any experience with custom seating stem "polishing"?

[taliv]

my seating stem is deforming the bullet. forster's web page basically says, and i'm paraphrasing here, if that happens, you suck, and your loading sucks and your bullets suck and your brass sucks, and it's definitely not forster's fault, due to their awesome engineering. but if you fix all that and it's still happening, you can send them 5 bullets and 4 pieces of brass and $34 and they will "polish" your stem until it stops doing that.

is this something i should just take my dremel out and do myself? anyone had forster fix this for them before?


what about LE Wilson? anyone shooting something like hornady's A-Tips that hornady says require a special seating stem? LE Wilson just has "normal" and "VLD" stems for sale. i wonder if VLD will work

 

[troy fairweather]

I polish all of mine, just roll some fine sandpaper into a cone. A few seconds spun in a drill is all that's needed. You can make a custom seater by raping the bullet with sandpaper.

 

[DocRock]

Send the bullets to Lee and they'll make a stem specifically for that bullet.

 

[old heeler]

my seating stem is deforming the bullet. forster's web page basically says, and i'm paraphrasing here, if that happens, you suck, and your loading sucks and your bullets suck and your brass sucks, and it's definitely not forster's fault, due to their awesome engineering. but if you fix all that and it's still happening, you can send them 5 bullets and 4 pieces of brass and $34 and they will "polish" your stem until it stops doing that.

is this something i should just take my dremel out and do myself? anyone had forster fix this for them before?


what about LE Wilson? anyone shooting something like hornady's A-Tips that hornady says require a special seating stem? LE Wilson just has "normal" and "VLD" stems for sale. i wonder if VLD will work

I shoot Berger VLD's in couple rifles and changed Wilson stems to VLD. Redding offers VLD stems.

 

[FROGO207]

They drill a hole in the seater stem where the ogive of most bullets end up. What you need to do is to take that hard edge off the hole. Chuck the stem in the drill and use sand paper as stated above. Get a different stem and modify that is always a good idea. You can also take a bullet, wax it heavily and use it as a mold to form just the shape you want by filling the hole in the stem with JB weld or similar and lightly jamming the bullet up in the die using the pressure of your press arm until cured.

 

[Walkalong]

If it is just putting a thin line on the bullets polish the outer edge of the seater stem with some 600 grit. Chuck it up in a drill and polish it inside just a little, making sure you knock the sharp edge off. Doesn't take much.

 

[rfwobbly]

I make my own (usually for Dillon dies), so I am familiar with your issue.



This is only worthwhile if you use lots of a single bullet. Many brands have similar offerings, but if the ogive varies by even a small amount, then you'll need a new seating stem or 'anvil' for each one. The anvil has to be cut to the exact shape, only then will polishing do any good. The cut of the anvil should be such that it can hold and fully support the bullet un-assisted. If your support is that complete, then you can get bullet seating without any marking.



A good seating anvil will not only seat the bullet without marring, but it will also center and straighten the bullet during its ride into the case. So there's a lot to think about besides the marking you're seeing on the ogive.

I'll send you a PM.

 

[forrest r]

I make my own also, along with expander plugs when I'm in the mood.

An easy fix is to buy 2 or 3 extra seating stems and make the hole larger in them then the bullet you're seating and do the jb weld thing posted above. Doing this will not only stop the marking of the bullets. Your reloads will have a more consistent oal with less runout.

 

[taliv]

never thought about jb weld. hmm

i do need a few seating stems actually. in 300NM i'm going to be using berger 230g hybrid tacticals, 198g flatline (very long pointy solids), and hornady A-Tips. so i may wind up doing 3 stems

 

[AJC1]

I make my own (usually for Dillon dies), so I am familiar with your issue.

View attachment 915856

This is only worthwhile if you use lots of a single bullet. Many brands have similar offerings, but if the ogive varies by even a small amount, then you'll need a new seating stem or 'anvil' for each one. The anvil has to be cut to the exact shape, only then will polishing do any good. The cut of the anvil should be such that it can hold and fully support the bullet un-assisted. If your support is that complete, then you can get bullet seating without any marking.

