Bullet seating in .300 win mag and .300 wth mag
- Thread starter trazman
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Lefty7mmstw
Well-Known Member
short answer-- no
long answer-- you may be able to fiddle with the die to work but it is unlikely and the seating die's crimp will prabably come on early with the longer neck of the wby. You will need a sizing die anyway so get the set and do it right.
long answer-- you may be able to fiddle with the die to work but it is unlikely and the seating die's crimp will prabably come on early with the longer neck of the wby. You will need a sizing die anyway so get the set and do it right.
Yes.
You don't need to crimp bullets for either cartridge; that typically hurts accuracy. And either seating die will work well if case necks are straight on the case shoulders.
If you use a .300 Win. Mag. seating die on the Weatherby case, you'll have to back it out of the press so it doesn't touch the longer Wby. Mag's shoulder or case mouth.
When a .300 Wby. Mag. seating die's used on shorter Win. Mag. cases, their case neck won't go all the way into the die's neck, but enough to seat bullets nicely.
I've used a .30-.338 Win. Mag. seating die on .300 Win. Mag. cases without a hitch and got excellent accuracy. All of a case neck doesn't have to fill a seating die's neck; just enough to keep the case neck reasonably aligned with the die's center. Bullets seat relative to the case neck axis, not the die neck axis.
You don't need to crimp bullets for either cartridge; that typically hurts accuracy. And either seating die will work well if case necks are straight on the case shoulders.
If you use a .300 Win. Mag. seating die on the Weatherby case, you'll have to back it out of the press so it doesn't touch the longer Wby. Mag's shoulder or case mouth.
When a .300 Wby. Mag. seating die's used on shorter Win. Mag. cases, their case neck won't go all the way into the die's neck, but enough to seat bullets nicely.
I've used a .30-.338 Win. Mag. seating die on .300 Win. Mag. cases without a hitch and got excellent accuracy. All of a case neck doesn't have to fill a seating die's neck; just enough to keep the case neck reasonably aligned with the die's center. Bullets seat relative to the case neck axis, not the die neck axis.
Lefty7mmstw
Well-Known Member
I should probably clarify. It is possible if you can get your die backed out enough to clear the longer case and neck so the crimp doesn't come on, but it's sloppy reloading and you won't have a well supported case. It is a recipe for run-out.
I've got no worse than 2/1000ths runout on .270 Win. cases having bullets seated in a .30-06 seating die.
On a bet some years before that, I was told that .308 Win. cases could have bullets seated in their cases using a .358 Win. die so I bet $20 that it wouldn't work well at all. Seated 20 rounds of .308's in that .358 seater and they all had less than 3/1000ths runout. My friend spent my $20 on another set of reloading dies.
If case necks are straight on the shoulder and no more than 1 to 1.5 thousandths smaller in mouth diameter than what the bullet is as well as the case mouth deburred at a lesser angle than what most deburring tools have (Easy Out twisted clockwise in trimmed cases makes a much better angle), case necks stay straight on case shoulders quite well and can have a lot of room around them when bullets are seated. Folks who scoff at this should do some tests of their own just like I did.
