# Redding Comptetion Seater Die Trouble



## yep (Jul 25, 2006)

ok, got a redding competetion seater die in 7mm rem mag. going to load up some 120gr ttsx. My weatherby shoots remmy factory ammo 150 gr accutip boattails real well, the oal on them is 3.224 and from the ogive is 2.608, so thats where I want to start from...

I can not get that new die to seat the bullet deeper than 3.2605 oal and 2.681 from the ogive. Is this the most this seater die can push a bullet down into the case? I have another one of these dies that seats for my ar just fine. I cleaned the inside of the die and relubed it but it looks like a physical limitation, I must be doing something wrong and just too tired to notice my mistake, any ideas? I'm using brand new, never fired winchester brass.
The Barnes reloading manual shows 3.15 min and 3.29 max oal for the 7 mm and suggests 3.24 for the 120 gr tsx.
Surely this die will seat within the industry standards?
Anyway, tech support is closed so I'll call tomorrow but figured I'd see if any of the 2cool Gurus had the answer.


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## THE JAMMER (Aug 1, 2005)

Are you using extended shell holders??? On my RCBS press I have to use extended shell holders when using my RCBS competition seating dies.

THE JAMMER


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## Screeminreel (Jun 2, 2004)

Could be the seating plug on the die, along with the short narrow profile of the bullet. I have one built specifically for a wildcat, that I had to have them make me a seater specific for the custom bullets I was using. They have a long skinny nose and the seating plug wold not allow me to seat them correctly. Could be your issue, with those TTSX. They might be too short on the nose, and the the case is bottoming out before they are. 

I called them up, they said send them three bullets and 5 buck and they would take care of it. Took about a week and a half and I got it back custom ground. Figured that was pretty good service. since the 5 bucks was probably more for shipping than the cost of the plug.


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## yep (Jul 25, 2006)

well, tech support at redding was real helpful and friendly. they are sending a vld seating stem over to see if that corrects the issue. I think it will as its .143 longer than the standard and I need .07 more depth.
If not I'll send it all in with a couple of sample bullets for them to look at and make a custom stem like Screeminreel had done.


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## davidb (May 10, 2006)

That should do it. 

You can customize the seater with epoxy molded to the bullet you use, but for $5 I would let Redding do it.


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## Bantam1 (Jun 26, 2007)

Redding sent me a new insert for my .223 bullet seater. I was having issues seating the 75-77 grain bullets. They sent me a new insert custom shaped for the bullets I used at no charge. Outstanding customer support from Redding!


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## Screeminreel (Jun 2, 2004)

I whole heartedly agree they have awesome service. My seater however was for a custom die so they had to make it regardless. Even with the 5 bucks I have to figure it was more for shipping than for building as the set up time probably took more than that was. Yea I forgot all about the VLD plug, DOH, have a box of them sitting right in front of me too.LOL


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## yep (Jul 25, 2006)

did you order the vld plugs from redding?



Screeminreel said:


> I whole heartedly agree they have awesome service. My seater however was for a custom die so they had to make it regardless. Even with the 5 bucks I have to figure it was more for shipping than for building as the set up time probably took more than that was. Yea I forgot all about the VLD plug, DOH, have a box of them sitting right in front of me too.LOL


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## Screeminreel (Jun 2, 2004)

yep said:


> did you order the vld plugs from redding?


 The die set I have is for a .270 Allen Mag, which is a necked down blown out 300 RUM, that shoots custom made 169.5 or 195gr .277 caliber bullets. They are of a ultra VLD design, and have very sharp noses. The seating die already had a VLD seater plug in it when it came with the rifle, as it was custom made for this particular caliber. When I started getting serious about loading for this critter, and found the issue, I called Redding and they told me to send them three or four bullets and they would grind the plug to fit. Since both my hunting bud and I both had these rifles along with the same die sets, we got the additional plugs. The issue was that the plug had a different ogive taper on it like what would be seen on the Berger bullets, where these, while similar were longer and I was getting different seating depths due to the plug only contacting the tips of the bullets. Even when using the uniformer, the OAL would still come out somewhat different and I would occasionally get a squashed tip as well. Here is a pic of the bullets I was using compared to a standard .270-150gr Nosler,







The standard VLD plug works fine with the heavy 195's on the right and with the 150's on the left, but as you can see the long nose of the 169, is just that long. This rig was built expressly for reaching out to LONG range beyond 500yds, and in fact most of the development was done using 500 as the standard target setting. The goal was to be able to reach out across the 600 or so acre cotton field which sits out behind my bud's barn and bust some hogs before they knew what was going on. At ranges of around 800yds or more they really weren't affected by the report of the rifle and for the most part just continued on with their business, even when one of them dropped. The trick was to hit them in the head so they didn't start squealing and run the rest off. We shot out to 1K+ yards every chance we got at paper, but generally like on cue, the hogs would only come out when the wind was blowing up around 15 or more mph, which wasn't much help on shot placement. With calm conditions of around 5mph or less, we were both able to keep groups around 9" out to 1150yds. We just couldn't get the hogs to cooperate. Several were taken at much closer ranges, but we found that anything under around 500, the end result was something akin to shooting prairie dogs. While fun, it made clearing them out of the way or trying to salvage something good off of them a pretty rough ordeal.


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## davidb (May 10, 2006)

Are those Bullets made by Wild Cat? If not who is making them and where are they available?

They used to have a 130 VLD 25 caliber but haven't found a source since the company was sold.


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## Screeminreel (Jun 2, 2004)

Your absolutely correct, those are some of Richard's creations. Your also right about the 130's, I am hoping for a revival of them as well. I sent a note to the new owners a while back but got nothing in return. Soo I got hold of Kirby, and after a couple of weeks he finally got back to me with about the same news that we already had. I also did a little digging over at LRH and found this post from the new owners, don't look overly promising but they got the equipment so who knows... http://www.longrangehunting.com/forums/f19/wildcat-bullets-7mm-200gr-now-shipping-45231/ I only have about a hundred of the original 130's left, and look at them often wishing I had more. Not only them but some of his 125 RBBT ULD's as well. I also have some of the 142's but they are right on the ragged edge of what I can do with that long of a bullet. They would probably work great in a faster twist 257 WM or STW, where you could get the added velocity. They both shot VERY well from both of my 25's and performance on game has been awesome. If you have any your not going to shoot, let me know I am definitely looking as well.


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## yep (Jul 25, 2006)

vld seater plug came in the mail today, problem solved. 120gr ttsx are now seating to the depth I want. Thanks to Redding and hats off to them for fine customer service.


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## Screeminreel (Jun 2, 2004)

Glad to see things worked out for you. Your right they do have very good service, and equipment as well. For my budget however, while it's nice to fly first class, I just can't do it all the time. I have the Redding stuff for the things I REALLY need it for, and generally use RCBS, Lee, or Hornady, for the rest. No complaints on their usefulness for the purposes used either.


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## gunsmith (Jun 18, 2008)

Set your bullet where it will fit in the magazine box or .003 off the lands and let it fly JP


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