View attachment 915857

A good seating anvil will not only seat the bullet without marring, but it will also center and straighten the bullet during its ride into the case. So there's a lot to think about besides the marking you're seeing on the ogive.

I'll send you a PM.

Are you hand grinding a shape tool and running that in or free cutting the shape.

 

[edwardware]

My solution is to use a bullet as a grinding form to shape the contact surface in the plug to match the bullet. With cheap bullets, use valve grinding compound and several bullets.

For expensive bullets, use emory paper.

Forster's web page basically says. . .you suck, and your loading sucks and your bullets suck

So, the H&K of reloading equipment.

 

[rfwobbly]

Are you hand grinding a shape tool and running that in or free cutting the shape.

Necessity being "a mother", and Dillon pistol die seating anvils falling down on conical bullet shapes, such as XTP and SWC...
I've been blessed with the ability to measure the ogive angles and diameters, and then directly cut those dimensions into steel. I've made up a set of tiny "boring bars" that can reach up inside shapes smaller than 0.100". With those collets and cutting tools in hand, the hardest part is actually the cross-drilling for the black retention pin.

 

[SlowFuse]

You can also take a bullet, wax it heavily and use it as a mold to form just the shape you want by filling the hole in the stem with JB weld or similar and lightly jamming the bullet up in the die using the pressure of your press arm until cured.

Came here to say this, mine aren't the nicest in appearance but they do the job better than the original that was smashing and deforming noses. Ive also made some out of Hot Glue with the same method as the JB Weld mentioned. These are much more temporary. You can remove these easily from the stem if it's a bullet your are just trying out and not sticking with. The hot glue tips will fall apart or lose the shape with heavy use but can be made again easily.

Just make sure you use the wax or something with it, something to act as a release agent. Johnsons works, beeswax works, even shoe polish works...

 

[BC17A]

I bought a bunch of RCBS seating plugs from PSA on clearance for .097¢ each. Most were for odd ball bullets but all I wanted them for was to modify them for all my castings. I just hogged out the end with my dremel, filled them with epoxy and set the bullet (coated in car wax) in and let cure.

 

[Varminterror]

I have traditionally lapped my stems to my bullets. Far more work than necessary, but I drill a bullet sized hole in a block on my vise, clamp or epoxy the bullet into the hole, then chuck the stem into my drill and spin it briefly. I know a few guys who use a hand drill and get the same run-out as I have. Upon advice from another shooter a couple of years ago, I started “bedding” stems with Devcon steel. It works well also. I remain nervous my epoxy May flake from the stem with sufficient use, either in whole or in part, I’m not sure which is worse. But I expect it would be noticeable in the way I seat bullets.

So lapping isn’t hard, bedding isn’t even that hard.

I also saw a guy get in a bind two years ago and shoot a match with a full lot of bullets which were seriously creased by a poor fitting stem - no time to fix anything, so he simply seated the entire lot and trued BC morning of the match at 800yrds. One of his better finishes all season.

 

[taliv]

lol, it happens. i shot a match where 80% of my rounds had no neck tension, and after driving 14 hours, all the bullets had fallen into the cases lol. now when i drive, i put all my ammo boxes sideways so nothing vibrates down

 

[FROGO207]

whatever method you use make sure the bullet and the spindle are concentric and square so the bullet seats without any runout.

 

[p404445]

I was seating .357 Zero .125 JHP and getting very bad deformation on the exposed lead.
Since my dies are vintage Pacific, and because I am cheap, I made some floaters. A little ugly up top but they worked great the first time I tried them.

 

[Walkalong]

Very nice.

 

[SlowFuse]

@p404445 Welcome to THR.

And as Walkalong said... Very nice!

 

[Walkalong]

A .32 caliber seater stem setup I made for a Hornady die.

 

[p404445]

Wow nice workmanship!

 

[Otto]

.....but if you fix all that and it's still happening, you can send them 5 bullets and 4 pieces of brass and $34 and they will "polish" your stem until it stops doing that.

is this something i should just take my dremel out and do myself? anyone had forster fix this for them before?

You keep the stem you already have. They're selling you a brand new one, honed and polished to conform with the bullets you mailed to them. That's cheaper than buying a lathe.