Tell me about Hornady's custom grade seater die.

[Gato Montés]

Hi all!

I'm loading some MBC 158 gr 38 special SWCs and having a hard time seating them straight in the case. Tell me, does this die do a pretty good job of holding the bullet straight as it makes its way into the case?

http://www.midwayusa.com/viewProduct/?productNumber=264729?cm_cat=Cart&cm_pla=ProductDesc

Right now all my equipment is Lee brand. I've also heard changing the flare die will help, like the Lyman M die, but I'm using a Pro Auto-disk so I can't change that one out.

So tell me, does the super duper "inline sliding alignment sleeve" work pretty good, or should I look elsewhere???

 

[Shmackey]

Hornady makes far and away the best seating dies I've used.

 

[Gato Montés]

Good to hear. Does that mean you've found the alignment feature to work pretty good?

 

[Shmackey]

Perfectly.

 

[Sunray]

"...having a hard time seating them straight..." Hi. You don't need a different die. You need a bit more flare. Just enough to be able to sit the bullet in the case and have it stay put. The seating die doesn't hold the bullet in place. It just seats the bullet and removes the flare.

 

[Gato Montés]

The problem I'm experiencing is the type of flare given by the lee expander die allows for off canted bullet seating. Unless I'm really, really careful, bullets have a tendency to seat themselves cockeyed, especially in thick brass with less give.

EDIT: Here, this pic from Lee Roder in the crimp thread pretty much sums it up.



What I need is a seating die that will correct for this.

 

[Sunray]

"...a seating die that will correct for this..." The one you have will do that. When the seating plug pushes the bullet in, the bullet will straighten out.
That Lee die isn't flaring at all. There's something wrong with the sizing too. That wee ridge near the rim shouldn't be there.
You only need a crimp for hot loads. Cast bullet loads aren't.

 

[Walkalong]

The Hornady seaters for pistol work great. I have several. I have a micrometer top on my 9MM seater. The only thing better is the Redding, but it is pricier.

If you start the bullet really crooked, it doesn't matter how good the seater is.

The Lyman two step expanders, and the Redding copies, do the best job of expanding the brass so that the bullets are easy start straight which keeps them straight vs a normal expander which bells the case and will allow a bullet to lay over when hand seated. That said, a normal expander works just fine is used properly and if the bullets are seated straight before the seater die starts seating them, but the Lyman design makes it easier to hand start the bullets straight. I have changed out most of my expanders for Lyman and Redding expanders. I recently machined my own expander insert for a Lee .32 ACP expander die utilizing the two step design. I run the second step about .025 to .035 into the case.

 

[popper]

Not nearly enough flare. Bet it 'pops' when it first goes in.

 

[Gato Montés]

Just for clarity that is not my picture, as noted.

I currently run three different brands of brass; Remington, Winchester and Magtech (CBC). Remington and Winchester are fine almost all the time, Magtech on the other hand I have constant issues with bullet runout. Again, I'm pretty sure my flair is fine because the other two brands seem to have no problems what so ever.

I've heard that CBC brass is thicker than other brands, which may be exacerbating my problem. Either way, I'm gonna give the Hornady seater a try, just to see.