Anyone make something like this?

[Jackalope33B]

After realizing lastnight that the Seater Stem for a Redding Comp Die doesnt seat off the Ogive, but rather about 1/4" more towards the tip than a Hornady Comparator measures the bullet at. The Hornady Comparator is far more accurate. Has anyone modified a Hornady Comparator to accept a Seater Stem then attach it to a set of calipers?

 

[Fester47]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

I think you are just going to have to log two different numbers. Seat the bullet and check with the Hornady till it set where you want it. Then you will have to see what the your die reads and log it. Just remember what different measurments between the what the Hornady and die is.
Every bullet will be different as you may already know. You won't be able to use the same measurement for each bullet. One bullet will seat deeper or shallower making the seater stem read even more space differents between the two.

 

[Mike Sobr]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

You may find that the number you get from the comparator is closer to the actual measurement that determines where the bullet meets the barrell's lands which is really the important measurement anyways and then set the seating stem to achieve that result.
This is an ongoing problem for measuring ogive to land distance but for practical purposes unless you are doing precision long-range benchrest shooting then the variance will be factored in by you and won't be noticeable as long as you are not seating the bullet "just touching" the lands which can create differing pressures as some with actually be a hair back and some will be a hair touching which makes a big difference in pressure and accuracy so either keep them in or out by at least .010" since bullets cav vary by 3 or 4 thou even in the same box.

 

[DocB]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

Jack,

I don't know if you use VLD bullets, but Redding sells a VLD bullet seater which might make things closer. I haven't bought or tried any, but they may help.

HTH,
DocB

 

[Jackalope33B]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

Doc,

I just bought a VLD seating stem. It measure the bullet at the same point as the standard seating stem. Plus the VLD stem is about 1/3" shorter.

 

[repiv]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

Agree I also bought a VLD long stem for .308 and if you stand 2 bullets up on their ends and then put the stems, factory and VLD on top of them you can easily see that they hit the bulet in the exact same place. I dont see a difference between the 2. Bullet contact appears to be the same.

Maybe the Match die set comes with a VLD and the guy I talked to at Redding didnt know.

 

[DocB]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

Jack,

Well, sorry to hear that but thanks for saving me some bucks. When I spoke to the Redding TS folks, they said the VLD seater should be closer to the ogive for the Competition Dies, since they shipped the non-VLD seater as standard. Think I'll just order a couple more Wilson seaters for the calibers I load. The couple I've used in .223 and .243 seem to register on the bullet closer to the ogive.

Thanks,
DocB

 

[Jackalope33B]

Re: Anyone make something like this?

No problem. Glad I could waste $$ to save you some LOL

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: DocB</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Jack,

Well, sorry to hear that but thanks for saving me some bucks. When I spoke to the Redding TS folks, they said the VLD seater should be closer to the ogive for the Competition Dies, since they shipped the non-VLD seater as standard. Think I'll just order a couple more Wilson seaters for the calibers I load. The couple I've used in .223 and .243 seem to register on the bullet closer to the ogive.

Thanks,
DocB </div></div>