Is there more than one seating depth ?

[Kenneth66]

Started off seating a bullet slightly , then inserting it in the gun and closing the bolt , the neck must be really tight as it was really hard to close , more so than my other rifles have been .
Using this as a way to measure a starting point for seating .
Put the cartridge in the ram and ran it up and turned the seater down till it made contact with the bullet . The seating die I have is an RCBS standard die and there are no markings to go by , so I just ran it down about another eighth of a turn .
Went out and shot , the cartridges loaded really tight , to the point of being uncomfortable to the hand .
It did shoot three three shot groups in around .6"
So I loaded another set of nine , which took about a quarter turn more to get a reasonable bolt closer , but still snug . The groups opened up to around an inch , one slightly over and at this point I was running out of day light . So I had to give it up .
So on another day if I continue to run the depth down , will I encounter another sweet spot ? Thanks , Kenneth

 

[mr45man]

the cartridges loaded really tight , to the point of being uncomfortable to the hand .

Try backing off till you find "just touching" as your starting point.( very light feel on closing.)

 

[DHuffman]

Don't take this the wrong way but in my opinion you're basically guessing. I have rifles that have "sweet spots" between .007 into the lands out to .020 off the lands. Some have 2 or 3 of these "sweet spots" in that range .006 or. 009 apart. I don't think I would have ever found them going a quarter turn a time on the seating die.

I'm sure there are more seating nodes farther out but I haven't felt the need to chase them.

I measure with the Hornady tool to find my base to ogive length and seat based off that measurement. I know there are probably better ways to do it but this is what's worked for me.

Edit: I reread your post and see there is a method to how you're doing it. A quarter turn on one of my dies would roughly would be over .006 I think so it would be easy to skip over a lot of nodes before I lucked out and landed on one.

 

[savagedasher]

I jump all my bullets. But I also use seating depth to lower my Es. And tune with a tuner. Larry

 

[DennisH]

I have three barrels that love the bullets being off the lands .050, and I have a few that love the bullets being in the lands .010.

Which bullets are you shooting?

Dennis

 

[Kenneth66]

Thanks , I figured what I was doing may be a bit crude , but it has worked for me on my bigger calibers . This is my first 222 and perhaps it is a bit more fussy .
I did order me a Wilson seating die from Sanclair last night .
Guess I might as well spring for the OAL gauge too .
I really like this little gun , it is a fun cartridge to shoot , will be interesting to see it in action when they cut the hay fields , thanks , Kenneth

 

[DennisH]

Guess I might as well spring for the OAL gauge too .

Worth it's weight in gold, I cannot operate without one.

Dennis

 

[Kenneth66]

Dennis , I am experimenting with various bullets , Speer 52 gr Varmint , 55 gr V-Max , 55 gr Blitzking , 50 gr. Nosler Ballistic Tip . Tried some IMR 4895 and H 4198 . As for now I'm sticking with the 4198 because I have more of it .
I only shot one group of the Blitzking yesterday evening as it grouped terrible , shortened the OAL a tad and am going to see if that helped . Most of the I shoot a lot of Sierra GK in my deer rifles , so far they have shot well snug on the lands , but maybe the Blitzking is different .
Suppose I should wait till my seating die gets here along with the OAL gauge . But these where left overs from yesterday evening , so I thought I would bump them in a little .
The one group I shot with the Blitzking put first two shots 6 o'clock and 12 o'clock about an inch apart , third shot went a full two inches or more to three o'clock .
Going to go pop a couple caps and see how it fairs . Thank all of you for your input , Kenneth

 

[Jose_Luis_G]

I think your method is a bit rough.
If I were in your shoes, I'd start with a single bullet, standard OAL as decribed in the data for the cartridge and a few load in steps of 0.3 grain, all of them with the same poder.
Once you get a reasonable group, you can start playing with the OAL up and down in steps of 0.003.
Don't worry if you use a standard die, you can measure the total lenght with a dial caliper to adjust it. I know its a bit tedious but good enough.
After all, this is a hobby, but shortcuts are not the best way.

 

[DennisH]

Unless I missed it, what caliber, barrel length, twist, and distance are you shooting?

Dennis

 

[Kenneth66]

Remington 700 BDL , 222 , 24" barrel , 100 yds . Late yesterday evening I shot a coup,e groups , took a while as the wind was rocking tree tops and had to wait between gusts for shots . At start they were so tight into the lands had to slap the bolt to get it to go down . Kept going in the house turning the seater down about an eighth turn instead of quarter turn . After the third trip in , it started closing acceptable but still stiff . One more time and it closed snug , and at this point I was running out of light but managed three three shot groups , one around .46" , another .67" , and another .72" . Hopefully my Wilson seating die should be here when I get home this coming weekend .
Then I can set down and get it tuned right , with the last three groups it seems I am getting close on the OAL .
Yes sir it is a hobby , but like a a friend I was talking with today , it seems once you play with them benchrest rifles the accuracy bug gets into everything you shoot . Hell , this evening I even had my wife's snubby 38 out trying to get some wad cutters stacking holes at ten yds . Lol .
Kenneth

 

[Fotheringill]

Try here.

http://bulletin.accurateshooter.com/2009/03/berger-tips-for-loading-vld-bullets/

Method works.

 

[1lnbrdg]

Shot some JLK 75's yesterday, chamber is way to long for these. . . . . . . or is it?

Started out jumping them 0.144" with only 1/2 the bearing surface in the neck, meah . . . thinking not so much
Next was 0.169 jump, a little better, lot better on the velocities and std. dev.
Next was 0.194" jump, a whole lot better, 5-shot max spread was 18 fps, and .420" group at 200 yds.

Who ever knows?