Bullet Seating

[Montana Cowboy]

Howdy All
Need some suggestions as to what I'm doing wrong. When I seat a bullet in a .38 Special, .357 Magnum or .44 Magnum I just can't seem to do it without getting one side of the case to show a noticeable bulge at the base of the seated bullet while the other side is straight .
When I seat a bullet I do my best too start it straight / parallel as possible to the case. My seater die is just a bit loose to allow the ram and seating die with a case in the shell holder to align themselves with the press when the ram is run up to meet the seater die, then I lock it down. I then lightly touch the bullet with the seater plug to start the bullet into the case . As I seat the bullet I rotate the case a little thinking that if isn't started straight this would help align the bullet with the case.
Hope this makes sense, I'm watching my 2 yr old granddaughter today and this has taken me all day to write this. I love watching her but a 2 yr old requires your undivided attention. MC

[Jack]

MC, does the seater stem, or plug, in your seating die match the shape of the bullet nose?
You want the stem to fit the bullet nose pretty closely, as that really does a lot of the alignment for straight wall pistol cartridges.
Some die sets come with both a round nose and a wadcutter shaped stem. You can often order another seater stem from the die maker if you don't have one that fits the bullet nose you're using- and, you can use epoxy or glass bedding material to custom fit a seating stem to an exact fit of a bullet nose, if you feel the urge.
BTW, if the cartridges you're loading feed and chamber without problem, it's mostly a cosmetic issue. Although I understand, the loaded rounds do look a bit strange.

[Adam Helmer]

Montana Cowboy,

A couple of questions:

-are you seating cast or jacketed bullets?

-do you bell the case mouths a bit to ease bullet seating?

-what make reloading dies are you using?

-is this case bulging a recent event or has it always happened when you seat bullets?

Adam

[Rocky Raab]

It may be the cases themselves, also. If your brass is thinner on one side than the other, the thin side will always stretch more, no matter how straight the bullet gets seated.

Some reloaders turn rifle case necks to correct for uneven brass thickness, but nobody does it to handgun cases. It actually doesn't seem to matter much - or at least it never has to me.

[dakotah]

In addition to comments already made:

Are the cases trimmed square?
How much of a crimp are you applying?
When the case is being crimped, does the seater still push on the bullet? Sometimes seating the bullet to the right depth and crimping afterwards makes a better crimp. (Though it requires two operations.) That is if the bullet is being crimped and the case mouth is digging in while the bullet is pushed the case will often bulge.

[Montana Cowboy]

Evening All
Things are a little hectic around here at the moment. Thanks for all the help.

Jack
Yes the seater stem is correct for the bullets I'm using. The loaded rounds do feed with no problem at all.

Adam
I'm seating cast as well as jacketed bullets. I bell the case mouth just enough to allow the case to accept the bullet, approx .030 - .050 bell to case mouth.
I'm using RCBS and Redding dies.
The case bulging is not a recent event they have always done this no matter what I've tried.

Rocky
I have not bothered to check case wall thickness. Usually I don't have to trim my revolver / pistol cases often. I check case length before every reloading and trim when required. When I trim I trim all the cases in the box to the same length at the same time this way I know I'm dealing with a known length on all cases.

Dakota

Yes the cases are trimmed square.
As for crimp I do a light crimp on my lead bullet loads and a moderate to heavy crimp when using WW-296 powder.
When crimping and seating bullets I do this in two seperate steps. First seat the bullet then back off the seater plug and adjust the die down to crimp. I use a factory round as a guide for crimping.

If it is just a cosmetic thing as Rocky has indicated I probably will just forget about it. My loads work well and have not had any feeding or extraction problems.
I'm just the type of person that figures that if the factory can do it I should be able to also. I know I'm not dealing with new brass on every re-load, maybe I should buy a box or two of new brass and see if it does the same thing. MC

[Ol` Joe]

It may be the cases themselves, also. If your brass is thinner on one side than the other, the thin side will always stretch more, no matter how straight the bullet gets seated.

Bingo!
The bullet is following the path of least resistance and, as said, is bulging the thinner side of the case the most.
As long as the cartridge chambers properly there is no need to lose sleep over it.

[Montana Cowboy]

Ol'Joe
I hear ya. Some times there is a simple answer for things that you over look. Must be other folks here who have had the same question but their loads are shooting just fine and decided it didn't matter.
When it comes to reloading I've always gone by the book and read instructions carefully. This is one of those things that I never seen discussed in a reloading manual. MC

[dakotah]

When I mail order my model perfect revolver - 357 mag from Herters (It looked like the Hawes) I also ordered a set of model perfect dies with it.

Every load the bullet caused the case to bulge on one side. It did not matter the manufacturer of the brass. Every load was that way. I later sold it to a fellow Marine, I think in 1971. I bought a Model 28 S&W in 357 and along with it new dies from RCBS.

The cases no longer bulged on one side.

The cause, I believe was the model perfect dies were sizing the cases more than needed. When the bullets were pushed into the case the weakest side of the case bulged. The newer RCBS dies did not. The cases were the same though.

This may not be the 'case' with your bulged cases, since it sounds like it had to do with the crimping. What I do not understand though is why all your loads were coming out that way. If were just cases, I think things would vary from case to case. (No pun intended.)

[Montana Cowboy]

Afternoon Dakotah
The dies I use are RCBS with carbide sizer. Not all cases show the bulge but enough of them do to get me to wonder why they do. The brass being thiner on one side does seem like a logical answer . They have worked just fine in my revolvers and pistols. I'm going to try some new brass just to see if they do the same thing. Not sure when I will get around to it as work and the house take up much time as I'm sure you know. MC

[dakotah]

That sounds good. I am glad you found the culprit. I never found that those Herter's dies shortened the life of those cases. But I did not have alot of experience back then, that is, I di dnot have a lot of things to compare it to.

The dies I had that caused the problem were carbide dies also.

I have had a lot of carbide dies since then and none exhibited the problems those early dies did. Looking back -- and having some experience with different coatings, finishes, carbonization processes, plating; the thicknesses of many of the finishes are around .0007 inch give or take. If a company would apply a finish - that thick on a die without compensating for it the diameter would be about .0014 smaller, which might make things look odd. But in my experience the bulge was mainly cosmetic.