bullet seating before powder/bullet combos??

[Huntersuave]

im new to this, i have a question...i know that bullet seating depth can greatly affect accuracy, i also know that bullet and powder combinations in each rifle and also greatly affect accuracy. my question is which one do you start with to develop a load specific to your rifle. is there a rule of thumb. lets say start with .010 off lands and then adjust powder charges to find the perfect load or do you find a good powder charge than tweak seating depths to fine tune?

 

[AJC]

Absolutely start with a quality bullet that can be stabilized in your rifle most choosing Burger or Sierra. Then I pick a charge in the center of the load range for that caliber and bullet weight and do a seating depth test I often use the burger test. After finding a decent seating depth that I moved to an ocw test

 

[Huntersuave]

Absolutely start with a quality bullet that can be stabilized in your rifle most choosing Burger or Sierra. Then I pick a charge in the center of the load range for that caliber and bullet weight and do a seating depth test I often use the burger test. After finding a decent seating depth that I moved to an ocw test

Thanks for input, looks like a lot of time at the bench and more at the range. I need a range at home or no snow so I can get to the area I shoot.

 

[newbieshooter]

more references:

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/seating-depth-or-charge-weight-first.3991537/

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/load-development-with-seating-depth-first.3977374/

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/threads/bullet-depth-vs-powder-charge-which-first.3957075/

http://forum.accurateshooter.com/th...g-seating-depth-before-charge-weight.3987026/

 

[Zero333]

Many Match shooters will load 10 or 20 thousands away from the lands and work on the powder charges.
Once they have the powder charge narrowed down, then proceed to play with the seating depth. Usually around 0.005" increments.

 

[rsmithsr50]

i start at the lands( not a jam) or at max magazine length. and do a ladder test. zero in on a powder charge, fine tune length check again on wither side of the charge. look at the post I did on ladder results a couple days back.

 

[Mulligan]

Loading at the range makes short work of this.
It really does cut down on number of range trips.
CW

 

[mikld]

For me, seating depth/distance to lands is low on my list when developing a load. I normally start with manufacturer's recommendation for seating depth (OAL) and work up a good load, then I'll tweek OAL, distance to lands. This has worked for me in my 2 "accurate" rifles...

 

[Ccrider]

You can test both at the same time.