Hello everyone,
I am just getting into reloading .223 and am getting odd results when I am seating bullets. I am getting OALs that vary up to 0.01" over 20 cases when I am using my Hornady seating die (from the custom grade reloading die set) . I am usually getting OALs within 0.004" but it does vary quite a bit.
I have tried disassembling the dies twice and spraying it down thoroughly with the recommended gun cleaner and lube. When I am setting up the die, I have a case on the ram at the highest position and I screw the die in until I am barely touching the brass then back it off a quarter of a turn. I am not trying to crimp the bullets. I then use the seater adjustment screw to set the bullet seating depth for the first round. I have been doing an initial seating with all of my cartridges, measuring the OAL, and then putting them into groups of the correct OAL, too long, and too short. I then press all of the cases that are too long again with the seater adjustment screw dialed in a bit more and repeat the sorting and pressing until they are all at the correct OAL or too short. I have been setting the cartridges that are too short to the side until I get a bullet puller to restart the process.
I hope I am just making a newbie mistake that is easy to correct or is this something where I should be contacting Hornady? Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.
I am just getting into reloading .223 and am getting odd results when I am seating bullets. I am getting OALs that vary up to 0.01" over 20 cases when I am using my Hornady seating die (from the custom grade reloading die set) . I am usually getting OALs within 0.004" but it does vary quite a bit.
I have tried disassembling the dies twice and spraying it down thoroughly with the recommended gun cleaner and lube. When I am setting up the die, I have a case on the ram at the highest position and I screw the die in until I am barely touching the brass then back it off a quarter of a turn. I am not trying to crimp the bullets. I then use the seater adjustment screw to set the bullet seating depth for the first round. I have been doing an initial seating with all of my cartridges, measuring the OAL, and then putting them into groups of the correct OAL, too long, and too short. I then press all of the cases that are too long again with the seater adjustment screw dialed in a bit more and repeat the sorting and pressing until they are all at the correct OAL or too short. I have been setting the cartridges that are too short to the side until I get a bullet puller to restart the process.
I hope I am just making a newbie mistake that is easy to correct or is this something where I should be contacting Hornady? Any thoughts or comments are appreciated.