Bullets seating unevenly

[pennhunter08]

I'm loading rifle and pistol loads, trimming the brass with a Lee cutter. I'm seating the bullet at the cannular (sp?) ring, but noticing the mouth of the case does not evenly match the cannular ring. On one side of the loaded bullet the case mouth will be at the middle of the ring. On another side of the bullet the case mouth will be closer to the top or bottom of the ring. Either the case is not trimmed evenly or the bullet is not seated evenly. I can't believe that all my cutters and/or all my dies are off. Could it be a problem with the press (Lee)?

[LaOtto222]

What you are talking about - it is way off. Set a case upside down on the case opening. Does it set square or does the case lean to one side? If it is off as much as you say, it will have an obvious lean to one side or the other. If it sets square to the table, then look else where. Usually when bullets are not seated square the neck is off center, but not always. Roll the loaded case across a flat surface and see if the bullet tip goes in a up and down motion as it rolls. If you can not detect the bullet tip going up and down, it is seated relatively straight. A seater die can seat off center if the seater plug is off center or the bullet does not fit the seater plug correctly. I would check each step of your reloading process to isolate where the bullet is getting off center. Once you find it, then you can isolate the cause and fix it. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[cwlongshot]

 IMHO, its the lee trimmer. Although it not really its fault. The brass is formed then the primer pocket hole is punched. Literally, punched thru the brass. This leaves brass "burrs" on the inside of the case. Because the Lee trimmer rides on a pin that goes thru that flash hole. It cannot get constant contact with the actual base of the case to get you a consistent trim length. Some cases are worse for these burrs than others. As A rule, I deburr the flash holes of all my cases. As I feel this also helps with ignition.

Two ways to fix this that I see.
1) Get yourself a flash hole deburr.
2) Go buy yourself a regular case trimmer and I think your troubles will go away.

CW

[Siskiyou]

I have to agree with cwlongshot. 

I have a lot of material to trim when I am resizing 7.62 NATO machine gun brass into 300 Savage brass.  I use the Lee case trimmer for the initial trimming.  I attach it to my battery-powered screwdriver/drill.  This quickly trims the cases.  I have noticed that the mouths of some cases are not always square.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6-RvN-vqrY

I square the mouth of the case with my old Forester case trimmer.  http://www.forsterproducts.com/Pages/case_trimmers.htm

Using both tools produces a good product, the Lee for cutting a lot of material and the Forester for quality control.  The Forester is to slow when trimming a large amount of material.  It is okay for trimming the normal small amount from case growth.  When it comes to trimming a small amount I always default to the Forester trimmer. 

I have found that paying careful attention when using the Lee tool results in a better product. 

[LaOtto222]

While I agree that it more than likely the case trimmer not trimming your case mouths square - The Lee trimmer does not go off the inside of the case. It spaces off of the holder that goes into your drill or the hand held trimmer. The pin that goes through the flash hole is what determines case length. I always de-burr the inside of the flash hole, as I too feel it aids in consistent ignition - But the burrs would have to be very big to effect your case length and especially your "tilting" problem. I think that the flash hole being off center would effect the case mouth squareness to some degree. You never said what cases you were trimming. Are they military cases? I found that some of them have flash holes that were obviously off center. With as much as you have said that the case mouth is off, the Lee trimmer would have to be a real odd angle, more than I have seen to date with mine. For a Lee trimmer to do a quality job, the flash hole needs to be in the center of the case, the case neck must not be over size and the neck must be in line with the center of the case body. If any one comes into play, you will get a case mouth that is not square with the case body. As much as you are talking, one or more must be way off. Are you talking about new cases or once fired cases. If they are new cases, you should full length size them before trimming to square the necks to the body. If they are once fired you need to full length size the pistol cases and at least neck size the rifle cases before trimming. If there is much play between the shaft of the Lee trimmer and the case mouth you could be tilting the trimmer to one side when you trim. As you can tell, I use a Lee trimmer for most of my trimming jobs. I also have a Lyman Acculine case trimmer. I only use it for the cases that I do not have or can not get a Lee trimmer for. I feel the Lee trimmer cuts the case mouths more square than the Lyman trimmer. Before you go through all of this, check to see if really is your case or the bullet not seating square. It could be a combination of both too. Good Luck and Good Shooting

[kitchawan kid]

Did not think of deburing flash hole before triming,never had a problem yet but good to know,thanks to all.

[LaOtto222]

I forgot to mention one more thing - The longer the case, the more accurate job the Lee trimmer will do. For instance a 45 ACP vs a 30-06. By the nature of the design, the longer the case, the more accurate the Lee trimmer will be. If you are using it on short cases, full length sizing is very important to take out any side to side play before trimming. Some pistol chambers are rather large and after firing, the case mouth is very large. Full length sizing will get it back to where the Lee trimmer will "fit" better. Off center flash holes will cause more tilt, by the nature of the design. The shortest case I have trimmed is a 357 Mag and I have not experienced your situation - yet.

[pourboy]

Measure your cases with calipers lengthways in several spots to see if you're getting a crooked cut. It is totally possible that your bullets are getting seated crooked too. On bottleneck rifle cases, you could have some serious expander ball induced runout, too. It would help a great deal if you knew for sure your bullets are seating straight.

[Savage]

Set you case mouth down on a known level surface and place a bubble level on the case head. The Lee trimmers I have used cut the case neck squarely. Could the bullet crimping grove be uneven?
Savage

[pennhunter08]

I think I found the problem. It seems that I tend to get "over zealous" with the de-burrring tool and nicking away at an otherwise straight edge.