Variable COAL with Lee bullet seating die

[Foxyboy43]

All seating dies seat the bullet to the ogive and not the bullet tip (including Lee)
View attachment 357622

Classic example of words fail - see sketch!

 

[Sweep]

I had the same effect with my Redding micrometer seating die when fitted in the press with the Hornady LnL bush. What I found was that it took several bullets seated to “settle” the die. To cure this I seated the whole batch long and then seated them to the correct length the second time around. Whilst I still get a little variation I put this down in part to manufacturing tolerance

 

[drone]

Are you concerned because the longer cartridges won't fit in your mag or because of the jump to lands? I have to be honest and advise that the bullet seating slug can be a pain,there's several thou clearance in the bore of the die and the dimple in the end of lee and all the proprietary brands is needless. My recommendation is to grind that dimple out, if you don't feel competent ask a a machine shop to flatten the end. I did and there were no more issues with a variable coal.
If you do grind the dimple off yourself and make an abortion of it, just turn it round in the adjusting cap. I did that, too.
Lee dies are OK in my book.

 

[Edinburgh Rifles]

screw the seating stem right down and use the depth of the die in the press to alter OAL

chances are its variance in meplat and ogive profile combined with a seating stem that is better suited to a Soft Point Spitzer profile
combined with the floating seating pin

but unless you can demonstrate a terminal difference at range between those that measure within a tolerance to the ones you made ,........it doesnt matter,,

 

[Gunner971]

So the 100,000s of both pistol and since the ban, rifle ammunition I have reloaded in the last 35 years using nothing but Lee dies have been no good? Pure and utter snobbery. By the way, I also use Remmington 61/2 primers for .223 and .22 hornet. Shocking absolutely shocking.

 

[Bowland blades]

Every thing i have had from Lee has broken prematurely or performed poorly . They can often get a job done for a while but they drive me crazy and commonly break the amount of Lee Presses i have been asked to weld over the years ( I dont btw ) is pretty telling and its only ever Lee . I bought a shell holder set as i thought heck its only shell holders and a full set could be handy , the one i actually needed ( 223) didnt fit !