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Posted: 7/17/2009 6:51:33 PM EDT
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I have an RCBS Rock Chucker and I am getting ready to load my first ever batch tomorrow. I am having a problem getting the overall case length to stay consistent. The load I am making calls for 2.235 inches and I am ranging from 2.228 to 2.338. I put a trimmed case in the press, pushed it up, and tighting the die down to the top of the case. I guess I am having a problem keeping the bullet seater at a consistent depth. Any tips on tolerances or keeping it consistent woudl be great. Thanks guys, you have been a great help getting me to this point.
Henry |
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This is probably noob problem number 1, and it's easy to fix. The bullets are all different lengths. The seater stem pushes on the ogive of the bullet, so that insures every bullet is seated to the same depth. The variable length on the other hand, means they stick out different lengths.
HPBT target bullets are the worst culprits in this regard, followed by cheap bullets. All that above is true, but I noticed you have a 0.1 difference in lengths! That means something else is out of whack. Raise the press ram with a case in the shell holder. Run the die body until you feel contact - that is the crimp ring touching the case mouth. Back the die out about one half turn to insure the crimp ring does not touch the case. Lock the die body down. Lower the ram, put a charged case (or empty if you want to make a dummy round for practice) in the shell holder, and place a bullet in the case mouth. Raise the ram, turn the seater stem down until it's in good contact with the bullet, then back the ram down and run the seater stem down a little. Seat the bullet with this setting, then check the length. Repeat the process with the seater until it has been turned down to produce the correct length. Lock the nut on the stem. You are setting the Cartridge Overall Length (COAL), not the case length. The case length is just that, the length of the case and nothing else. |
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what are you reloading 223,30-06? second if you are getting inconsistent case lengths trim all you cases to the same length look in your reloading manual for correct case length it will show you the min and max length it should be. sounds like you your loads so far 2.228––2.235 that is not bad.
check to see if dies is working loose or needs to be tightened.. |
| Thanks guys. I was thinking about double-nutting the bullet seater so it does not come loose. All of my cases are trimmed to 1.750 plus or minus about 0.002. I checked them very often as I was trimming them. Can you put a flat head screw driver in the top of the bullet seater and then tighten the nut and it will act like double nutting??? |
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Quoted:
Bullets will vary in ogive even from the same box. Some brands and types will show less variation than others. Where the seater plug touches the bullet will affect the COAL. It doesn't always mean that the seater plug is at fault. Aloha, Mark That's true, but I've never seen a batch of bullets that varied 100 thousandths. There may be some seater stems around that are not deep enough to accept the tip of VLD type bullets, but I would be surprised to see that condition in a recently made die unless it's defective. I don't think that would explain this large variation, either. |
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