Seating a SJHP

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Apologies in advance if my hour of searching and reading in this forum missed a direct answer to my question - as always I do come across interesting threads and info when I search for a specific topic, so it's not a wasted effort. But I didn't find much directly on point.

Problem: seating a Remington 38 cal 125g semi-jacketed hollowpoint (in a 357 mag case) crushes/rounds off the soft lead hollowpoint so that it's sort of a roundnose with a hole. Using a Lee Turret and Lee 4-die 38/357 set.

My search turned up only one possible relevant comment: back out the seating/crimp die so that it seats only, and crimp in the FCD. I can see how this might work, if the crimping is creating tension that causes the seating stem to crush the soft lead.

I thought I recalled coming across references to special seating dies for HP bullets in other threads on other topics, but can't locate them.

Advice welcomed. I got 500 of these bullets very cheap as part of my reloading set-up purchase - otherwise I hadn't planned to load hollowpoint bullets at all, so these issues hadn't crossed my mind. So I might just sell the bullets - but in the event I'd like to load hollowpoints some day, I need to understand the actual solution.

 

[Certaindeaf]

You might have to use a seater stem that only contacts the ogive down kinda low where it is copper and strong. The exposed lead on your HP is most assuredly dead soft lead. Anyway, good luck.

 

[FROGO207]

You do not mention what brand of die set you have. Most manufacturers will make an exact fit seater plug for you at a reasonable cost. Usually they will require you to send a couple bullets to them so that they can fit the seater plug to your bullet. Or if you know someone that has a lathe they could modify your present plug to fit or make a new one to fit. Some of my dies have several different shaped plugs to use for various bullets. Some have had OK results seating and crimping in separate steps but I have not with mine and dead soft bullets.

 

[GLOOB]

My solution is to make a custom seater plug. I keep extra seater plugs in my die boxes, just in case I run into such problems.

I don't have a lathe. I just chuck the seater plug into a 1/2 inch Bosch drill with zero runout and cut the shape out with a Dremel tool and carbide bit. When I get it close, I switch to sandpaper over a rounded brass rod. (For a SJHP, I imagine an end mill would be the ticket for cutting out the flat nose. That's what I used for a SWC plug). Pressing a bullet in and wiggling it will show you enough to cut out a rough shape. Then as you get closer to where the bullet doesn't wiggle anymore, pushing it in while giving the drill a quick spin will show you where the remaining high spots are. Just examine the bullet for where it's scratched. Then I finish by mashing up some grinding compound with oil, and putting it on a bullet. Then I put the bullet in a vice and spin the seater plug over it.

I can get it pretty darn close, using these crude tools. Close enough, anyway. The most imporant thing is as Certaindeaf has suggested. Make sure there's enough clearance for the nose, and get as good a fit as you can at the ogive nearest the shoulder, where there's more bullet diameter and mass for good support. I.e., make sure if you have any high spots left, they're nearer to the shoulder of the bullet.

I set aside half a dozen or so sacrificial bullets for making the seater plug. Actually, last time I did it, I wiped 'em off and checked the base diameter with calipers to make sure the vice didn't squash them. I checked the length, too. They were fine, other than some scratches on the nose. So I used them up in my initial test loads.

 

[41 Mag]

I've been shooting those Remington bullets for a long time now and I certainly know what your referring to.

Two things ou can do with them if your overly concerned about the HP, one you already mentioned, is to seat and crimp in separate steps, which most folks recommend anyway.

The other is to fill the HP on one with some modeling clay, or similar, even some 5 minute epoxy will work. Then apply a couple of coats of paste wax to it. Then mix up a bit of 5 minute epoxy or JB Weld, and make a custom seater plug by filling up your seating plug with the epoxy or JB, and then gently shoving the bullet nose first into the mix until it bottoms out. This will allow the epoxy to squish out around the bullet forming a perfect fit. Once you bottom it out, use a sharp edge of a screw driver or pocket knife and remove anything which is sticking out around the bullet. Once hardened, it should be good to go. The wax on the bullet should allow it to be easily removed with just a tap or a slight pull with a pair of pliers.

I have done this a couple of times, but over the years I found that it really didn't matter much with either the accuracy or performance of these particular bullets. If you think the 38/357 Rem's are an issue you need to try out the 44 cal 240gr ones. They have a huge soft lead nose on them.

Personally I would just seat and crimp in separate steps if it was an issue, otherwise if just punching paper, go on with what ever floats your boat. If your only planning to shoot up the 500 you have and not get more then I wouldn't bother with the custom seating plug. I have however found the Rem's to shoot VERY well and also work very well on small and medium game with the proper weights and loads.

 

[GLOOB]

I've done it with epoxy, too. The cons are it's hard to get the bullet exactly straight. You can't spin the plug with the bullet in there, so you need a good eye to make it symmetrical. Oftentimes, nothing more than the very tip of the nose will fit, unless you grind out the hollow. And it ends up taking just as long, what with the setting up, prepping, mixing, waiting for the set, and the clean up. At least for me. If you screw up grinding a plug, you can always fill it in with the epoxy method, and you'll have more room to get a deeper mold.

 

[16in50calNavalRifle]

Very much appreciate everyone's insights here. As I don't hunt and am happy to let Speet make my self-defense ammo (and just load comparable-recoil rounds for practice), I've decided to sell these bullets. I never intended to load HP, they just came along with some of the used reloading gear I bought when assembling my set-up. I'm sure someone in my area will find them useful, and I'm offering them at a good price.

 

[Certaindeaf]

^
Very good and understandable. However, if you make those HP's into RN's seating them, they'll likely be more than adequate for "practice", as was your original and stated intent. Also, in the long run, you'll likely have to seat HP's though they probably won't have "exposed" lead. Anyway

 

[2zulu1]

I also load a lot of exposed lead, jacketed hollow points. The RCBS seater die has three plugs, RN, SWC and Gold Dot. I've found that the SWC plug doesn't distort lead as much as the other two do. Crimping is done with a Lee FCD.