Berger Bullets and Seating Die Problem

[NRAhighpowershooter]

I'm trying the Berger 80gr 223 bullets and I loaded up one round and saw my RCBS Competition Die pinched a ring around the bullet near the tip... problem? or am I OK? or should I look for a better seating die? OR.... call up RCBS and have them cut me a seating plug?

[Toten Kopf]

I send every seating stem to the die manufacturer to match the bullet with the stem. Some charge for, others don't.

It's the only real way to get the stem to match the bullet and not cause any damage. Give the die manufacturer a cll.

[gose]

I got the same thing on my 69gr SMKs when loading a compressed load on my 650. Didnt seem to matter at all at 200y. My old 8k-rounds-down-the-pipe JP with a 4x optic still managed to throw 10 of them into 1.2", which probably is about as good as it gets with that setup.

[Bug Splat]

Hmm I've never seen that much damage from a seating die. How much force does it take to seat it?

What I do to my seating dies is I take the stem and round off and polish the inside edge so it does not damage the bullet. I suppose you could also try using JBweld and custom shaping the inside of the stem.

[NRAhighpowershooter]

Hmm I've never seen that much damage from a seating die. How much force does it take to seat it?

What I do to my seating dies is I take the stem and round off and polish the inside edge so it does not damage the bullet. I suppose you could also try using JBweld and custom shaping the inside of the stem.

it's damaging the bullet near the tip so it's too far up inside to try to polish the stem...I don't have a problem with my 69's 75's or 77's or even my 80gr SMK's...as far as force.. same as the rest of the bullets listed.. but... even seated out to within .020" of the lands.. the bullet is still seating wayyy down as you can see by the marks from the base up. I could just forget about the Berguers and just simply continue using the SMK's but.... I really wanted to give these Bergers a try and see if they make a difference over the 80gr SMK's. I'll call RCBS tomorrow... they cut me a seating plug 20yrs ago for a 45SWC bullet I was using back then...

[phish]

That's way weird. There must be some kind of constriction towards the top that the other bullets you're using aren't hitting. You can give my Redding seater a try. It might be time for an upgrade.

eta: I tested the Berger 80/82 BT prototypes 3 years ago. They're not the VLDs, but I didn't have any issues seating them.

[ar15barrels]

Too much neck tension.
Try using a VLD reamer on the case necks.
Try using some dry lube on the case necks.
Otherwise increase the neck diameter.

[NRAhighpowershooter]

RCBS will cut me a new seating stem... send check for $22.84 and 3 bullets... along with note to send bullets back......

went out in mail 15mins ago

[Ahhnother8]

Too much neck tension.

The neck tension must be over .004" and the seating stem should not bear that far up the ogive. If the ogive is not consistent from that bearing point to where the bearing surface of the bullet starts, your bullet jump will differ dramatically. That is very bad, unless you jump them a bunch, but a .223 doesn't have much case capacity to play with. Redding seaters work great with both Berger and JLK's. Not sure why the RCBS is problematic.

[ocabj]

I've used a Redding and Forster competition seating die with Berger 80 VLD without this ring issue. I get faint ring marks, but nothing that puts an impression into the jacket like what NRAhps's photo shows.

The new seater plug will solve the problem, though.