The seating stem is much harder than the bullet is no worries on messing the stem up.
Now some dies if you twist them in all the way to where they touch the case.
Let me start over.
Remove seating die from press.
Place a case in the shell holder without a bullet.
Raise the case up all the way towards the area where the die is supposed to be.
Now twist the die in until it contacts the case.
Stop.
Now twist the die out away from the case 1 full turn.
It could be your die is slightly crimping as you are seating the bullet.
Lock the die in that position.
Now adjust the seating stem so you get the correct OAL.
That could be your issue and maybe not.
Lee bullet seating die with NO crimp is different.
Another issue could be the case mouth chamfer is too abrupt but I think i read that you are using a VLD chamfer on the case mouths.
I have seen where the case is pinched .008" smaller than bullet diameter and the initial force needed to seat the bullet can be in the 150 psi area.
.004" is the max I have went with good results.
As in the case mouth is .004" smaller ID than the bullet OD.
and .002" to .003" is better for me and my guns.
So some questions for you .
What case neck ID and what bullet OD.?
VLD chamfer ?
Is it a crimping die and bullet seat die in one?
One more thing that can cause hard seating is rough case neck ID.
One reason I brush all my case necks before seating.
You can just take some sand paper and twist it into a cone and hand sand the seating stem.
I use Fine bullet point cratex in my stems sometimes.
Now some dies if you twist them in all the way to where they touch the case.
Let me start over.
Remove seating die from press.
Place a case in the shell holder without a bullet.
Raise the case up all the way towards the area where the die is supposed to be.
Now twist the die in until it contacts the case.
Stop.
Now twist the die out away from the case 1 full turn.
It could be your die is slightly crimping as you are seating the bullet.
Lock the die in that position.
Now adjust the seating stem so you get the correct OAL.
That could be your issue and maybe not.
Lee bullet seating die with NO crimp is different.
Another issue could be the case mouth chamfer is too abrupt but I think i read that you are using a VLD chamfer on the case mouths.
I have seen where the case is pinched .008" smaller than bullet diameter and the initial force needed to seat the bullet can be in the 150 psi area.
.004" is the max I have went with good results.
As in the case mouth is .004" smaller ID than the bullet OD.
and .002" to .003" is better for me and my guns.
So some questions for you .
What case neck ID and what bullet OD.?
VLD chamfer ?
Is it a crimping die and bullet seat die in one?
One more thing that can cause hard seating is rough case neck ID.
One reason I brush all my case necks before seating.
You can just take some sand paper and twist it into a cone and hand sand the seating stem.
I use Fine bullet point cratex in my stems sometimes.
Looking at the case neck I see a faint shiny line that looks like a crimp going on.
What dies are you using? Is it the Hornady with all the different stems for different bullets?
@Lonewatie where you at?
@Lonewatie where you at?
We figured it out together! We really just talked about blown tires and getting sweaty and then suddenly the answer came about.
What are you loading specifically? Is it compressed? Have you loaded this round with these dies before? how hard are the bullets to seat?
Ok I been talking to Blake also I have always loaded .270 .308 .243win .300winmag and 6.5 creedmoor with hornady fl dies I have always used Winchester brass cause that’s all I had saved with a few Remington with no problem even at max load I bought 145 grain ELDX to do a ladder test for the cow elk hunt in December with the 270 I always get that ring around all my bullets out of every caliber of dies no matter what the powder charge I looked it up on YouTube on how to fix it and it didn’t work it helped but still you can see a little bit of a ring the bullet in the picture was bad and after talking about his troubles today he told me to check the head stamp on the brass and made a stupid mistake and forgot I used some Remington brass that I got from another OSA member and apparently it has has less case volume and caused the problem I’m going to call hornady Monday and see about new seating stem for a lot of calibers
Did you weigh the RP brass vs the Win brass? Did you compare em by volume with water? I'd be interested in those numbers if ya get time. Also compare the case mouth numbers between the two. Wall thickness, inner and outer diameters. You know, flood us with numbers! Lol
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