distance off lands

[rsbhunter]

Iv'e been reloading for some years, and have a question that i can't come up with a solid answer to. If you set a bullets distance from the rifling, i.e. @ .010 off, and measure the distance with a Hornady OAL gauge and insert for that caliber, if you set your seating die to that length, won't any other bullet shape be seated to the same .010 off the rifiling? Is the comparator insert hole dia the same as the bore dia? Anyway, thanks for any help, this is making me 2nd and 3rd guess myself....rsbhunter

 

[expiper]

NO,,its not the same with all bullets...that is one of the many reasons that I dont use one of em!!!,,,,The seater stem in you seater die ,,,whether its a 7/8-14 screw in type or Wilson chamber type,,touches the bullet nose (ojive) in its own particular place.....that is why I am an advocate of using the seter stem length on my Wilson die as the guage or reference pt. for all my LOL data......not some tool or guage that touches in a different spot!!,,,,,then if you move the stem in or out any ammount (.001 to a mile) the bullet seating depth or jump or jam is relative to some previous dim........use your ammo for a guage in your chamber by establishing a loaded length relative to your seater stem,,,,,not a tool with another dim that must be interpolated to your seater stem change.....once you find a length with som li' tool, you have to change the seater stem to get it transfered to the ctg....tooo much opportunity for error....and confusion...,,,,,,Roger

 

[SS427]

I had the same problem trying to figure it out. What Rogers says is exactly true about the seater stem in the die. It will hit the ogive of the bullets in different places due to the various shapes of the bullets and result in different distances from or into the lands.

I use my Hornady tool with confidence and never had a problem other then being puzzled at first. If I use it to determine a .010 jam, I get about that much mark on the bullet when I test them in the chamber.