Random ring around the bullet

[Squ1dward]

@ toolbox. Wasn't necessarily directed at you. A few people seemed to make the same or similar observations and I would imagine the flat seater stem would dent or mark the tip of the bullet, not lower on the bullet. I also checked that and made sure I had the curved one before I started.

I believe J-cat and Lyps are correct. There does seem to be more resistance when seating. I initially thought it might be coming from the sizer/decapping station, but the resistance seems higher than normal.

@ J-cat. Bullet diameter may be the thing. It was a new box of bullets. I put them in the calipers and they measured .452 at the base and .645 tall. I took a bullet from a previous batch and the were the same.

I wonder if the sizing die is causing the problem by not opening the case enough thus causing more force required to seat the bullet resulting in the indentation ring

[stilly]

Or maybe crimp is started a bit early and it is slowing down the bullet and even holding it while it gets "stamped" with the ring of death...

[Grunt81]

I was gonna say wrong profile of the seating stem. Get a Lee die. I noticed that they seem to work on everything.

+1 I agree completely.

To the OP, see how those bullets with the indentation shoot. If they outperform anything else you've ever tried, then I think you're on to the latest and greatest bullet profile ever, the semi semi wadcutter, or I guess it could be called a quarter wadcutter

Seriously though, let me to attempt to clarify what I think others are trying to state. Most pistol bullet seating dies, use a "crimp ring" to close the flare that the expander die put in the brass. These dies are advertised as bullet seating dies with adjustable taper crimp. If you screw your die in more, the "taper crimp ring" will close the flare harder on the bullet.

As others have said, what I think is happening is the flare is being closed on the bullet before the bullet is fully seated. The bullet is being held in place by "neck tension" while push the ram all the way up, causing the seater plug to make that indentation. A simple solution I can suggest would be to screw out your seating die 1/4 to 1/2 turn to see if that solves the issue. This should ensure that the flare on your shortest cases isn't being closed before the bullet is seated deep enough. Then adjust OAL using the adjustment knob on the top of the die. I too, pretty much only use mixed brass. Life's too short to sort pistol brass. My rifle rounds get a lot more attention.

I don't mean for this to sound trivial. I'm just trying to give the most complete advice I can based on my experience.

[milotrain]

Use your dillon die and make your own stem to match the profile of those bullets. Dillon seating dies don't have a crimp device.

[Squ1dward]

Thanks for the advice. I am gonna throw in my rcbs seated/crimp die and use it for seating and not crimping and see if that works. I would love to make my own stem for the Dillon die but have no idea or tool to do it and it doesn't look like Dillon sells them.

Either that or I will make millions selling my semi semi semi wadcutters
Lol.

[Squ1dward]

So I did a combo of things and it seemed to work.

Before doing any of this, I also tried some Berry's 45 bullets and still got the ring.

So I did these two things :
First I belled the cases a bit more (Dillion's suggestion) ring still there.
Second, I took my dremel and polished inside edge of the bottom of the seating stem just a tiny bit.
And "Wall-ah!"
No more ring.

Loaded up another 200 rounds and no ring. Hallelujah!!

[Toolbox X]

Great idea.....