2 crushed shoulders when seating bullets...

[castnblast]

I had two shells crush in a row after reloading a dozen rounds this weekend when seating bullets. I've never seen that happen before. Nothing appeared weird on the die, and I went back and mic'd the previous rounds and found nothing strange. I took the seater apart (lee) and found nothing wrong, put it back together and gradually worked my bullet down back to the original setting. No more problem. I reloaded another 60 rounds, and had no issues. This ever happen to anyone before? The only thing I can guess is something went wacky in the seater, but I couldn't find anything.

 

[Scorch]

You need to make sure you are chamfering the case mouth after you trim to length. This allows the base of the bullet to slide past the case mouth and into the neck easily. Flat base bullets catch the case mouth worse than boat tails, but you need to do it for all bullet types.

 

[kingudaroad]

Sounds to me like the crimp part of the seater die was crushing the case. Not sure what you were loading for, but if you run the die too far into the press the crimping part of the die will crush the case. I've had this happen to me while trying to put a heavy crimp on a 44 mag.

 

[Ruger4570]

Either of the last 2 posts could be correct and I have had cases crush with not enough champher on the mouth and having the die set up wrong. It will be one of the 2,, possibly both, Best of luck with it

 

[skeeter1]

I, too, had a similar problem with my Lee die set. The rubber donut on the mounting on the locking rings just doesn't seem to do all that great a job. I got some Hornady locking rings (three bucks each) that I'll try using them the next time I reload. I have a hunch that they'll take care of that.

 

[amamnn]

It's not just a Lee problem, it can happen with any seating die. This is also another reason to crimp as a separate operation. Using a Lee Factory Crimp die for rifle loads and the Redding Profile Crimp die for revolver rounds is my choice.

 

[BigJakeJ1s]

On the crushed rounds, did the bullet appear to be seated to normal depth in the casemouth, or thereabouts, or did it appear to catch the edge of the brass on the bottom of the bullet?

If it was seated to normal depth (bullet relative to casemouth, not OAL, which is meaningless with a crushed case), that is an indication that it was a crimping problem (too much crimp). The lock ring on the die may have loosened and allowed the die to sink a little deeper causing this.

If the bullet appeared to catch an edge of the brass, then it is a seating problem, could be dirt/gunk in the die, or a seater plug that is not well shaped for the bullet nose you're using, or the brass was not trimmed, not expanded, or chamfered enough. Could be the seater screw got moved inadvertently too.

It sounds like you fixed whatever it was. I don't like Lee seating dies or their lock rings because they loose their settings too easily. I prefer Hornady seater dies and lock rings, but others are good too. I put Hornady lock rings on every die I own, no matter what brand the die is.

Andy

 

[Shoney]

Been loading the 6mmRem since 1966. Here are 3 scenarios that caused the bolt to either fail to close or be extremely difficult to close.

1.) I quickly discovered that because of the long case neck, there is a great deal of stretch every time you resize. The max case length should be 2.233”. If this length is exceeded by a silly millimeter, problem shows. Cases must be trimmed, Max Trim Length is 2.223”.

2.) I set the seating die too low and caused an almost imperceptible bulge of the shoulder.

3.) I applied too much case lube to the case, and when resized, it caused a dimple in the shoulder. In rare circumstances, it caused an almost imperceptible bulge of the shoulder. I now use only Imperial Sizing Die Wax.

 

[castnblast]

Thanks...ran into the bolt problem too, but quickly fixed that due to COL on first rounds. The crushed shoulder happened at the bench. Bullet appeared normal, but the shoulder looked like the snout of a pig. It was kinda strange, because it happened all of a sudden, after 12 rounds went just fine. I mic all my col's now to avoid any problems at the range or when getting ready to pull the trigger on an animal. I suspect it may have been the case lube. I used to use a lube pad in the past, and I'm going back to using one. I say this because I took the die apart, wiped out the middle, put it back together, and have not had a problem since.