wilson die/arbor press question

T

tiny68

Member
Ok. Greenhorn questions. Please be patient with me. I got a 30BR that came with a Wilson seater die (non-micrometer). I just got in a Bruno's arbor press. Gun is a 0.332 neck. Necks are turned so that loaded round at 0.330-0.331 with 125 Bergers. I FL sized with a 0.327 bushing (that is as large as I have). I went to seat a bullet and the handle spins on the press before the bullet is seated. Happens on almost every bullet. Some I could never get to seat with the press without pushing down of the top of the arbor press. I am pushing down pretty hard. Doing that I could seat them. The brass seems very tight in the die. Some I have to remove with a screw driver at the rim to get them started out.

So.... Is the press defective? Only arbor press I have ever touch. Is this too much neck tension for an arbor press? I am chaffering the mouth with VLD style tool. Is it possible this die is made for a 0.330 neck?

Input please, tiny
 
tiny68 said:
The brass seems very tight in the die. Some I have to remove with a screw driver at the rim to get them started out.
Click to expand...

Having to remove with screwdriver is not that unusual. The handle spinning statement does not sound right, can you seat bullet by hand without the arbor press at all ?

I would assume since you say die came with rifle it is ok.
 
How far up the neck is the powder column? I had a perceived problem with my wilson dies until I realized that I had to drop my powder charge more slowly allowing the kernels to pack more tightly, and then my bullets would seat.
I, too, have had to remove some of my cases with a screwdriver (very light tension just to break the seal).

Is the height on the press set correctly? or if it is not adjustable is there a way to raise the die so the handle doesn't spin (this is assuming that you are running out of ram stroke before you are able to seat the bullet completely). If I have misunderstood, please forgive the 20 seconds I have taken from you.
:)
Mike
 
problem solved

It ended up being a loose screw. I tighted the one on the right side the first time. Closer inspection showed I needed to tighten the left side to increase contact pressure between the handle and cog that drives the ram.

FYI, I am not running 100% capacity. Powder is only right at the base of the neck with 32.5 gr of H4198. Bullets only seated about half way into the neck.

Thanks again, tiny
 
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I really like Lester's lightweight arbor presses... The one he donated for the Cup Team Tough Man 50/50 had to be about half the weight of the steel one I haul around in my box...
 
tiny--If removing the cases from the Wilson seating die is bothersome, you can send the die back in to L.E. Wilson, along with three of your resized casings and they will fix the die so the casings don't stick.

Personally, I don't mind it when one or two casings stick a little bit. I know I have a darn good fit between the sizing die walls and the casing and that the casing is centered in the die body. I did send one of my seating dies in to be fixed, because it took a tremendous amount of pressure with a screwdriver blade to get the casing back out of the die.

If I remember right, I think it cost something like $6.75 or $7.00 to Wilson make the die fit the casings better.
 
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