Loading the ZERO 185 gr LSWCHP

Loading the 45 Auto with the Zero 185 gr LSWCHP using Hornady Custom Grade Dies.  I am finding that the seater die tends to deform the bullet by putting a ring around the nose about half way up.  Does anybody make a seater die that would bear only on the outside rim of the bullet when seating it in the case?

I use a Redding Competition Pro seating die (the one with the micrometer) and I purchased a separate seating stem from Redding and used my Dremel and a grinding bit to remove enough material from inside the steam so that the stem only touches the shoulder of the SWC.  The stem is now worthless for anything other than SWC but that is why I purchased a second stem and made it dedicated for SWC.  If you are a machinist you could get fancier and drill out the material but since I only care about the mouth of the stem making contact with the bullet shoulder, I did not care how smooth or even the inside of the stem looked.

I use the same Redding seater with no modification and have no issues.

What expander are you using? Stock Hornady?  That may be your issue. Not enough bell/flare. You may need too much force to seat the bullet.

Ditto on the expander. If you use a 45 colt expander, it doesn’t take nearly as much pressure to seat the bullet and you actually won’t need any flare at all. You can get away with seater plugs that arent a perfect match. Hornady’s .452 ptx insert is fantastic for lead bullets.

I use a 9MM FL die as a seating die for all my 45 cal SWC bullets. The 9MM die contacts  the bullet shoulder and gives consistant seating with all SWC.

Yes
Lee will make one
Probably all die companies will make
There was a machinist on eBay who makes them
Once set, it is set for any swc.

That ring shouldn't matter.  I have that ring and still get precision.  

As an aside, with rifle, collet pulled match bullets that look terrible maintain precision just as new bullets of similar type to at least 400 yards from a known good rifle with a known good load.  They probably work well further, but 400 was the furthest distance I had available to test at that time.

DeweyHales wrote:That ring shouldn't matter.  I have that ring and still get precision.  

+1    1,000s of rounds at 50yds and no ill effect on accuracy..... at least from the ring on the bullet

eBay seller rrpmi makes them for various dies on eBay.  I got one for a Dillon die, and enjoy how trouble free it works.

noylj wrote:There was a machinist on eBay who makes them

rrpmi on Ebay
https://www.ebay.com/sch/rrpmi/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

I use one of his seating die inserts (aka seating stems) that only touches the shoulder of the semi-wadcutter, and it works well for me.

Dave