Wilson seater stem biting into VLDs

[chino69]

Was at the range the other day fine tuning a load for a .22-250 A.I. using 80 grn. Horn. A-Maxes. I took the Wilson seater die, arbor press, calipers and attachment for measuring the seating depth. As I was seating the bullets I noticed a concentric ring right below the plastic tip where the seater stem was biting into the bullet giving me inconsistent depths. Anyone know of a fix out there?

 

[Lew]

Drill small hole in stem to widen the diameter and then polish area. Works for me.

 

[bozo699]

chino69,
I have in the past taken a bullet put lapping compound on it and with a cordless drill lapped the seating stem until it no longer bits the bullet.
Wayne.

 

[chino69]

Thanks for the replies. I called Wilson and they are now providing seating stems for VLD bullets. I ordered a 6mm and a .22 cal. and that problem is solved. They are a bit pricey but what isn't when it comes to accuracy?

 

[bozo699]

I wouldn't use the drill method which may result in the recess being off centre(Canadian spelling)but chucking the stem up in a lathe sounds plausible.

FBecigneul,
Your right a lathe would be the right tool for the job but most people don't have one, I do use a lathe for that job myself but at one point in time I as well didn't own a lathe and got satisfactory results holding the stem in my fingers and using the drill, the stem seemed to find center okay, it doesn't take much to clean them up usually, also I have gotten good results by using a lathe or drill to hold the stem and wrap 0000 steel wool around the end of a Q-tip and polishing it that way.
Wayne.

 

[Yote]

This is a perceived problem, not a real problem in my opinion.
LE Hanson

It is a real problem when running light neck tension. Before I got the VLD stem from Wilson, I was either pulling bullets out of the casing or changing my COL because it was pulling the bullet part way out of the case from the bite of the seater on the bullet.

 

[chino69]

My original problem stemmed from bringing my tools to the range as I was trying to fine tune a load. I had previously loaded my rounds at home and set the seating die stem to give me a measured setting. Typically, with the Wilson in line seater, I'll check the first several rounds and then seat. The Wilson seaters are consistent and accurate enough through past comparisons to all be within .001 or less so I assumed they were all the same. When I began measuring them at the range I was surprised to find the seating depth to be as much as .010 variation using a comparator. That's when I began to look a little closer, noticing the concentric ring as previously described.

To make a long story even longer I received the new Wilson VLD seating stems last Friday and was able to use them and compare them to the standard seating stem. The VLDs seat deeper into the cone of the seating stem and the loaded rounds were consistent and dead on.

 

[chino69]

Ah ha. Nice going on the problem correction.
As Hercule Poirot would say, "The mystery, it is solv-ed."
This also fortifies what I've said for a long time and that is that L.E.Wilson Company and it's President, Jon Morrison, are great people with which to work.

You are right in that they are a great company with very good time proven products. You know it's funny how you evolve the longer you stay in this game. I used to use threaded dies to seat and neck size. I started using Wilson dies when I bought my first 6mm BR and use them now for all of my good rifles. I'm not into benchrest but do shoot live varmints, participate in local groundhog matches and want all the accuracy my equipment is capable of. I have a batch of threaded dies that just sit and will probably sell at a future date.