le wilson seater marking 178eld

[porter_jamie]

so I have an le wilson seater which uses a small arbor press to seat hornady 178elds 308 and the stem Marks the bullet. I bought a vld stem and this does the same thing if not worse.

I tried my old lee bullet seater using the lee press and its absolutely perfect, no Marks.

am I doing something wrong? could I have been sent a non vld stem? anyone use a le wilson seater with eld bullets in 308 successfully?

 

[spife7980]

Just polish it.

 

[porter_jamie]

that is a fine idea!

 

[918v]

Your neck friction is too high and causes too much seating pressure.

 

[porter_jamie]

loaded round is 338 and I'm using a 336 bushing

 

[XLR308]

I have used the method Spife illustrated several times and it works quite well.
Just don't get to overzealous with it and sacrifice a few bullets if needed if they start showing a non uniform surface from the lapping compound removing the softer jacket material.

 

[porter_jamie]

thanks chaps, appreciate your comments

 

[918v]

loaded round is 338 and I'm using a 336 bushing

I’m talking about friction in the neck, not the diameter of the neck.

What else are you doing to the neck? Is your load compressed?

 

[Threadcutter308]

loaded round is 338 and I'm using a 336 bushing

Ummmm.............neck wall thickness is how much ?
I think you are using a bushing that is way too small. Your bushing should be .002” less than your bullet diameter plus 2x neck wall thickness.
Eg; neck wall = .013”
Bushing = 2x.013=.026+.338=.364-.002=.362”
If the above is correct, it’s no wonder your bullets are getting marked.
Your bullets aren’t getting marked by the Lee seater because it’s, well, a seater and not a neck resizer.

 

[porter_jamie]

loaded round neck size 338. 308 bullet. lapua cases. they are all remarkably similar. I was worrying I had too little tension to be honest

 

[porter_jamie]

the le wilson seater Marks the bullet, the lee seater does not. EXACT same components.

 

[porter_jamie]

not compressed load

 

[918v]

Annealed?

 

[porter_jamie]

nope

 

[918v]

How do you clean the neck prior to bullet seating?

 

[porter_jamie]

sonic cleaner and I give the inside of the neck a quick scrub with the brass brush.

I polished the stem as described above and it's now perfect - not a mark