Using a bushing die as a seating die ?

J

Jim D

Member
Has anyone used a Bushing die to seat bullets ?

For years I've searched for a seating stem, that contacted the bullet close to it's widest point. Not any luck, in finding a stem to go that far down the Ogive.

Different bullets have different Ogive shapes. A proper bushing size could solve this.

Solution, at least in theory, is to use a smaller bushing, than the diameter of the bullet in your Bushing die.

Any thoughts ?

Jim
 
seater die

Jim -

Howdy !

I like shooting groundhogs w/ Hornady .224" cal 55SX . These have .009" thick jackets. I wanted to be able to seat these w/o putting undue stress on them.
I had Hornady make me a seating stem specifically configured to accomodate the 55SX. I also had them make me a seater specific to the .224" cal 75"A"-Max, since their ogive was so long that is was contacting the top inside of the stock seater stem before the stem itself would contact the upper bullet' body.

When using a neck bushing, I am wondering about whether a conventional seater stem ( especially a custom one ) wouldn't make better contact w/ the bullet; and be a little less likely to produce run-out ? Hmmm.......



With regards,
357Mag
 
Yes run out would be a concern.

The thing about using the Bushing die ? The expense is nill, compared to buying custom made stems.

The bushings would have a large contact area, so i doubt there shouldn't be any distortion.

Uniformity of seating depth should be the same, even with different Ogive shapes.

I'm going to play with this a little.

Just curious if others have tried this simple trick, and what their results were ? ?

Jim
 
WOW !!

I just returned from the cave. Full length sized 5 LC 13 .223 unprimed, once fired brass.

Pulled out a 204 Neck die. removed the guts. This worked great. No marks were left on the bullets, during the seating process. I turned the seated bullet, so I could see where the bullet contacted the neck inside the 204 sizing die.

First bullet I seated was a 50gr. Remington HP, with a concave base. . Then seated 4, 53 gr, Hornady HP Mat. with cannelure.

Not having an accurate dial indicator, I rolled the cases, on a glass surface. ( I used to do this with my Aluminum Arrows, and tips) Anyway, I could see no tip wobble !

The cannelure , on the 53gr bullets, indicated a very uniform seating depth !

The beauty of this arrangement, is the 204 Neck die adjustment, will seat , no matter the shape of the bullet to the same depth.

I hope this is of use to others.

Guessing the Bench rest crowd will find this

Jim
 
Some while back, I seated 210 grainers in a .308 case, albeit with a seriously long throat for my 1000-1200 yard rifle using a Redding competition die - and I buggered the seating plunger. While Redding replaced it & the scratched die body promptly, these days I understand that they recommend against using their dies for long bullets.

That set me to wondering about a precision alternative that didn't predispose the seating plunger to expand & jam or scratch the die body. I concluded that two dies were needed:

  • One to partially/almost fully seat using technology that did not distort the plunger whilst still supporting the bullet straight
  • A second die with a substantial diameter head that could absorb addressing the bullet ogive close to where it met the parallel body and barely nudged it finally into place.
I finally decided that it was too much trouble for the effort and in any case it could well distort the bullet profile.

A lot of my loading issues are resolved with the motto, do nothing.
 
John certainly doing nothing has it's merits.

The bullets I seated with the bushing die, showed no damage to the bullet, and no runout by my viewing.

This method has satisfied my long search for a tool that contacts the bullet near the widest point. With this, I can seat a variety of bullets and get the same seating depth every time.

I'll be using this simple solution, and testing it more !

Thanks !

Jim
 
I think if you are seating those bullets long or into the rifling,
concentricity at the tip is a non-issue as the rifling put the bullet where the rifling wants to push it.
 
Jamming the bullets into the lands is what I want to avoid.

That is the purpose of using a seating system, that is more consistent with seating depth.

I use a bullet Comparator to measure seating depth. Factory seat stems, show more variation, in seating depth, than I like.

A bushing die can be used to at least reduce this amount of error.

I'm still in the trail stage. So far I like it.

Jim
 
It would only take a few minutes on a metal lathe to make a replacement seating
stem piece to your choice of contact points.
 
I like the idea. Ty. My 243 bushing should work with the 6.5 ? Have to try it. Using Redding Type S FL sizing bushing die.

The Redding standard die, 6.5 seating stem was contacting the bullets nose. Had to drill it out.
 
Last edited:
Jim D said:
It would be nice to have a lathe !
I don't.

Jim
Click to expand...

Some of the smaller bench top style are not all that pricey.

There are so many things you can do with even a smaller say 8 inch x 24 inch.

For smaller shaft style items you can often limp with a floor mounted drill press.
Rig up a bearing on the table to hold the off end of water you are trying to turn.
 
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