Trouble with 129 ABLRs

[bdillon1]

[Bigs28]

You must have got a bad batch of bullets. Just send them all to me. .

[bdillon1]

You must have got a bad batch of bullets. Just send them all to me. .

Ha! How bout you meet me at the CMP range in Alabama and help me shoot em!

I’ll also add some more details on the Brass. It’s once fired Hornady brass demurred and chamfered,Neck tension measured .003”. The jackets on these are soft but I wasn’t expecting this kind of deformation.

I ended up wrapping some fine grit sand paper around the bullet, taking the seating plunger out of the die and honing it to match the shape of the bullet more. I’m hoping this will help a bit

[kmon]

My VLD seating stem woks on them. After reading about others having the problem I ordered one

[centerfire]

How much powder is in the case?

[bdillon1]

How much powder is in the case?

Found my best node at 31.6 grains of CFE so it is compressed. COAL is 2.270.

I checked and deformation is occurring almost immediately when the die is contacting the bullet. I think kmon might be right about the stem.
However, I’m hoping my little modification to my current one helps a little bit.

[kmon]

How much neck tension do you have? What is the inside diameter of the neck before seating the bullet?

[kmon]

Also do you Chamfer the case mouth?

[grayfox]

Found my best node at 31.6 grains of CFE so it is compressed. COAL is 2.270.

I checked and deformation is occurring almost immediately when the die is contacting the bullet. I think kmon might be right about the stem.
However, I’m hoping my little modification to my current one helps a little bit.

So, that load is definitely above Nosler's max of 31.0, which btw is already a compressed load for Nosler. I've been loading my ablr's for my bolt action at 2.305, at 30.8 cfe. Too long for my AR's.
I've not seen any nose/ogive deformation from my seatings.
Perhaps a different powder with less compression, and/or look for a lower node?

[GSPHunter]

Bdillon, I had the same problem with the ABLR's even with non compressed loads. I have Hornady dies, so I bought their VLD seating stem, which helped a little but was still visible changing the bullet shape. My final solution was to coat a bullet with acraglas release agent, fill the VLD stem with JB Weld 5 min epoxy, then press the bullet into the stem and hold it straight until the epoxy set. It has worked well for me. To get the RDF's to seat straight, I drilled out the center of the stock stem further, but I think I'm going to make a stem just for those using the epoxy method as well.

[centerfire]

Found my best node at 31.6 grains of CFE so it is compressed. COAL is 2.270.

I checked and deformation is occurring almost immediately when the die is contacting the bullet. I think kmon might be right about the stem.
However, I’m hoping my little modification to my current one helps a little bit.

What do the bullets look like when you seat them in cases without a compressed load? I took out the Forster stem and checked a bunch of different bullets and all fit evenly.

[bdillon1]

Bdillon, I had the same problem with the ABLR's even with non compressed loads. I have Hornady dies, so I bought their VLD seating stem, which helped a little but was still visible changing the bullet shape. My final solution was to coat a bullet with acraglas release agent, fill the VLD stem with JB Weld 5 min epoxy, then press the bullet into the stem and hold it straight until the epoxy set. It has worked well for me. To get the RDF's to seat straight, I drilled out the center of the stock stem further, but I think I'm going to make a stem just for those using the epoxy method as well.

Thanks for the tip! Ill try that next for the ABLRs, I’m going to try the Berger 130 hybrids next, their shape and jacket seem to be a little more forgiving

[bdillon1]

What do the bullets look like when you seat them in cases without a compressed load? I took out the Forster stem and checked a bunch of different bullets and all fit evenly.

Ladder tested these from 28.8 up and every single one did the same thing, deep deformation ring. I think it will take the modification that GSPHunter recommended to make these work.

Regarding my die, I will say i have the standard Forster bench rest die, not the micrometer Forster. I know some of the micrometer dies come with the vld stem, does yours have that?

[Mad Charlie]

I noticed a LITTLE deformation when I first started loading ABLR's, I sacrificed a bullet and lapped my seater stem, made a big difference as far as visible deformation and seater "artifacts".

I am using the Forster micrometer seater.

[GSPHunter]

Ladder tested these from 28.8 up and every single one did the same thing, deep deformation ring.

For me, I had to go back and redevelop my load. I wasn't measuring the ogive distance after bullet seating, so for the same COAL, The pressures went up (and group size with it!) for the non molested bullets. I ended up backing off .6 gns of AR-Comp to make things happy again.