Modified 223 seating plug?

[Rodahayes51]

Hi everyone

I'm working with hand cast 223's, powder coated. Hoping to improve accuracy at higher velocities. My standard RCBS seating plug doesn't match the shape of my bullet and is indenting a ring around it. Does anyone know of a source for custom seating plugs? Thanks.

 

[mdm]

Contact RCBS.

 

[Walkalong]

Chuck it up in a drill and use some 400/600 grit to round off and polish the sharp outer edge. This should make the ring go away.

 

[41 Mag]

Chuck it up in a drill and use some 400/600 grit to round off and polish the sharp outer edge. This should make the ring go away.

^^^^ that ^^^^​

And if that don't work, you could always simply dab a little epoxy in it and then set one of the bullets with a little lube, or paste wax smeared on it to release on top pointed into it with just a smidge of pressure to hold it in place. Once the epoxy cures, remove the bullet and clean up the excess, and you will have a custom seating plug. The 5 minute epoxy isn't overly hard to get rid of when your ready to go back to the original shape, or if you want to change it out for something else.

 

[Jesse Heywood]

Easier than epoxy is hot glue.

 

[Rodahayes51]

Great ideas, guys! Thanks for the help.

 

[witchhunter]

A Dremel tool with the right stone will make quick work of it.

 

[GLOOB]

If you want to go full Dremel on it, chuck the seater into a drill and cut it while it's spinning. Keeps it symmetrical.

If you don't already have one, you might want to consider the Lyman 223 M die for expanding your cases and adding a little flare for the cast bullets.

 

[ArchAngelCD]

All good suggestions but I would go with the first suggestion. Contact RCBS and they will help you out. (unless it's just a sharp edge around the edge of the plug)

 

[GLOOB]

Aww, that's so boring. Turning a steel object is a little like pottery... only with dual motorized spinning power tools and sparks. The horsepower and noise combined with the ghetto-tastic mis-applicatication of cordless drill and wood clamp is something every man should experience at least once.

 

[Walkalong]

At least once.

I have polished many seater plugs. Makers tend to leave that edge sharp and or rough. Chuck it up in a drill and use 400 and 600 grit sandpaper. A Dremel, with anything but a soft fine stone, will be way to much.

 

[GLOOB]

I am not talking about a lil polishing. I am talking about reshaping a seating plug to fit a particular bullet like a glove. Ain't no bit too aggressive for the initial work. So long as you finish with a progression of sandpapers. I have even used aggressive carbide cutters for the rough work.

I have used epoxy too. But you end up with a plug that only holds the tip. If you hog out the plug you can get a fit over a much greater surface area. This is probably most important for pistol JHP. I can seat and crimp even my Nosler 40SW JHP in one step with no deformation. The mouth on that hollow point looks like a knife blade. My plug for that bullet doesn't even touch the mouth. That isn't even close to possible without hogging out the plug.

 

[Walkalong]

I see.

I did one like that long ago when it was deforming a soft lead tipped bullet in .38 Spl. Your right, as long as the final shaping is smooth, your good to go.

 

[FROGO207]

Seeing as it is a RCBS seating die a call to them will get you a spare plug for free to try and modify if they actually don't have one that matches that profile available already. Then you will not have to worry about damaging the one you have now. A cheaper alternative to try before buying the M die is to inside ream the necks of the brass so the bullet will slide in with less resistance along with putting a radius/taper on the inside of the plug where it contacts the bullet as suggested above. FWIW that ring will not effect accuracy enough that you can tell the difference I am willing to bet.

 

[Rodahayes51]

Some follow up and a tip. I was camping this weekend and was unable to try your suggestions. You know you've got it bad when you spend your weekend vacation thinking about getting home to reload! I wasn't feeling courageous enough to start beagling my seating plug. I decided to try the epoxy. The question was how to keep the bullet aligned with the seating plug? I decided to try a straw and it fit perfectly. I screwed the die into the press, the plug in upside down, filled it with JP weld, stuck a lubricated bullet on and topped it with a short piece of straw. Simple! Thanks again for the suggestions!

 

[Rodahayes51]

The straw with the bullet measured 0.236 OD. The wall of the straw measured.006 so I figure the ID of the straw has to be almost exactly .224! How cool is that!

 

[ArchAngelCD]

Did you try the "new" plug? Did it work well?

 

[GLOOB]

I wasn't feeling courageous enough to start beagling my seating plug.

Considering a spare seating plug is at most a few dollars, and your cost in lead and gas checks and time will exceed that in 100 rounds, you got it all backwards.

But good on you to go the epoxy route headfirst. Even though I have never messed up any of my half-dozen custom plugs (cutting steel is slow!), I never messed with a plug until I had the spares in hand!

 

[Rodahayes51]

Will try out the plug tonight.

 

[Sunray]

You're worrying about something that doesn't matter. Only the base of the bullet matters. Wouldn't use any rotary tool. Too easy to screw it up.

 

[Rodahayes51]

I realize that the ring around the bullet isn't as important as getting the base right. However, this is a hobby to me and it is important to me that the cartridge look right as well as perform well! "its about pride!". I tried the modified plug and it worked very well with just a trace of indentation visible. Thanks again, guys!

 

[murf]

seating a bullet crooked is a bad thing. get the right seating stem (or make it fit right) and seat em straight.

murf