Hammer Hunters & seating stems

[Varmint Hunter]

I've been loading the 124gr HH bullets in my 6.5PRC with Redding dies and use a competition seater. Everything works well except that the seater die really grabs the ojive of the bullet. It grabs it so well that when lifting the press handle you can hear and feel the bullet nose "pop" from the stem. I've been putting a touch of Imperial lube on the ojive just so it releases a bit easier but that's really a Rube Goldberg solution.

Does anyone know if Redding has a different seating stem that would be a better choice for the HH bullets? For whatever reason, no other bullets seem to stick this way, not even the really pointy bullets like the 156EOL.

 

[Huntnful]

I've had the same issue. I just pit a bullet with some sanding grit on it (like for lapping rings) put it in a drill and spin it inside of the seating stem for 30 seconds. It'll re-contour the stem much better to fit the bullet.

But there's also VLD & Standard stems. Sometimes they both grab though and you're back to square one and have to sand one down anyways.

 

[just_jon]

You can also bed your stem with JB Weld if sanding doesn't work out.

 

[bamban]

Years ago before VLD stems were even offered, I drilled the stem, acetone cleaned, packed it with JB weld. Release agent on everything else bedded my VLD dummy round (runout checked good) Wilson seating die upside down in the arbor press. 24 hours later, fully cured JB. Drilled the center somewhat to accommodate varying VLD tips

Glove fit seating stem...

just_jon types quicker than my thumb on the phone

 

[Varmint Hunter]

Maybe I'll try a little ring lapping compound. I'm aware that others have tried this but I never have. I do have a few VLD seater plugs for other Redding dies, but I'm not confident that one will work in this case.

 

[Huntnful]

Maybe I'll try a little ring lapping compound. I'm aware that others have tried this but I never have. I do have a few VLD seater plugs for other Redding dies, but I'm not confident that one will work in this case.

If you have several extra stems anyways, I would definitely just lap one really quick with a bullet and then load that bullet as a fouler.

 

[Wedgy]

Same thing here and on Cutting Edge also, I think the stem grabs the tiny ridges on the bullet from the machining. I used lapping compound but might try JB weld.

 

[AnesthesiaMD]

My Forster micrometer die did the same thing. I sent a couple pieces of brass and a couple bullets off to Forster and $9 later I had a custom seating stem with no more grabbing "pop".

 

[Alibiiv]

I just experienced something similar with some 221gr Shock Hammers that I am loading for my son's 450 Bushmaster. I have an RCBS set that comes with a flat and a coned seating stem. I didn't want to use the flat stem because I did not want to distort the hollow point so I went with polishing and fitting the coned stem instead. I chucked the stem into the drill press, essentially turning it into a vertical lathe; a hand drill would have done the same. I used some 400 grit, 3M wet sand paper dipped into some WD40 and polished off the sharp edges of the cone. I then took the stem out and tried a bullet into the cone. I had to make a couple of sanding adjustments until the sharp edge no longer hit the ogive of the bullet. After that I used a felt bob and some "white-diamond" polishing compound in the Dremel while the stem was chucked up in the drill press again, and polished the cone. That took care of that problem and no more marks on the bullets. I never thought of bedding the die with JB weld, that ought to work as well and "will" use that with any other seating dies that cause issues.

 

[Bull_Mtn]

I use the standard .300 WSM, RCBS seating die for the 181 gr HH with no problem. Here's a picture of some I loaded yesterday.

 

[QuietTexan]

Same thing here and on Cutting Edge also, I think the stem grabs the tiny ridges on the bullet from the machining. I used lapping compound but might try JB weld.

CEs stick really bad in my Redding comp seater, Hammers don't seem to as much but still get a pop occasionally.

Chuck bullet up, lap it hard, works a lot better:

 

[Varmint Hunter]

CEs stick really bad in my Redding comp seater, Hammers don't seem to as much but still get a pop occasionally.

Chuck bullet up, lap it hard, works a lot better:

A picture is worth a 1,000 words. Thanks for the video.