Seating die is crimping my bullets, advice please

[m3mike]

I use a Redding competition seating die, have loaded lots of rounds with it. Today when I set the die up and started it felt like the die was bottoming out and it put crimps in the bullets just below the tip (see photo). What am I doing wrong?

 

[Lefty7mmstw]

that's not really a crimp, but deformation... High neck tension combined with soft bullet noses will do this...
switch bullets, anneal your brass, have the die maker make a punch for your pills... one or all of the above will fix this... also, compressed charges can also make this happen with soft bullets.

 

[m3mike]

that's not really a crimp, but deformation... High neck tension combined with soft bullet noses will do this...
switch bullets, anneal your brass, have the die maker make a punch for your pills... one or all of the above will fix this... also, compressed charges can also make this happen with soft bullets.

I've loaded hundreds of rounds with this die and combination and it never did this before. I use Lapua brass which is annealed, not a compressed load, same seating depth. Not sure what's going on. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[lancetkenyon]

Get a different seating stem. They are cheap, and come in various tapers for different bullets like the VLDs, ELDs, etc.

 

[memtb]

Could your die be adjusted so that you are still seating the bullet, after the crimp has been or is being applied? memtb

 

[Mikecr]

it felt like the die was bottoming out

Sounds like your seating force went way up. Should have stayed pretty much the same through full length seating, unless you hit donut with the base-bearing junction. Were the necks FL sized? Was there follow-up expansion with the neck sizing? Did the bullets reach expected seating depths?

 

[WWP2012]

When was the last time you took your die apart and cleaned it?

 

[DUSTY NOGGIN]

what size bushing and what size neck did you start with ,

im gonna go with the donut idea as well .. the second picture looks like it dips in right below the boat tail of the bullet at the neck shoulder junction

caliper the middle of neck wall overall what does that measure ?? , then measure at the neck shoulder junction at the corner , rotate to find the lowest measurement ... is there a difference ??

a picture of the bullet next to one of those loaded rounds showing how deep it goes in the case would help to see if it stops right there were donuts start

 

[curtiscd]

I had this happen with the 143 ELD—X in a 6.5-284 running .002 neck tension on once fired Lapua brass. Switched to the VLD seating stem and had no more issues. I believe the standard stem lands perfectly at the expansion cavity of the bullet and this occurs.

 

[m3mike]

Did some more reading and it appears this is a common problem with the 143 ELD-x. I ordered a VLD long stem for the Redding die, we'll see if that corrects the problem. I FL resize with a bushing die and try to run .002 neck tension. I'm kind of surprised that Redding doesn't include a VLD stem with the competition die set.

 

[m3mike]

Thanks to everyone for the help.

 

[Mikecr]

You would think by now all die makers would at least test their stuff and adjust for VLDs..
Still sounds like your bullets are bottoming out against something in the necks. Takes a lot of force to deform bullets that much.

 

[cape cove]

No expert by any means, but I agree with @Mikecr on this in that it takes a lot of force to deform bullets like you pictured. I've seated bullets with non vld seating stems and never damaged the bullets like this. Something tells me your problem lies elsewhere.

 

[DUSTY NOGGIN]

No expert by any means, but I agree with @Mikecr on this in that it takes a lot of force to deform bullets like you pictured. I've seated bullets with non vld seating stems and never damaged the bullets like this. Something tells me your problem lies elsewhere.

i agree .. 2 thou tension .. should feel very light restiction .. i cant see it doing that much damage either , even with wrong stem