My new Tubb 6xc Redding seater not working as advertised.

JGorski

Gunny Sergeant
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Minuteman
Oct 25, 2011
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Central Wis.
After noticing that I was getting inconsistent oal or base to ogive measurements, I pulled the seater plug out, blackened the tip of a couple bullets, hybrids and Hor. AMP hpbts. Then turn the bullets inside the seater and see where the contact patch is on the bullet. Now measuring from the ogive to the bottom of the contact patch it's anywhere from .202" to .225", it's actually closer to the tip than it's from the ogive, Tubb mentions in his video they modded the 308 seater plug to be closer to the ogive, something is not working here. And, my Hornady seater plug makes it's own contact patch just a couple thou higher than the Redding modified plug. The bullet on the right is the Hornady, contact is made even higher on that bullet.
HE2Z2P1.jpg

http://www.davidtubb.com/6xc-seating-die
 
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Redding offers a vld bullet seater stem, what is happening is ur bullet points are bottoming out in the seater stem before the ogive is touched. Inconsistent oal is caused by the inconsistent ogive-to-tip variances in the bullet. If u could ream the seater stem deeper or replace with vld stem.
 
Redding offers a vld bullet seater stem, what is happening is ur bullet points are bottoming out in the seater stem before the ogive is touched. Inconsistent oal is caused by the inconsistent ogive-to-tip variances in the bullet. If u could ream the seater stem deeper or replace with vld stem.

No, this seater stem is a modified 308 seater plug done by Tubb's people for the 6mm, the contact area inside the seater plug is too far in the seater plug and is contacting the bullet too high, it should be contacting much closer to the ogive than what it is. If you look at the Hornady bullet on the right you can see the land marks on the black marker, the contact patch from the seater plug should be very close to that, in this case its well over .200" away. I wonder if they forgot to modify this seater plug, bet it'll fit my 168AMAXs just perfect. Back to the basement.
 
I have a Redding 6XC micro seater, it does nothing of that sort or kind, are you running some real (ass) tight neck tension on those cases of yours to have the plunger/stem do that kind of harm to the bullets.
I might at times see a faint ring but nothing like that. One guess would be that the company/party responsible for the costumising of the stem failed to get it right for this perticular one? The reason for my guessing, well what 6brshooter is writing above is in line with what I have found out to be correct with these seating dies.

This leads back to the Q, are you running a real tight neck/bushing when calibrating the cases?

The only time I have really ringed bullets is when I was seating some 125 grains flatbase bullets for the 308 Win, those did not look all that nice afterwards, shot good, looked not so much. /Chris
 
I have a Redding 6XC micro seater, it does nothing of that sort or kind, are you running some real (ass) tight neck tension on those cases of yours to have the plunger/stem do that kind of harm to the bullets.
I might at times see a faint ring but nothing like that. One guess would be that the company/party responsible for the costumising of the stem failed to get it right for this perticular one? The reason for my guessing, well what 6brshooter is writing above is in line with what I have found out to be correct with these seating dies.

This leads back to the Q, are you running a real tight neck/bushing when calibrating the cases?

The only time I have really ringed bullets is when I was seating some 125 grains flatbase bullets for the 308 Win, those did not look all that nice afterwards, shot good, looked not so much. /Chris

Im only running .002" neck tension, but these bullets were never seated, I took a black marker to the bullet so I could see more easily where the inside of the MODIFIED 308 seater FOR THE 6xc is making contact on the bullet, there's no damage there, thats from twisting and turning the bullet inside the seater plug. Little polish will take that right off. I took my Redding 06 seater die along with this modified seater and twisted and turned 2 AMAX bullets and they make the same exact contact patch on the bullets in exactly the same spot. To my eyes I think this seater was never modified for the 6mm bullets.
 
Well then, does the tip of the bullet hit the inner top of the stem? That is the thing to avoid, at least that is what I would make sure of. Long bullets are found in 6/6,5/7 mm and if I had bullet tips hitting with a stem from a 6XC seating die, then I would look for a stem from a 6,5 mm tool,

I have Redding S-type sets for all the cals I load, perhaps I might be able to/get a pass to the man cave this week to see/check if the stem for the 6,5 cal has a longer hollow, making sure that there is no tipping,

about your "modified stem", as long as the tips do not hit the top, then I guess that would mean it is modified, or am I missing something. /Chris
 
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Well then, does the tip of the bullet hit the inner top of the stem? That is the thing to avoid, at least that is what I would make sure of. Long bullets are found in 6/6,5/7 mm and if I had bullet tips hitting with a stem from a 6XC seating die, then I would look for a stem from a 6,5 mm tool,

