Question about bullet seating stems for the 45 ACP

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Cholo

Cholo

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I use RCBS dies for all my reloading and the seating stems that come with the dies have always worked perfectly with the bullets I've used, until now. I 1st started loading the 45 ACP in about '02 and only used plated ball bullets. Recently I bought 1k 230 gr. lead RN bullets and they don't fit my RCBS ball stem well at all. Is there a pack of stems available to fit the different bullet shapes for the 45 ACP? I looked on Brownell's site and didn't see any.

Thanks!
 
Call RCBS Customer Service and explain your problem. More than likely they will send you the proper seating stem at no charge. If you do call, make it at an off time. If not, be prepared to wait awhile for a CSR. RCBS is an excellent company to deal with when you have a problem. :)
 
loaded round, thanks for your response. I've already contacted RCBS about this and one other question. Here's the dialog regarding the seating stem:

2) I have your RCBS carbide dies for .45 ACP. I recently purchased 1k 230 gr. round nose lead bullets. Today I found that my seating stem for round nosed bullets is too shallow and seated the cast lead bullets just off center enough to cause problems when I checked them in my Dillon case gauges after taper crimping the case mouths to .470. Do you offer alternative round nose seating stems? My problem stemmed, no pun intended ;-), from the bullet tips only touching the deepest part of the seater stem but never supporting the bullet itself; allowing the bullet to wobble a bit and not seat perfectly straight.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Their response:

#2 The RN seat plug in the die is the only one we have for the 45. An M-expander which puts a small step in the top of the case for straight alignment sells for $8.95...

Thank you for choosing RCBS
Have a great day
RCBS Tech/LM :)

I can go that route, but it doesn't address my wanting to also load some 200 gr. SWC's for paper punching. The RCBS 45 ACP WC/SWC seating stem is really wide :shock: It wouldn't be cost effective for RCBS to have every seating stem for every cast lead bullet ever made included in their die set. I guess what I'm really asking is what seating stems are our 45 ACP reloading members using for the vast amount of bullet shapes available.

Again, thanks for taking the time to respond!

PS: Jimbo, I just saw your response--thanks! I wouldn't like to permanently alter RCBS's RN seater stem. I am curious as to what seater stems our Forum members use for different bullet shapes.
 
See if this helps. The last three likely not. 90033, 90034, 90069, and 90070 may pertain to the 45ACP.
https://shop.rcbs.com/WebConnect/MainServlet?action=CatalogSearch&langId=en_US&storeId=webconnect&catalogId=webconnect&screenlabel=index&pageSize=15&beginIndex=0&resultType=3&orderBy=1&searchDescription=seater+plug+45&searchType=1&txtSearch=seater+plug+45
I've got a RN and SWC seater plugs with my dies but the number I have is nothing near any of those listed above. A 09693 for the SWC.
 
And Midway has pictures and some in stock.
http://www.midwayusa.com/find?usersearchquery=seater+plug+45&itemsperpage=24&pageNumber=1
 
Cholo, Did your die seat come with the 2 different seater plugs? mine came with one for round nose and one for flat point, Go on RCBS's site and you will see whats available for different plugs, last time I was on there they had different one you could order, I would also email RCBS monday and tell them whats going on they have sent me different plugs before when the one supplied with the dies set didn't fit and they sent it free of charge.
 
Thanks for the replys. My RCBS dies came with 2 seater stems, one for RN and one for SWC's. The RN is too shallow to seat the RN lead bullets I have on hand. I might just order some others and get the best one to fit, though RCBS told me in their response I posted above that they only have one seater stem for a RN 45 ACP, and I have it. It just doesn't work with the lead bullets I have.

Jimbo, the JB weld thing might work if my stem were too long for the RN bullets, but the cup is too short and they just easily wallow around.

The quest continues, and I'm still open to suggestions...:D
 
Here's another thought. Look at seating stems for the 45 LC. Maybe a different one is available?
I have seen & heard of folks using epoxy instead of JB Weld to achieve the same results.
I too have had similar issues with a seating plug. A call to RCBS always resulted in a different seater. In a few cases, I shipped them a bullet to have them match up the correct stem to my bullet.
Another idea. Get a different stem, say a flat nosed one & have a machinist FRIEND turn it on a lathe to match your bullet.

Just a few thoughts.
 
Cholo said:
Thanks for the replys. My RCBS dies came with 2 seater stems, one for RN and one for SWC's. The RN is too shallow to seat the RN lead bullets I have on hand. I might just order some others and get the best one to fit, though RCBS told me in their response I posted above that they only have one seater stem for a RN 45 ACP, and I have it. It just doesn't work with the lead bullets I have.

Jimbo, the JB weld thing might work if my stem were too long for the RN bullets, but the cup is too short and they just easily wallow around.

The quest continues, and I'm still open to suggestions...:D
Click to expand...

So is the seater leaving round ring on the bullet when you press it in? that was the problem I had with my Win. 44-40 seater RCBS sent me a new seater plug and it did the same thing the ratious of the round part was ok but the seater was to deep so what I did was ground the tip shallower with my belt sander taking a little off at a time till it stopped pressing the round ring on my bullets, RCBS can make a custom seating plug to fit your bullet perfect but awful expencive to go that route.
 
I have a friend with a lot of equipment that can probably make the seater plug a bit deeper. 6gun, there's no ring around the bullet; it just wallows around in the plug and never comes close to touching the outer rim of the plug. BTW: My seater plug is the large thread size, not the thin 1/2"-20 thread. I've already contacted RCBS by email and their response is in my 2nd post. Maybe a phone call is in order.
 
You can temporarily modify the seating stem with RTV or silicone, or even melted wax. The wax won't last very long, but the RTV should last for at least 1,000 bullets.
 
Cholo said:
I have a friend with a lot of equipment that can probably make the seater plug a bit deeper. 6gun, there's no ring around the bullet; it just wallows around in the plug and never comes close to touching the outer rim of the plug. BTW: My seater plug is the large thread size, not the thin 1/2"-20 thread. I've already contacted RCBS by email and their response is in my 2nd post. Maybe a phone call is in order.
Click to expand...


Have you looked at the seater plugs from any of your other Cals. to see how they might fit? like a 44mag, 45 Colt, I have used plugs from different cals before that fit the bullet better.

Can you post a pic of the bullet so all of us can see whats really going on?
 
Enigma, being that my seater plug is too shallow for these bullets I don't believe your idea would work as the bullet itself would get no support while ramming it home :wink:

6gun, my 44mag./Special dies use the thin stemmed plug, but I did mess around with the bullet fit. The best I could do with the larger threaded seater plugs is my 40 S&W. It's too deep but would fully support the bullet with the rim of the plug, you know that little thingy that causes the line around the bullet :wink: There sure is a lot of empty space around the 40 S&W stem in my 45 ACP dies, but I don't know if that would matter much as long as the bullets seat perfectly straight.

Here are the bullets in question. You'd think RCBS's RN seater plug would fit them perfectly. The OAL is .670, not .370 as listed. They're the last bullet on the page; 230 gr. RN 45 ACP.

www.drycreekbullets.com/products.htm
 
98Redline said:
Here is a link that discusses this issue in more detail.
http://www.thehighroad.org/showthread.php?t=178577

The last post seems to be a great idea that would be easy to implement.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, kinda the same problem as I'm having :( If only my seating plug were deeper, most of the suggestions in this thread could work. It's so shallow for me to see any kind of filler material working and still fully supporting the bullet. I appreciate all the responses, I continue to seek the solution :wink:
 
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