.223/5.56 reloading issues

[scfrogmansc]

Last time i was loading some 69gr match ammo. something happened to me the first time ever, as i was seating the bullet using RCBS dies, its putting what looks like a crimp on the tip of my bullet. why is this happening? can anyone help? is my seating die wearing out? what is the issue here? thanks

[GeoffLinder]

Get a Redding micrometer seating die and this will stop happening. The RCBS die has a very small contact area on the ogive of the bullet and all the pressure is exerted in a small ring area hence the mark.

The Redding micrometer seater die has a very steep angle and makes contact in a wider area so no indent marking.

Some folks have had success grinding a wider radius on the seater plug on dies that do this but not everyone has the tool chops to do this with perfect concentricity

[scfrogmansc]

Get a Redding micrometer seating die and this will stop happening. The RCBS die has a very small contact area on the ogive of the bullet and all the pressure is exerted in a small ring area hence the mark.

The Redding micrometer seater die has a very steep angle and makes contact in a wider area so no indent marking.

Some folks have had success grinding a wider radius on the seater plug on dies that do this but not everyone has the tool chops to do this with perfect concentricity

but how come this just started to happen after 5000 rounds or so ? is the match bullet's jacket too soft?

[Gunsrruss]

Soft

All of them are soft. You must watch the amount of pressure you put on those bullets. When loading compressed loads keep your eye's open

[Chris M]

Last time i was loading some 69gr match ammo. something happened to me the first time ever, as i was seating the bullet using RCBS dies, its putting what looks like a crimp on the tip of my bullet. why is this happening? can anyone help? is my seating die wearing out? what is the issue here? thanks

I don't know why it would start happening all of a sudden, other than maybe you are using bullets that are shaped slightly different than what you've been using.

what I do in order to get rid of the ring on the bullet is - remove the seater from the die, then take a bullet, chuck it into a drill, coat it with some metal polish, and use it to slightly reshape the seating die.

sometimes a real quick spin with some very fine steel wool will help, too...just don't over-work it.

[scfrogmansc]

second part of the questions are these "crimped" bullet going to shoot ? or should i just pull them all and just throw them away?

[Low-Pressure]

second part of the questions are these "crimped" bullet going to shoot ? or should i just pull them all and just throw them away?

Can you please post some pictures. If it is only on the tip, it should shoot and not harm your barrel...... but post a picture so we can see what the crimp looks like.

[GeoffLinder]

second part of the questions are these "crimped" bullet going to shoot ? or should i just pull them all and just throw them away?

Just shoot them, the difference it makes doesn't become measurable until around 400 yards and even then it's not gonna be very measurable until you get near and past 600 yards.

I learned this when I loaded about 200 SMK77's before I noticed it, thought it was fluorescent light glare until I did QC inspection on the batch. Went ahead and shot them on the LD rifle stage at the MGM Ironman 3gun match. Didn't have any issues hitting 10" targets at 45o-600 yards with them.

[scfrogmansc]

crimped

Pictures of the "crimped" bullet

[SixPointEight]

Compressed load? Is the seating rougher than before? is this the first time you've used that bullet?

[scfrogmansc]

no not a compressed load, and no i shoot this bullet all the time i dont know why my die is doing this

[JD586]

My rcbs seater die leaves marks on those bullet too but no where near as severe as yours and not on every bullet. You can see the marks on the bottom left and top right bullet. Maybe your expander ball is worn on your resizing die and that is causing it to take extra pressure to seat the bullet.

[scfrogmansc]

My rcbs seater die leaves marks on those bullet too but no where near as severe as yours and not on every bullet. You can see the marks on the bottom left and top right bullet. Maybe your expander ball is worn on your resizing die and that is causing it to take extra pressure to seat the bullet.

Is the expander ball some thing i can just replace or do i have to buy the whole die? again?

[pdq_wizzard]

Is the expander ball some thing i can just replace or do i have to buy the whole die? again?

call RCBS and I bet they send you a new one free

also the tip of the bullet won't affect accuracy as much as the base will.

[Chris M]

Is the expander ball some thing i can just replace or do i have to buy the whole die? again?

The expander on most dies is easily replaceable. Remove out from the body of the die and measure it to make sure it's within specs. If it's out of spec, call up the manufacturer. They may give you a new one for free.