Thread: Seating depth - who bothers?

Nice work there Veitnamcam - I for one am also wondering of the seating depths and changes it can make. To show the results is a great way to demonstrate what can/does happen when just one aspect of reloading is changed.... Kudos!

Might have to seat a projectile and close the bolt on it to remeasure and set my seating die I think....

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

I find group shape changes with length.
Attachment 4865
I usually go ladder then pick a charge then varie length for best groups

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Originally Posted by Nasty Factory Trigger

Nice work there Veitnamcam - I for one am also wondering of the seating depths and changes it can make. To show the results is a great way to demonstrate what can/does happen when just one aspect of reloading is changed.... Kudos!

Might have to seat a projectile and close the bolt on it to remeasure and set my seating die I think....

If you do that on a sized neck you will end up with 5 odd thou Jam and it will probably stick in the lands when you extract.
you can buy things to get just touch overall length or size a case cut down the neck with a hack saw and debur with a needle file and piss round with it till it just holds a pill firmly but you can slide it in and out buy hand.
Do it 5 or 6 times, if length vary wildly its to tight and being pulled back out by sticking in the lands.
Double check just touch with your first 5 or so loaded rounds buy carefully inspecting ogive and scrubbing round with scotch brite(shows the slightest touch)

I think most shooters only worry about jump when ya can't get a load to work, the old story, if it works don't fuck with it !

I do what cam does load 5thou off lands an ladder for pressure them change jump to tune load. An if I have to make jump big ish them I up charge again with ladder.

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normally I try to seat one caliber depth into the case especially if the rifle has a long throat like the ex military 6.5x55's then work up an accurate load for the rifle generally works for me rather than chasing optimum seating depths unless the one caliber depth trick does not work.

Please I say
make mine McClelland's Islay
today, any day and every day!

The concord was an imperial / metric master piece. Half French and half English and it flew fairly fast,high and hot

Ive just done a little playing around with seating depths.. Reason being, the fathers' loads with softnose projs, go exactly where we aim, as for my lot, same powder weight, same proj weight, though diff shape (150gr SST)... go a little wide off mark..

looking a little deeper, shows the ogives of the projs differ alot - looks as though my SSTs' got a HUGE jump before the lands, whereas the fathers projectiles, are fatter nearer the tip..
ok, start pulling out the proj till we do find the lands...
Can STILL close the bolt on them, even though the cartridge wont fit the magazine anymore.. !
Anyone else come across this? Howa 1500 bolt action. So now, reduced the jump somewhat, (quite alot!), but now go off the max magazine length? Id rather try and stay as close to the lands as possible...
Thoughts?

Originally Posted by veitnamcam

If you do that on a sized neck you will end up with 5 odd thou Jam and it will probably stick in the lands when you extract.
you can buy things to get just touch overall length or size a case cut down the neck with a hack saw and debur with a needle file and piss round with it till it just holds a pill firmly but you can slide it in and out buy hand.
Do it 5 or 6 times, if length vary wildly its to tight and being pulled back out by sticking in the lands.
Double check just touch with your first 5 or so loaded rounds buy carefully inspecting ogive and scrubbing round with scotch brite(shows the slightest touch)

NFT, thats very common

Yep you won't get to the lands with pointy pills and still fit the mag in a lot of rifles.
Try max mag fit length load a few up and shorter in say .2mm steps and hopefully one will stand out as a shooter. Of course it just might not like them.

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I used to load 20 thou off and do groups then pick the best and tweak the distances to the lands..... Now I load to mag length or off the lands and do a a few groups... then if it doesn't work I may play with distances but I haven't needed to since I found I get great results from using using a bump with a shell holder to suit the head space and Collet die for the neck

By jamming, on and off the lands, are you not changing the pressure, which you can also do by picking a set length and playing with powder?
Just putting it out there

Originally Posted by Spanners

By jamming, on and off the lands, are you not changing the pressure, which you can also do by picking a set length and playing with powder?
Just putting it out there

True, but is pressure the only factor that affects accuracy?

Prob not. All a black art, and one of the few things in life that can't be quantified exactly.
I'd say harmonics being the main part.

I play with both length and charge and also powders till I get pissed of with a pill that wont shoot how I want it to then try another one