I've got two issues with bullet seating that I would like your input on. I'm using Lee dies and am not satisfied with the consistency and, with respect to one particular caliber, the way it deforms cast bullets

Inconsistent seating depth. 

I load .270 with 135 gr Sierra Matchkings HPBT. Being target ammo, the bullet is very long in the nose with an almost non-existent meplat. Although difficult to see, the shape on some of the meplats is inconsistent resulting in varying overall bullet lengths. When the lee bullet seating die is used, I often get varying seating depths and, consequently, varying OAL. I'm thinking about drilling a hole in the bullet seating stem so that the stem contacts the ogive rather than the bullet tip. I'm hoping that seating the bullet on the ogive rather than the meplat will lead to more consistent OAL when measured from the case head to the point of contact on the ogive. Will this modification alleviate my problem or am I running in the wrong direction?

Bullet Crush

I just started casting 77 gr. SWC .32 ACP, using wheel weights. The mold has been throwing bullets of .315 diameter which I think is fairly large for .32 ACP. When I place the bullet on the case and run the bullet up into the seating die with the bullet seating stem backed all the way out, the bullet often gets stuck in the die. When I seat the bullet, the crown of the meplat is deformed and the sides of the bullet is shiny as though the bullet has been resized. My thoughts are that the die is tapered which causes the bullet to get stuck in the die. Other reloaders have experienced similar problems and have suggesed honing the die as a solution but I'd like to eliminate reloader error before resorting to hogging out the die. As far as the side skirts been squeezed, my thinking is that the first step is to resize the bullet before loading and re-verify that the problem still exists before trying something else. The bore on my .32 ACP runs .313 so I'm shooting for a resized diameter of .314.

Sorry for the confusing description. I'll try to post some pics if I can to make it easier to understand.

Thanks in advance for your input.

What press are you using to load?

Lee Challenger Breechlock single stage

I've got two issues with bullet seating that I would like your input on. I'm using Lee dies and am not satisfied with the consistency and, with respect to one particular caliber, the way it deforms cast bullets

Inconsistent seating depth. 

I load .270 with 135 gr Sierra Matchkings HPBT. Being target ammo, the bullet is very long in the nose with an almost non-existent meplat. Although difficult to see, the shape on some of the meplats is inconsistent resulting in varying overall bullet lengths. When the lee bullet seating die is used, I often get varying seating depths and, consequently, varying OAL. I'm thinking about drilling a hole in the bullet seating stem so that the stem contacts the ogive rather than the bullet tip. I'm hoping that seating the bullet on the ogive rather than the meplat will lead to more consistent OAL when measured from the case head to the point of contact on the ogive. Will this modification alleviate my problem or am I running in the wrong direction?

I haven't loaded .270 but have used Sierra MK for my 30cals and noticed that the bullets range in length, that's where your varying OAL might be coming from if your measuring from the tip of meplat and not the ogive. From my experience ive had different OAL length when measuring fromt the tip but when measuring from the ogive they have been pretty much the same within a thousandth.The couple of lee dies that I do have before I polished the seating stem used to leave a light ring in the bullet so I don't think they seat on the tip but it could be different for the .270

I haven't loaded .270 but have used Sierra MK for my 30cals and noticed that the bullets range in length, that's where your varying OAL might be coming from if your measuring from the tip of meplat and not the ogive. From my experience ive had different OAL length when measuring fromt the tip but when measuring from the ogive they have been pretty much the same within a thousandth.

That's been my experience.  Lee's website states:

The bullet seating plug that comes with the die set is as close to generic as we can make it. If you find that the bullet seating plug deforms the nose of the bullet you are trying to seat, or does not seat the bullet deep enough, we can make a custom bullet seating plug to fit your bullet. For this we would need a sample bullet and payment of $8 plus $6 Shipping.

The seating plug does not seat the bullet by pushing on the nose of the bullet. It is a hollow punch that pushes on the ogive of the bullet. Because of that, any differential between the point the bullet and the point the bullet seating plug contacts the ogive results in variable overall length. +/- .010" is not unreasonable.

If you want to confirm this, remove the bullet seating plug from the die. Place it over the bullet and now measure overall length of several rounds. It should be more consistent.   

