AlNyhus
Silver $$ Contributor
When I got home Sunday evening from the NBRSA tournament in Webster City, a new bullet point die and punch was waiting for me. I had a couple thousand cored jackets ready to go, soTuesday morning I set the die up and made up some test bullets.
Tuesday was blustery but I had a hunch things would lay down a bit by around 7:00 pm. With everything set up and while I was waiting for 'Happy Hour' to begin, I thought it would be interesting to run this little test. I always start with the bullets seated relative to the T.P. (touch point). Using the stripped bolt or Wheeler method, I simply find the T.P. (touch point) for each style of bullet I'm going to use, record the length of the Wilson seating stem accordingly and jot it down on a adhesive label that goes on the seater box. That way, if I change bullets it's stupid simple to refer to the T.P. on the box and adjust the stem length.
For these 30's, the seater stem length I use for starting load work is .020-.030 longer than the T.P. In other words, the seating stem is shorter than the stem length for the T.P. A good baseline is .030 because it's proven over the years to be a solid starting point.
The rt. group was my starting load with the seater stem at the T.P. (1.800"). The left group is with the seater stem .030 shorter than the T.P. (1.770). Again, there was no change to the load whatsoever...other than the seating adjustment.
There's still a bit of vertical in the left group but that came around by moving the powder charge up. It started to get happy around 34.5 and hung in there all the way to 35.1. The winds were from the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock which at out range (S.E. facing) always shows a skosh of vertical in the groups even when you're hitting the flags pretty well.
Anyway, that's a proven method used by quite a few 30BR tuners.
- Seater stem .030 shorter than the T.P. (stripped bolt/Wheeler method)
- Neck bushing .004 smaller than the necks measure over the pressure ring of a seated bullet
- Starting lower, adjust the powder charge up until it shoots small. Then keep going until it shoots vertical again. Then keep going until it shoots small again. You'll find two and sometimes three nodes.
You may not finalize on these seater stem lengths or neck bushing sizes. Using this method you have only one way to go with the seater stem length and bushing size. You'd be surprised by how many keep these a constant and simply go win tournaments.
For what it's worth...... -Al
Tuesday was blustery but I had a hunch things would lay down a bit by around 7:00 pm. With everything set up and while I was waiting for 'Happy Hour' to begin, I thought it would be interesting to run this little test. I always start with the bullets seated relative to the T.P. (touch point). Using the stripped bolt or Wheeler method, I simply find the T.P. (touch point) for each style of bullet I'm going to use, record the length of the Wilson seating stem accordingly and jot it down on a adhesive label that goes on the seater box. That way, if I change bullets it's stupid simple to refer to the T.P. on the box and adjust the stem length.
For these 30's, the seater stem length I use for starting load work is .020-.030 longer than the T.P. In other words, the seating stem is shorter than the stem length for the T.P. A good baseline is .030 because it's proven over the years to be a solid starting point.
The rt. group was my starting load with the seater stem at the T.P. (1.800"). The left group is with the seater stem .030 shorter than the T.P. (1.770). Again, there was no change to the load whatsoever...other than the seating adjustment.
There's still a bit of vertical in the left group but that came around by moving the powder charge up. It started to get happy around 34.5 and hung in there all the way to 35.1. The winds were from the 11 o'clock to 1 o'clock which at out range (S.E. facing) always shows a skosh of vertical in the groups even when you're hitting the flags pretty well.
Anyway, that's a proven method used by quite a few 30BR tuners.
- Seater stem .030 shorter than the T.P. (stripped bolt/Wheeler method)
- Neck bushing .004 smaller than the necks measure over the pressure ring of a seated bullet
- Starting lower, adjust the powder charge up until it shoots small. Then keep going until it shoots vertical again. Then keep going until it shoots small again. You'll find two and sometimes three nodes.
You may not finalize on these seater stem lengths or neck bushing sizes. Using this method you have only one way to go with the seater stem length and bushing size. You'd be surprised by how many keep these a constant and simply go win tournaments.
For what it's worth...... -Al
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