Good seating die for .223

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Larryswn

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Right now I have a Hornady seat/crimp die. I'm not using the crimp. I did however notice the concentricity is pretty far off. About .004. Is this ok for plinking or should I look into a different die? They seem pretty accurate, 100 yards with iron sights groups about the size of a baseball. I'm sure there's some operator error in there as well with the irons. What's considered tolerable for non match ammo? I certainly don't want to sit there and adjust 1,000 rounds.....LC brass with Hornady 55G fmjbt. I did however notice the .223 brass has almost no movement at all. Not even .001. The 5.56 stuff is another story
 
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Larryswn said:
Hornady 55G fmjbt.
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While the Hornady 55 Gr FMJ is good by FMJ standards, it is by no means a match, or even a very accurate, bullet. Unless you think breaking under 1 inch sometimes is accurate.

Want a better chance of accuracy? Start with a better bullet. For starters, almost any HP or SP varmint or target bullet.

You need straight cases first, then a sizer that does not pull the necks crooked with an expander ball, then a good seater.

A good seater? The Lee "dead length" bullet seater. The RCBS, Redding, or Forster match seaters.

That said, the Hornady 55 Gr FMJ is a fine plinking bullet, .004 is fine for plinkers, and is certainly capable of shooting better than baseball sized groups at 100 yards.

Your Hornady seater is fine for what you are doing. Quit worrying, go shoot, have fun, and work on your gun handling skills.
 
I switched from a basic RCBS to a Redding competition seater die when I had issues with longer bullets. I have settled on 55 grain Hornady FMJ so its not as much a issue now. The Redding company makes very nice tools to work with.
 
Straight bullets in rimless bottleneck cartridges first require the case neck be straight on the case shoulder and body when resized. Then the case mouth diameter must be just enough smaller than bullet diameter to stay straight while the bullet is seated then grip it just tight enough to stay in place until fired.

Full length sizing dies keep the fired case body, shoulder and neck in perfect alignment when full into the die. If there's an expander ball in the die, it can bend the case neck as it comes up through it on cases with uneven neck and shoulder wall thickness. If gelded dies (no balls) are used, their case necks aren't bent coming down out of such dies. Full length bushing dies with bushings a couple thousandths inch smaller then loaded round neck diameter are very good. Almost as good as full length dies whose neck is honed out to the required diameter.

Fired cases so resized let bullets be seated very straight with most any seating die. Even if case neck wall thickness has a .002" spread, bullets will be about .001" off center in the chamber when fired. Bullet runout up to 1% of bullet diameter is good.

No commercial commercial cartridge spinner with dial indicator aligns cartridges to their gauging axis the same as such cartridges align to chambers when fired. Depending on their design and setup, a 3X spread in runout for a given cartridge will be seen.
 
You already got great advice about before you get to the seating die.

I agree the Lee dead length bullet seating die is a very good choice without spending a lot of money. When I changed over from Lee rifle dies to RCBS I kept using the Lee seating dies. Their neck sizing dies are very good too IMO.
 
Bart B. said:
Straight bullets in rimless bottleneck cartridges first require the case neck be straight on the case shoulder and body when resized. Then the case mouth diameter must be just enough smaller than bullet diameter to stay straight while the bullet is seated then grip it just tight enough to stay in place until fired.

Full length sizing dies keep the fired case body, shoulder and neck in perfect alignment when full into the die. If there's an expander ball in the die, it can bend the case neck as it comes up through it on cases with uneven neck and shoulder wall thickness. If gelded dies (no balls) are used, their case necks aren't bent coming down out of such dies. Full length bushing dies with bushings a couple thousandths inch smaller then loaded round neck diameter are very good. Almost as good as full length dies whose neck is honed out to the required diameter.

Fired cases so resized let bullets be seated very straight with most any seating die. Even if case neck wall thickness has a .002" spread, bullets will be about .001" off center in the chamber when fired. Bullet runout up to 1% of bullet diameter is good.

No commercial commercial cartridge spinner with dial indicator aligns cartridges to their gauging axis the same as such cartridges align to chambers when fired. Depending on their design and setup, a 3X spread in runout for a given cartridge will be seen.
Click to expand...

Egad. I have never done any of that, but just used my Lee set the way the little fold out instructions told me to use it. Comes from learning how to reload from books and the Internet. :) I don't even know how to measure run out...not being a smart aleck - it's something I will need to know with a project I've been handed, a long range load in a big bore caliber.
 
Walkalong said:
While the Hornady 55 Gr FMJ is good by FMJ standards, it is by no means a match, or even a very accurate, bullet. Unless you think breaking under 1 inch sometimes is accurate.

Want a better chance of accuracy? Start with a better bullet. For starters, almost any HP or SP varmint or target bullet.

You need straight cases first, then a sizer that does not pull the necks crooked with an expander ball, then a good seater.

A good seater? The Lee "dead length" bullet seater. The RCBS, Redding, or Forster match seaters.

That said, the Hornady 55 Gr FMJ is a fine plinking bullet, .004 is fine for plinkers, and is certainly capable of shooting better than baseball sized groups at 100 yards.

Your Hornady seater is fine for what you are doing. Quit worrying, go shoot, have fun, and work on your gun handling skills.
Click to expand...
Perfect.That's what I needed to know. Thanks!
 
It all depends upon the rifle. I have one gun that shoots the 55gr FMJBT (cheap bullets) very good. 30 rounds less than 1 moa, mixed LC brass. All shot with in 5-10 sec of the last shoot. Then I have another gun if you get 1 1/2" group your doing good.
 
Blue68f100 said:
It all depends upon the rifle. I have one gun that shoots the 55gr FMJBT (cheap bullets) very good. 30 rounds less than 1 moa, mixed LC brass. All shot with in 5-10 sec of the last shoot. Then I have another gun if you get 1 1/2" group your doing good.
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My AR is nothing fancy, M&P 15 sport 2. For the price, barrel length and twist I would imagine it's not going to be crazy accurate. I'm perfectly happy with 1.5 inch group at 100 yards . After enough research I would like to get a nice, long distance bolt action of a heavier caliber and skip the 100 yard indoor range and make the drive to the outdoor range. Delve a little deeper into it. I bought my first rifle 6 months ago and yes I'm already reloading. I fell in love with the sport right away. After 3,000 rounds gone in a month and a half, I knew I'd better figure something out. Gone through about 1,500 rounds of my own loads so far and all is well. After tons of posts on this forum and tons of answers that all follow a general consensus you guys are great and really know your stuff. I couldn't imagine years ago with no internet trying to learn such a thing on my own. Yikes........Reading my reload manual numerous times didn't hurt either:thumbup:
 
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