Seating a bullet on the meplat leads to larger variances in OAL as opposed to seating on the ogive as the attached picture shamelessly stolen from another forum shows.

I'll dissassemble my .270 dies tonight to see what sort of seating stem is in there. If what Lee says about the existence of a hollow punch is true and confirmed with a visual inspection of the stem, then I won't worry about the varying OAL since the length of the the bullets themselves are inconsistent. If there is no hollow punch, I'll try to make one.

I pulled the bullet seating stems on my Lee dies. As they appear from left to right in the pic: .32 ACP, .223 Rem, and .270 Win.

Looks like the 223 and 270 seat on the ogive which should yield pretty consistent results. I made my own .270 bullet comparator with a drill press. Took me just five minutes with a nut from an unopen pack that I obtained from Kilgos a while ago. Haven't tried it yet. Hope it works.

I've also attached a couple of pics of the cast .32 ACP boolits and how they appear before and after they have been loaded. You can see the side skirts have been polished as though the bullet was resized when the bullet was seated using the Lee die. You can also see the deformed crown. Looks like the concave seating plug deformed the crown. I flat one may work better. I may either spring for a new one from lee or fill the cavity with some epoxy resin.

Bullet Crush

I just started casting 77 gr. SWC .32 ACP, using wheel weights. The mold has been throwing bullets of .315 diameter which I think is fairly large for .32 ACP. When I place the bullet on the case and run the bullet up into the seating die with the bullet seating stem backed all the way out, the bullet often gets stuck in the die. When I seat the bullet, the crown of the meplat is deformed and the sides of the bullet is shiny as though the bullet has been resized. My thoughts are that the die is tapered which causes the bullet to get stuck in the die. Other reloaders have experienced similar problems and have suggesed honing the die as a solution but I'd like to eliminate reloader error before resorting to hogging out the die. As far as the side skirts been squeezed, my thinking is that the first step is to resize the bullet before loading and re-verify that the problem still exists before trying something else. The bore on my .32 ACP runs .313 so I'm shooting for a resized diameter of .314.

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I see the pix. Very interesting.
What bullet mold is that? I don't see anything like that on the net.

I pulled the bullet seating stems on my Lee dies. As they appear from left to right in the pic: .32 ACP, .223 Rem, and .270 Win.

Looks like the 223 and 270 seat on the ogive which should yield pretty consistent results. I made my own .270 bullet comparator with a drill press. Took me just five minutes with a nut from an unopen pack that I obtained from Kilgos a while ago. Haven't tried it yet. Hope it works.

I've also attached a couple of pics of the cast .32 ACP boolits and how they appear before and after they have been loaded. You can see the side skirts have been polished as though the bullet was resized when the bullet was seated using the Lee die. You can also see the deformed crown. Looks like the concave seating plug deformed the crown. I flat one may work better. I may either spring for a new one from lee or fill the cavity with some epoxy resin.

I now see what your talking about the crown of the bullet. it might be from the seating stem or if your crimping at the same time that your seating,the crimp might be coming on to early and your putting extra load on the soft lead bullet,you might want to back off on the die if you are crimping at the same time.

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I see the pix. Very interesting.
What bullet mold is that? I don't see anything like that on the net.

I bought it on eBay as a new discontinued Lee 6 cavity mold. It bares the number 314.75 or 314-75 stamped in the side. Seller says it makes .77 gr 32 ACP (.311)  bullets but looking at the stamped number and my measurements of the bullet diameters coming out of the mold, I'm not so sure that this mold was designed to churn out regular sized 32 ACP boolits.

I now see what your talking about the crown of the bullet. it might be from the seating stem or if your crimping at the same time that your seating,the crimp might be coming on to early and your putting extra load on the soft lead bullet,you might want to back off on the die if you are crimping at the same time.

That's what was weird. I try to do the seating and crimping separately. As I was trying to set the die up for seating by turning the die all the way down until it touched the shell holder and then backing it out three full turns, the bullet got stuck up in the die with the bullet seating stem backed all the way out.

I am thinking you have the seating die down too far. Back it way off so that it doesn't do any crimp at all. Also, try belling the case mouth a little more so starting the bullets is easier.  I use the factory crimp die for pistol ammo as the last step.

I may be wrong, but .002" on cast is ok. Not sure tho.

