Seating depth
- Thread starter Chaser
- Start date
Many of the heavy 22 caliber bullets are not designed for magazine loading, single shot loading only. For 223 one of the most common magazine bullets is the 77 grain Sierra.
My gun is a 1/7 twist and loves the hornady match 75 grainers and I saw these at academy and figured well I could start with these but it never crossed my mind theyd be too long. Sucks that I bought 300 of them might just load them up for target shooting. Would it be safe to fire it or should I just pull the bullet?
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
I wouldn’t!.... way to much bullet in the case!
Pull it and do as Mikemci said to do.
Wayne
bozo699
Gold $$ Contributor
You don’t need any tools to measure your seating depth, they’re nice to have but you have everything you need right in front of you. Strip your bolt And use the Alex wheeler method you can do a search on this site for that or you can search it on YouTube. Very easy to do.
Wayne
You can get a single shot follower to fit inside your magazine. This works great if you are shooting paper at the range. The reason for the single shot follower is that magazine fed bolt actions are designed to pick up the bullet from a lower position from the mag and just dropping a bullet into the open receiver makes it hard for the bolt to smoothly insert the bullet. Or you can just partially insert the bullet into the chamber by hand and then close the bolt.
or, alternately to the alex wheeler method... use your cleaning rod with two stop collars. place both collars loosely on rod. insert rod and set the outer one with the bolt cocked. remove bolt, drop bullet in throat and hold in place with pencil.... insert cleaning rod again and lock down inner collar. measure between the collars to get cartridge overall length with that bullet.
oh yeah, don't use hollow threaded end of rod... put something in it or the bullet nose will throw measurement off...
Chaser, you already have all you need to find the lands. A cartridge and the rifle you want to shoot it in.
Remove the ejector from the bolt.
Pull the bullet out of the case, to a longer length than it should be.
Try it in the rifle. You shouldn't be able to close the bolt.
Seat the bullet .005" deeper into the case and try it again.
Repeat, until the bolt closes half way.
Start seating it .002" at a time, until the bolt closes all the way, with little pressure.
Put the ejector back in the bolt.
Call that measurement your lands.
Seat .010" deeper and this will be your starting point.
Load 3 rounds at this depth and consecutive rounds in .005" deeper increments.
Shoot and find the depth that gives you the best accuracy.
Remove the ejector from the bolt.
Pull the bullet out of the case, to a longer length than it should be.
Try it in the rifle. You shouldn't be able to close the bolt.
Seat the bullet .005" deeper into the case and try it again.
Repeat, until the bolt closes half way.
Start seating it .002" at a time, until the bolt closes all the way, with little pressure.
Put the ejector back in the bolt.
Call that measurement your lands.
Seat .010" deeper and this will be your starting point.
Load 3 rounds at this depth and consecutive rounds in .005" deeper increments.
Shoot and find the depth that gives you the best accuracy.
Mike what difference does it make to find the lands when the cartridge is not going to fit the magazine?
The bottom line is since this is factory ammo and with that 7 twist I can't imagine having too short a freebore. And if you haven't seen any problems with the 75 Hornadys I doubt you will have any problems shooting single shot! Have you tried shooting single shot! Does it chamber with hard bolt closing? If the bolt closes easily then just shoot them single shot.
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With those bullets, you have a single shot rifle.
Nothing wrong with that.
You may find that you have a bughole shooter.
If you expect to need a hunting gun and want to have the option of quick follow up shots, you need to use a different bullet. Still, you have 300 of these and you can probably find a load, that won't require a follow up shot.
In hunting, it's not what you drive, it's where you park it that matters.
It's not factory ammo. It's hand loaded ammo.
He bought bullets too long to fit his magazine, without being too deep in his case.
Academy sells bullets? And why is a 75g ELD that much longer than the 75g hollow point?
I shoot the 73 eld in a 223. I got lucky with the savage i have . I loaded them touching the lands and it fits in the blind mag that it has. Its a 12fv model. If i loaded to the 2.260 spec i would have to reduce the load by a lot. Aint nothin wrong with a single shot if it just from a bench.
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