drilling isn't going to help any. I have't tried pointed bullets yet, but doubt this will help any (and won't help me as I don't shoot them).

Surely I can't be the only guy who has ever found this?! Any comments?

Thanks!

 

[Winchester 69]

Shoulda' kept the Forsters. Could've added a crimp die.

 

[johnnyk]

LRHWAL,
Never had a problem like that, if I understand the problem correctly. Are you trying to set the seater die up so it touches the shell holder when you run the ram up? JohnnyK.

 

[LRHWAL]

Shoulda' kept the Forsters. Could've added a crimp die.

You have it wrong, "Shooters do it with FORESIGHT" remember, not hindsight!

JohnnyK

Ideally Lee claim you must touch the shellholder; they have some lowest runout guarantee which wasn't what attracted me, but the "deadlength" is required to achieve this apparently. That's not the point, realistically you can't screw the dies in a reasonable amount and screw the seater plug in a reasonable amount.

I need to measure the OAL and see where that comes out.

I'll be away from my computer for a bit, so I'll post that only in a week or so!

Thanks guys.

 

[Winchester 69]

You have it wrong, "Shooters do it with FORESIGHT" remember, not hindsight!

Using foresight, I don't buy Lee products.