The .270 shouldn't be contacting the nose of the bullet.   Try sticking on in there with it out of the die and see where it is binding.  Maybe you could sacrifice a few bullets, chuck them in a drill and use some lapping compound to smooth up any burrs.  Try to get the contact between the bullet and the stem more uniform.  That might help. 

If the tip of the bullets are touching the top of the seater maybe you could open it up some with a drill bit or something.  The seater should be contacting the ogive of the bullet, if it is not then something is amiss.

I am thinking you have the seating die down too far. Back it way off so that it doesn't do any crimp at all. Also, try belling the case mouth a little more so starting the bullets is easier.  I use the factory crimp die for pistol ammo as the last step.

I may be wrong, but .002" on cast is ok. Not sure tho.

Thanks. I will try this and start from the beginning.

The .270 shouldn't be contacting the nose of the bullet.   Try sticking on in there with it out of the die and see where it is binding.  Maybe you could sacrifice a few bullets, chuck them in a drill and use some lapping compound to smooth up any burrs.  Try to get the contact between the bullet and the stem more uniform.  That might help. 

If the tip of the bullets are touching the top of the seater maybe you could open it up some with a drill bit or something.  The seater should be contacting the ogive of the bullet, if it is not then something is amiss.

.270 Win

I stuck a .277 bullet in the bullet seating stem and confirmed that the tip did not contact the stem. I then used a bullet comparator that I made and measure the OAL based on the ogive and determined that the seating was in fact consistent. Thus, while measuring OAL using the bullet tip yielded different measurements, measuring with the ogive did not. Should have known this but I guess you learn as you go along.

.32 ACP

Lee Precision prompty responded to my email inquiry about the mould and said that the mould is not being sold and was never previously sold as a production run. If it is one of theirs, its a custom mould which should yield .314, 75 gr. boolits as indicated by the stamped marking on the mould.  My measurements of that as-cast boolits show that the mould is throwing .315 boolits at 77 gr. Since my barrel slugs out at .313, I will attempt to resize the boolits to .314 when my resizing die arrives and run them through the seating die with the seating plug initially backed out all the way and see what happens.

.32 ACP

Lee Precision prompty responded to my email inquiry about the mould and said that the mould is not being sold and was never previously sold as a production run. If it is one of theirs, its a custom mould which should yield .314, 75 gr. boolits as indicated by the stamped marking on the mould.  My measurements of that as-cast boolits show that the mould is throwing .315 boolits at 77 gr. Since my barrel slugs out at .313, I will attempt to resize the boolits to .314 when my resizing die arrives and run them through the seating die with the seating plug initially backed out all the way and see what happens.

Just as clarification.  I mean to say to back the entire die body out some.  So that the case does not contact the crimp area inside the die body.  The seating stem are also backed out and slowly screwed down until desired seating depth is reached.  The die body itself is not screwed down any more than necessary.   

I am thinking you have the seating die down too far. Back it way off so that it doesn't do any crimp at all. Also, try belling the case mouth a little more so starting the bullets is easier.  I use the factory crimp die for pistol ammo as the last step.

I may be wrong, but .002" on cast is ok. Not sure tho.

I agree with Heavies. It appears that your crimp is too heavy. The extra effort to seat the bullet is what is deforming the sides of the bullet. Also, the shape of your seater doesn't match the shape of your bullet.
My suggestion is to make a few dummy rounds.
1. size and bell a few cases with no powder or primers.
2. screw out the sizing die just until it doesn't touch the case.
3. put a bullet in a case, keep running it into the die and screwing in the seater until the bullet is just a hair above where you want it to be.
4. screw out the seating part of the die.
5. run the case up into the sizing die and screw down the sizing die until you can just feel it touch the case.
6. with the case in that position, screw in the seater die again until it touches the bullet.
7. turn in the die assembly in at maybe 1/4 turn increments and see how the bullet/crimp looks. 

The shape of your seater for the .270 also doesn't match the shape of your bullet, as Heavies noted. I have had problems with Lee dies before, and have gone to RCBS, Hornady or even Redding for higher quality. Some of the die makers make a separate seating die, which I have used.
Not to bash Lee dies. I use their carbide dies for pistol calibers. 
If you have other Lee pistol dies, look at the seaters and see if there is one with a flatter seater. They may interchange.