Why am I shaving lead?

Okay. It feels like amateur hour over here right now. I'm at a loss as to why my Dillon 550B is shaving lead off my 44 bullet bases while I'm seating them.
It's an older RCBS seat die.
I do not have this problem with my Lyman 429421 bullets
This is an Accurate 240gr FNFP
All 44 bullets get sized to .431"
Bullets aged for months(18+bhn)
Seat die is only about half way screwed into the tool head. That's how far I have it backed out.
I'm by no means seating and crimping in the same step.
The case is getting PLENTY on flare on it in station #2 while the powder drops.
I am at a COMPLETE LOSS.
Any ideas?

Hmmmm.....
PC bullets of the same make sized to .430" seem to work just fine?
I'll try running the lubed bullets through the .430" die

Got photos?
I have had bullets get a ring shaved off the nose because they are canted and hit the bottom edge of the die. I also have had issues with slight mis rotation of the shell plate on my 550B doing the same thing. I have noticed that adillon dies have a large flare on the bottom of the opening to prevent this.
The 429421 has a different nose shape than the FNFP and that makes a huge difference.

Nothing I dislike more than little crescents of lead on the Dillon

Check the alignment of the case and bullet as it enters the seating die. My 32 H&R is very picky to avoid this.

Well I'll be dammed. I took some of the problem lubed bullets that were ran through the Lyman 450 with a .431" die(it's what I have) and then ran them through my Lee .430" die and PRESTO!
No more shaved lead. That seems odd to me?........

Brad said:

Nothing I dislike more than little crescents of lead on the Dillon

Click to expand...

Amen.....

Are the edges of the nose the shaved spot? If so it is misalignment of case entering the seating die. Having the die really high makes it a bit harder to see if the case is entering on center.

Try wiggling the shellplate a bit make sure the detent ball is in the hole if the shell holder.

Bump a .431" bullet into the case a little bit at a time, withdrawing to check how straight the bullet is with the case and observe when and where metal starts to shave. I'm betting the bullet is getting crooked right at the start and the seating die walls fold in your flare enough to start scraping one side of a slightly crooked .431" bullet. The other thing that can happen is the crimp shoulder itself can be right at .430" and scrape the bullet directly if it is any larger, or in the least bit off-center.

Good advice. Thanks guys. I’ll give it a try.

I'm gonna go with;

How well the nose fits the seater stem.It's a gage of sorts....meaning,as diam goes up,it reaches the point where,"what you got away with" now isn't.

Useful excersize if you want to look at it that way.Keep dialing in alignment with increased CB diam.Then drop back is size.I will say this,seating alignment and pressure/effort during said,is critical on rifle ammo.The smaller the cal it seems,the more precise this operation needs to be.Reckon there's a formula in there?...diam vs length X seating pressure,X seater fit= run out?With seating pressure devided or into two parts.One being neck diam,the other is "effort" as in friction.Lube,annealing,bullet diam all playing a role.

I've been trying to get my bullet seaters all changed over to the floating seater design from Hornady. It is still possible to get an occasional misalignment, but they are greatly reduced. Most of my die sets are Frankensets anyway, but my preferences run to Hornady or RCBS carbide sizers, Lyman M dies to flare, Hornady seaters, and Redding Profile crimp dies for jacketed bullets, or Hornady, RCBS, or LEE rifle style crimp dies for cast, especially with oversized cast bullets.

There's a trick to using an M die in a progressive loader like my 550. I always size my cases on the single stage, then wet tumble and store in plastic bags. This way I don't need a resizing die in the first station, and can put the M die there. Then the powder measure is adjusted to simply drop powder. This is how I pick up an additional station on a 550. I should buy a 650, but I'm too cheap to change everything over.

so one nose shape is fine but the other one ain't.
you know rcbs sells different seater stems with different profiles [you just flip the stem over on Dillon die sets]
on the 550's I use enough [too much really] flair on some of my cases [the 38/357 family especially] just enough that the case catches on the die body and scrapes it's way in to the die.
this seats the bullet about 85-90% of the way, then the next die finishes seating and applies the crimp.
probably over kill but it gets things aligned and avoids the little nicks of lead.

Just because you're using a .431" sizing die, doesn't mean your bullets are coming out at .431". I bought a .452" sizing die, and was having feeding issues with my 1911. Measured my bullets and they were .453". So, ordered a .451" die and now I get .452" bullets. Hey, at least Lyman is consistent.

Don

So I am still having problem this morning. My seating stem is full of JB weld so it is a perfect fit for a FP bullet. All the other ones I have leave an ugly ring around the top of the bullet.

This is an Accurate 240gr RNFP with tumble lube grooves. The other two bullets I load in this caliber that do not give me any fits are the Lyman 429421 and an Accurate copy of the Lee 310gr that is a PB bullet.This same seating stem works just fine with the other two designs. It seems as if I can "feel" the little tumble lube grooves being sheared off while seating the bullet.

The nose looks just fine after the bullet has been seated half way. By then you can already see the lead shaving up around the case mouth. I took the die apart and cleaned it. Everything looked fine.
I tried adjusting it a few times with the same results.

I have a fair amount of flare on the case. I suppose I could try more. I was going to load half of these bullets using powder coat and sized to .430" through a Lee push through die and the other half using Glen's black and BLL sized and lubed through my Lyman 450.

USSR. Yes. Both dies size spot on. I was having issues with both lubes/coatings. It was a bit worse on the lubed .431" bullets so I ran all of them through the Lee die. Now everything is .430"
and it is still happening. I think the pc is just tougher and holds up a bit better to damage.

I'll post a couple pics below.

Walter

I find the Dillon powder funnels/expanders are fine for j bullets but I prefer an m type expander for cast.

gman said:

I find the Dillon powder funnels/expanders are fine for j bullets but I prefer an m type expander for cast.

Click to expand...

Just seems odd it works fine with other cast bullets......

try champhering a few case mouths.

Your bullet is being seated crooked and there isn't near enough flare. I suspect your JB job is part of the problem, instead of being flat, try melting it out and re-doing it with the nose shape you intend to use most and make it deep so it conforms to the nose more and forces the bullet straight under pressure.

fiver said:

try champhering a few case mouths.

Click to expand...

THIS

Looks like factory new Starline brass to me. Nice sharp inner corners on that stuff.
A light chamfer helps as would a little more flare.

Might need a different expander too. I made a new one for 9 mm because mine was not expanding enough for my satisfaction. emasure your expander ball, bet it runs .424 or so. I would prefer .428 or so for your bullet size.

I can make one if you would like.