Measuring Seating Depth

[Cort]

I have read several posts about seating bullets long and trying to close the bolt on them. The goal is to get the bolt to close with a little effort and, at the same time, incurring square land marks on the bullet. Once that point is known, then you can adjust your dies to produce whatever "jam" your rifle likes from that point.

My question is: does the bolt need to be disassembled for this technique to work? Or, could I just hold the sear back with the trigger and close the bolt without cocking the firing pin?

Thanks for any insight here.

Cort

 

[Hedge]

As long as there is no primer or powder, just close the bolt.

 

[4xforfun]

As long as there is no primer or powder, just close the bolt.

Yes, this will certainly work...BUT....with the assembled bolt you get ZERO feel. With the disasembled bolt you get a precise feel. Like I said in the other post....it's just my way of doing it, and I have the tools to take the bolt appart.

 

[jr600yd]

If it makes you happy and thats the way you do it then go for it. Make a "Dummy" round and your good to go!

 

[Hedge]

Yes, this will certainly work...BUT....with the assembled bolt you get ZERO feel.

Rgr on the feel. i'm just thinking a bit of neck tension, remove the extractor, run the bolt and tap out the cartridge.

I've tried a variety of ways of measuring and never get consistent results. Next time, I'm just going to cast the chamber and be absolutely sure.

 

[Heavies]

I do something similar. But I don't worry about the feel. I just seat the bullet long, and let the bolt seat it. If the bullet sticks I seat it a little deeper and try again. When the bullet does not stick, and the OAL stops getting shorter, I figure that is the max length that the bullet will go without being seated deeper. I'll call that max jam length, and start load development there.
After a good powder charge is found, I'll play with seating depth in and out from there.

I could never be satisfied with readings from those other tools. I find the method I use is pretty much dead on consistent measurement wise.

You'll need to redo the process when changing neck tension or bullet type.
Right way, wrong, I don't know, it just what I do and seems to work fine for me.