Does bullet need adequate support in the neck to shoot well?

[0give]

Question: You have two options. Jump a bullet a lot or only have .020” or less bullet bearing surface in the neck to get into lands where it normally shoots good. Which do you go with and why?

TL;DR
Is adequate bearing surface in the neck important?

Toward the end of a barrel and im to the point where the bullet wont reach where i like to seat to anymore. Just happened to notice that i only have basically the lip of the brass holding onto the bullet. This is a new bullet to me, long heavies dont have this issue.

 

[6BRA]

.020 is like 6 to 7 human hairs. Jump.

 

[JerkyFreak]

Definitely jump. I find that the length of the bearing surface seated should be at least 60% of the calibre.

 

[Gary in MD]

If its a target rifle to be used only at the range, I don’t care how much bullet is in the case if that’s where it shoots the best.
Hunting rifles to be used in the field are a different story.

 

[Fuj]

I'll guarantee, sooner then later you'll have an action full of
loose powder.....

 

[0give]

I'll guarantee, sooner then later you'll have an action full of
loose powder.....

From a bullet falling out under recoil?

 

[Liven The Dream]

My Target Rifles like the Jump.

 

[rwj]

I’d be concerned about not building sufficient pressure inside the case to expand/seal the neck against the chamber wall before the bullet exited. Soot on the shoulder would be something I’d monitor. Soot further down the case would cause me to stop shooting.

 

[K22]

I have always seated bullets at least bullet diameter (minus the boattail portion) into the case neck. It was one of the old rules of thumb I was taught when I started reloading some 50+ years ago. I can't say there is a testing / technical data that supports this, but this practice has served me very well for precision varmint hunting reloads.

It would seem to me that the further you seat the bullet out the more chance there is of increasing run out. Also, I would be concerned about ignition of powder consistency / adequacy if the bullet wasn't seated sufficiently into the case neck. I would also be concerned about a pressure surge with the bullet seated into the lands because of ogive variations. Then there is the concern of a bullet becoming bullet stuck in the lands when you extract an unfired round.

Reliably and safety are more important to me that any slight gain that might be achieved by seating bullet into the lands or too shallow into the neck.

 

[gunsandgunsmithing]

Different answers for Different reasons but speaking strictly to accuracy, if the bullets not falling out and you can load them into the chamber without issue, it doesn't matter. Done it lots

 

[0give]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Seems its worth investing time and components to go ahead and test this weekend.

 

[Straightshooter1]

I have always seated bullets at least bullet diameter (minus the boattail portion) into the case neck. It was one of the old rules of thumb I was taught when I started reloading some 50+ years ago. I can't say there is a testing / technical data that supports this, but this practice has served me very well for precision varmint hunting reloads.

It would seem to me that the further you seat the bullet out the more chance there is of increasing run out. Also, I would be concerned about ignition of powder consistency / adequacy if the bullet wasn't seated sufficiently into the case neck. I would also be concerned about a pressure surge with the bullet seated into the lands because of ogive variations. Then there is the concern of a bullet becoming bullet stuck in the lands when you extract an unfired round.

Reliably and safety are more important to me that any slight gain that might be achieved by seating bullet into the lands or too shallow into the neck.

I've definitely gotten worse runout when the bullet was seated far out with small amount of neck holding on. When seated well into the a neck that has good concentricity, I'll get really good concentricity on the seated bullet.

If there's little neck holding the bullet and the bullet being seated into the lands, I'd think that the chambering pressure would likely straighten any concentricity issue out. And though being seated into the lands, the starting pressure will be higher than being well off the lands, but the pressure would remain pretty consistent over substantial throat wear, as long as the bullet is being seated into the lands the same.

 

[ebb]

Set back the barrel so that you can seat into the lands or jump at your discretion. and not have the bullet falling out of the case.

 

[Fuj]

From a bullet falling out under recoil?

You better have recoil......LOL What i was referring to is, if you
don't, you'll draw back the bolt spilling powder, if you don't
stand the rifle straight up.

 

[alf]

Sunday Gunday: Stan Ware’s Radical No-Neck Wolfpup Wildcat « Daily Bulletin

Think you need a relatively long case-neck for good accuracy? Think again. Stan Ware broke all the rules with his radical Wolfpup cartridge, proving that a near-no-neck design can deliver match-winning accuracy. Read on to learn how the Wolfpup works... <img class=alignright...

bulletin.accurateshooter.com

 

[Jud96]

If you saw how little bullet is in the case with my current 6PPC, you’d be amazed haha. I had the reamer modified, but with a 68BT 8 Ogive Hottenstein bullet there’s about .060-.070” of bullet in the neck and it will shoot small when I load it right and pick a good condition

 

[Rat Rifle]

Thanks everyone for the replies. Seems its worth investing time and components to go ahead and test this weekend.

Try seating the pressure ring down to the donut. Do a seating depth test coming out .010” at a time, shooting 2 shot groups. You might find a pleasant surprise. J M O

 

[William Vogel]

What bullet? If there’s that much erosion in a 223, it’s barrel time. I understand if it was reamed for heavier bullets but wouldn’t it just be better to use the heavier bullets until barrel replacement.

 

[6.5 forever]

Try seating the pressure ring down to the donut. Do a seating depth test coming out .010” at a time, shooting 2 shot groups. You might find a pleasant surprise. J M O

I did this last week. I load my Lapua 6.5 CM 20+ times. These cases develope doughnuts around 10 firings. My velocity picked up 15 fps. Accuracy remains excellent and my SD dropped by 50 %.

 

[AlNyhus]

Sunday Gunday: Stan Ware’s Radical No-Neck Wolfpup Wildcat « Daily Bulletin

Think you need a relatively long case-neck for good accuracy? Think again. Stan Ware broke all the rules with his radical Wolfpup cartridge, proving that a near-no-neck design can deliver match-winning accuracy. Read on to learn how the Wolfpup works... <img class=alignright...

bulletin.accurateshooter.com

"It'll never work".........