I have Redding S-type sets for all the cals I load, perhaps I might be able to/get a pass to the man cave this week to see/check if the stem for the 6,5 cal has a longer hollow, making sure that there is no tipping,

about your modified stem, as long as the tips do not hit the top, then I guess that would mean it is modified, or am I missing something. /Chris

I think JAY forgot to mention that this custom seating die for 6xc hes using it for 6mm creedmoor which i realy dont think its matter.. i also do think that the bullet is tiping inside the stem..since berger is realy narrow pointed.or maybe tubb design it for amax or smk bullets thst has fater nose
 
Well then, does the tip of the bullet hit the inner top of the stem? That is the thing to avoid, at least that is what I would make sure of. Long bullets are found in 6/6,5/7 mm and if I had bullet tips hitting with a stem from a 6XC seating die, then I would look for a stem from a 6,5 mm tool,

I have Redding S-type sets for all the cals I load, perhaps I might be able to/get a pass to the man cave this week to see/check if the stem for the 6,5 cal has a longer hollow, making sure that there is no tipping,

about your modified stem, as long as the tips do not hit the top, then I guess that would mean it is modified, or am I missing something. /Chris

The tips of my 6mm bullets do not hit the end of the stem, you do understand that this is a 308 stem modified for use in 6mm bullets? This particular stem in question can't be a modified stem since the stem from my 30-06 Redding dies make contact in the exact same spot on the 168 AMAX bullets. The contact area inside this stem should be more toward the opening of the stem to make it work like David mentioned in the video, close to the ogive. Off to bed, working nights, cya in the morning.
 
I think JAY forgot to mention that this custom seating die for 6xc hes using it for 6mm creedmoor which i realy dont think its matter.. i also do think that the bullet is tiping inside the stem..since berger is realy narrow pointed.or maybe tubb design it for amax or smk bullets thst has fater nose

Yes, the Hybrid is on the loose side inside this stem, the Hornady not so much but not like as tight as in my Hornady stem. The 168AMAXs fit pretty well in this so called modified stem, almost like it was made for a 308 bullet, lol
 
Yes, the Hybrid is on the loose side inside this stem, the Hornady not so much but not like as tight as in my Hornady stem. The 168AMAXs fit pretty well in this so called modified stem, almost like it was made for a 308 bullet, lol
Jay ive been folowing your 6cm and ove been waiting for your review on this so called die..your killing me sslow hahah first 6brx beat u now its dies thats not working.. making think twice about my 6mm barrel lol
 
Well sleep tight,

yeah well modified or not, the "thing" here is that it´s not marring/branding the bullets or that the tips are hurt, and that is a good thing making sure that there is no variation in COL measured over the ogive. Habla englesi is a second language to me however, reading the text on the webpage, TUBB:s that is the "modification" as I read it is that the seating plug used is a .30 cal one, rather then a standard .243 cal one, ie meaning that what JAY found out with his magic marker test is that all is as intended.

To get the stem to hit the bullet even further down a .323 or a 338 cal stem would have to be used or perhaps as suggested by JAY, having the .30 cal stem worked on, enlarged a bit. I guess by this time tomorrow some one in the know will have had there say. /Chris
 
"..., it's actually closer to the tip than it's from the ogive,.."

The ogive is the entire tapered section of a bullet between full body diameter and the meplat. If the meplat isn't bottoming out your seater's plug is doing all it can do. The die and all it's parts are solid steel, if the die body is hard/hand tight in the press there's no way the die can cause seating depth variations.
 
OK, this die is supposed to make contact closer to where the bullet is a .243 dia. You know, where the bearing surface starts, I always call that the ogive. It's not doing that, checking my email now for a reply from David or Brian.
 
Mr. Gorski

I just talked to David about the problem you have been having with your seating die and he agrees that there is something not right about it. If you could send us the seating stem from your die we will look at it to make sure that this was not some quality control mistake from the manufacture. If you need the information to send it to us then I will be happy to give that to you. If you need anything else please let us know.

There it is, it's going back, jack.
 
I got the last one, of course you'd think they would make more of them, haha. I wonder if anyone else got an unmodified seater plug and dont even know it. Kinda obvious when you can take a Hornady 6mm seater plug, spin 2 bullets in the both seaters and they both put a mark on the same spot of the nose.
 
I got the last one, of course you'd think they would make more of them, haha. I wonder if anyone else got an unmodified seater plug and dont even know it. Kinda obvious when you can take a Hornady 6mm seater plug, spin 2 bullets in the both seaters and they both put a mark on the same spot of the nose.

Jay
Did you get your replacement stem?