Berger VLD Seating Depth

[sbisch]

Just ordered some 185 grain Berger VLD bullets to try in my .300 Win. Mag. I've never tried Berger VLD's before, but have heard that they may be finiky when it comes to seating depth. Anybody have suggestions on where to start seating the bullets for best accuracy. Kiss the lands, jam the lands, or jump,how far)? Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[shadowdrak]

Each rifle will be unique due to its combination and manufacturing. A good start is to be .002" from the lands and work into the lands. When I used 168g. Berger VLD, they worked best for me just kissing the lands. Some may work best .001 into the lands. You'll have to experiment to find your sweet point.

 

[expiper]

Here is a pic of a new Remington 300 win mag that I just got finished for a customer...rite out of the box....used accuracy asset on the forearm....6-18 Leu scope....168 Berger VLD's ..jumpin .040" and 74 gr of H-4350....first shot was at corner of target...next 3 at the trademark on the target...3 shots .325"...I usually jam the bullets no matter what brand or size but in this case there was magazine length issues and he will be hunting in "Arctic" conditions with it and lots of "stiky" things happen when your fingers and toes and your rifle and ammo are exposed to sub-zero weather...so to make certain that he has NO truble in the field I chose to jump em the .040...when jumping I prefer to let em go plenty...not just a thou. or two!!..so that the burn sine wave doesnt hic-up....I did the sighting in and load testing in 20 degree weather which was about as cold as it gets here in the hills and about as cold as I want to get out and "play" in any more....not bad for a factory gun at 125 yds...grin....Roger

 

[alf]

Good job Roger. Pretty cool whan you can flinch the same three times in a row.

sbish,

Generally, any bullet I try, I start hard into the lands, with a square mark on the bullet. Then work on the optimum powder and charge, then seating depth, which then has only one direction to go.

Al

 

[sbisch]

Thanks for the input guys. Seems like the bullets may be accurate either jumping, jamming, or kissing... depending on the rifle. I figured I may be in for a bunch of experimenting when I receive the bullets, but was hoping there might be a consensus on a "sweet spot" as far as seating depth goes. I don't really want to jam the bullets, because they will be shot in a hunting rifle.

expiper - very impressive group! Looks like the rifle is a straight factory Remington 700, but you say that you "just finished it for a customer". Out of curiousity... did you do some accuracy-enhancing work on it, or did you just mount a scope and give it a try with Berger bullets?

 

[expiper]

Hey hi 280 guy....the only mod. to the rifle is the accuracy assett installed for load development and sightin in....I have done years of "load development" on 300 mags....I took a proven load and a proven bullet and aplied that to this new rig....the only thing done to the rifle was the bbl was JBed and Flitzed vigoursly between each of the first 10 shots....the bbl was VERY rough and looked like a "cooper penny" had been drug thru it...I ran the powder charge up to 75.5 gr and got stiky bolt lift ...we were using the customer requested Nozler brass...it held up great and we loaded one piece of it those 10 times to check the resize die and his ordered parts....the shots you see on the paper were the first fired for a group or sighting in....the first 10 had been fired off hand at clumps of dirt out in the field behind the house offhand!!! ....it is like so many of the new Remington rifles...the bbls look terrible but shoot GREAT...Roger

 

[sbisch]

hey expiper - I know what you mean about Remingtons shooting great. Most of my centerfires are factory Remington 700s, and they all shoot well... although most have had more green invested in them in the form of pillar bedding and Timney triggers.

I did experiment with some 140 gr Berger VLDs in my .280; accuracy was only so-so and kind of inconsistent,decent one day and poor the next). Did lots of tweaking with seating depth, but did not jump them farther than 0.010". Appears you no misgivings about jumping them quite a bit farther than that! I guess I'm guilty of believing all I've read about the bullets needing to be seated as close to the rifling as possible for best accuracy. This .280 shoots Nosler Ballistic Tips very well, but I've read so much good stuff about performance of the Berger VLDs on game that I want to give them a try... and of course the high BC is very appealing. Haven't shot one at a critter yet. What's your experience with Berger VLDs on game?

 

[expiper]

yes I and other shooters here im my area have had good results with VLD's ...both in 6mm and 30 cal...,Deer-Antelope-Elk-Bear) If you will look on here at the thread abut 6mmBR on deer..you will see some pics of a bullet recovered from a deer shot at 200+yds.
If your rifle likes the bullets jamed..no biggie...just jam most of them to fit and shoot better with...and then load a few to put and carry in the magazine to use for follow up shots...
I have found if you have to jump your bullets you are ahead to move out further than a cupla thou...if you try to give yourself two or three or even five thou ..the bullets will vary this much and you end up havin one touch every now and then and wonder why it didnt go in the group!!???!!! grin...Roger

 

[squirrelduster]

Berger has instructions on how to determine where to seat the bullets and it worked really well for me. Explore found a sweet spot at .040 off some work as much as .120 off.