Chranah
Well-Known Member
Hey all,
I've been hand-loading for many years. I unabashedly hopped on the 6mm ARC train when it came by and I haven't looked back. I love this cartridge.
When I hopped on the train, the only available dies I could get my hands on were the LEE 3-die sets. The beauty of the 6ARC, (as you already know, I get it) is that it has a faster twist and can accommodate the longer, higher BC bullets, than say, the oldy but goody, .243 Win.
This is where I'm having issues and am looking for your input:
* When seating the bullet, the top seating screw barely has enough threads to stay in the die body. It's wobbly and I'm getting up to .010" difference in bullet seating depth. I'm using my comparitor to measure the ogive of the bullet, so I know I'm getting accurate readings.
* To overcome the above issue I'm backing the die body off in order to allow more room for the seating screw to go further into the die body. This, however, caused some of my shoulders to crush during bullet seating because they aren't supported.
* As a side note, I have annealed these cases and wonder if that made the brass so soft that it allowed them to crush more easily. About 1:15 crushed. The others took the bullet just fine.
I didn't have this issue before because I was loading to SAAMI specs and seating the bullet deeper, but I'm now trying to dial in my seating depth for optimal accuracy which is much further out than SAAMI, as well as FL sizing with a .005" shoulder bump. I don't think the LEE dies are up to the task. I'm leaning toward a set of RCBS dies. Ideas?
I've been hand-loading for many years. I unabashedly hopped on the 6mm ARC train when it came by and I haven't looked back. I love this cartridge.
When I hopped on the train, the only available dies I could get my hands on were the LEE 3-die sets. The beauty of the 6ARC, (as you already know, I get it) is that it has a faster twist and can accommodate the longer, higher BC bullets, than say, the oldy but goody, .243 Win.
This is where I'm having issues and am looking for your input:
* When seating the bullet, the top seating screw barely has enough threads to stay in the die body. It's wobbly and I'm getting up to .010" difference in bullet seating depth. I'm using my comparitor to measure the ogive of the bullet, so I know I'm getting accurate readings.
* To overcome the above issue I'm backing the die body off in order to allow more room for the seating screw to go further into the die body. This, however, caused some of my shoulders to crush during bullet seating because they aren't supported.
* As a side note, I have annealed these cases and wonder if that made the brass so soft that it allowed them to crush more easily. About 1:15 crushed. The others took the bullet just fine.
I didn't have this issue before because I was loading to SAAMI specs and seating the bullet deeper, but I'm now trying to dial in my seating depth for optimal accuracy which is much further out than SAAMI, as well as FL sizing with a .005" shoulder bump. I don't think the LEE dies are up to the task. I'm leaning toward a set of RCBS dies. Ideas?