Hornady seating die denting Accubonds, anything to be done?

[nords]

G'day,

A mate of mine is using Hornady dies and was using Hornady A-MAX and SST bullets no problem in his .308.

He's picked up a box of Nosler Accubonds and in seating them there is a ring pressed into the bullet wear the seating ring presses into it.

There is nothing wrong with the die as such, the seating ring is in good shape and it does his others fine, I think it's just a matter of the particular angle of the ring and the particular angle of the bullets not agreeing with each other.

Do they do different angle seating stems or will he need another die if he wants to keep using the Accubonds without denting the ring into the bullets?

[BBJ]

I don't believe they sell difference angle seating stems.

If he's reloaded successfully before without problem and is preparing his cases properly (proven that the problem isn't due to neck issues) then I think an Accubond friendly die will be his only option if he's going to be regularly shooting them.

[Stevo]

I have a set of hornady dies on order for myself and they make different seating stems for different projectiles for several calibers.

Not sure if it is of any help but is it something like this along the lines of what you are thinking of.

http://www.herrons.com.au/products/product/397115?category=BVCOLFJL&

[Aster]

There's nothing to be done with the stock seating stem if it doesn't agree with the bullet. You wouldn't pad the die or anything...

If he's done everything to ensure it's not a problem with neck sizing or pressure preventing the bullet from seating, another brand of die or a replacement stem if suitable (like what Steve has linked) would both be options.

.308 Accubond is a very common bullet obviously, shouldn't be too hard to find someone reloading with them who isn't having the problems and find out what die they are using.

[agentzero]

Changing direction of topic for a second... Fair enough it's not ideal that the bullet has the ring pressed but is it even causing him any problems?

If he's shooting .308 Accubonds he's obviously hunting right? For hunting accuracy I expect they probably still shoot fine...

Just a thought as he might be worrying over nothing if he hasn't tested their accuracy yet. Plenty of dies leave some mark on the bullets from what I see...

Just a thought anyway, not trying to be unhelpful

[Bills Shed]

Changing direction of topic for a second... Fair enough it's not ideal that the bullet has the ring pressed but is it even causing him any problems?

Just a thought as he might be worrying over nothing if he hasn't tested their accuracy yet. Plenty of dies leave some mark on the bullets from what I see...

Just a thought anyway, not trying to be unhelpful

Agree with this, if it works there is no dramas. I know we all like to load the perfect looking bullet, but that is all it is; looks. The test is at the end where the projectile has to do the work.
Clean cases are required but not shiny. A ring on the projectile while not looking the best will probably not effect anything.

[brisb]

I get a few little ring scratched down mine too. Not 'pressed' into the bullet like your describing but noticeable.

Same as above, when I started I was a bit worried about it cause it didn't look great, but shooting there is no difference I can see.

On paper it probably decreases some ballistics thing by a 100th of a percent or something, but in practice doesn't matter to me at all.

[nords]

So we've confirmed this was just a matter of the die and bullet not liking each other.

Seating different bullets in the same die worked fine. And seating the Accubonds with an RCBS die worked fine.

His particular combination just doesn't like itself.

Oh well. They do still shoot ok so no problem I guess... Like you guys suggested.

Cheers.