What die Set?

[tzone]

No you should not. Once your seating stem is set and locked down it should not change. The only variance in OAL should be from individual bullet to bullet.
How much of a difference are you getting?

I knew someone would ask that and I don’t know off hand. I apologize. It was enough that I thought I was doing something wrong. More than a few hundredths for sure.
Then I started loading for my .223 and it it was nuts on. It made the process much faster and more enjoyable.

 

[tzone]

Very common problem with RCBS and other brands. Seems the seating stem is so generic it’s setup for something like a round nose type bullet. The seating stems aren’t very well built. You can drill out the stem so most bullets fit better in them and I’ve seen guys even lap them.
Or you can use a Redding die with VLD stem and never look back.
Just curious what bullet are you loading?

It was 7mm bullets I was having issues with. In a .280 Rem and a 7mm Mauser.

 

[Don Fischer]

It's not the groups that are inconsistent. It's the loading process. Most times on the .7x57 seating die, I have to adjust the depth, a lot. At times it varies bullet to bullet. To the point where it takes 3 times as long to load for that round because I have to measure the length of each round. I shouldn't have to do that.

Gonna make a difference how you measure length If you measuring to the bullet tip, then you can find inconsistency's. Reason being the distance from a bullet's ogive to tip can vary. But if your measuring to the ogive, probably need to learn to measure better as the ogive never change's! Very hard for me to imagine the die moving up or down with it locked into place with the O ring. I replaced all the O ring's on Lee dies because they don't seem to lock unless they are in the press. Best lock rings for me are the split one's but I also use the ones where the set screw goes through and locks to the threads.

 

[Woodrow F Call]

Gonna make a difference how you measure length If you measuring to the bullet tip, then you can find inconsistency's. Reason being the distance from a bullet's ogive to tip can vary. But if your measuring to the ogive, probably need to learn to measure better as the ogive never change's! Very hard for me to imagine the die moving up or down with it locked into place with the O ring. I replaced all the O ring's on Lee dies because they don't seem to lock unless they are in the press. Best lock rings for me are the split one's but I also use the ones where the set screw goes through and locks to the threads.

This is what I learned when I started tinkering with the 6.5CM. The OAL measured from tip to tail just won't be consistent. You gotta measure to the Ogive for some bullets. I made my own gauge for this. You just need a consistent hole diameter as the ogive is anywhere on the curve of the bullet. You can buy a gauge, but I'm not sure if they are consistent between manufacturers.

 

[Woodrow F Call]

It's not the groups that are inconsistent. It's the loading process. Most times on the .7x57 seating die, I have to adjust the depth, a lot. At times it varies bullet to bullet. To the point where it takes 3 times as long to load for that round because I have to measure the length of each round. I shouldn't have to do that.

Oh, if the groups are good.... and the velocity is consistent. I'm not sure I'd be all that worried. Maybe if you are doing some long long range shooting.

 

[Elkmagnet]

Gonna make a difference how you measure length If you measuring to the bullet tip, then you can find inconsistency's. Reason being the distance from a bullet's ogive to tip can vary. But if your measuring to the ogive, probably need to learn to measure better as the ogive never change's! Very hard for me to imagine the die moving up or down with it locked into place with the O ring.

What he said

 

[tzone]

This is what I learned when I started tinkering with the 6.5CM. The OAL measured from tip to tail just won't be consistent. You gotta measure to the Ogive for some bullets. I made my own gauge for this. You just need a consistent hole diameter as the ogive is anywhere on the curve of the bullet. You can buy a gauge, but I'm not sure if they are consistent between manufacturers.

I have heard that as well. I'm going to start doing that and see if things improve.

 

[cahunter805]

I use the hornady comparator kit and purchased the kit that comes with many caliber inserts.
Measuring off the Ogive is much more consistent than off the bullet tip and can definitely help accuracy.