The subject of seating depth comes up and usually my eyes roll back. I realize alot depends on the way the ammo is fed intothe rifle (magazine fed or single loading) so I have some general questions about varing the seating depth if the rifle will allow it (single loaded).
I usually seat bullets off the lands and not really paid attention to the POI results as I dont know if its me, the gun, the load or... the seating depth ( I shoot CMP and NRA HP matches so dime size accuracy at 100 yards is nice but really not needed).
I had a rifle out recently and on a lark varied the seating depth from just touching, .010" off and .020" off the lands. At 250 yds the 10 round grouping of the .20" off appeared to be more "rounder".
It got me thinking that perhaps there is something to this seating depth issue that I should address but.... I really dont know where to go with it.
Question 1). What POI should I see if I seat off the lands? I know shooters will say "better accuracy" but what exactly should I see? "Rounder" groups as I seemed to have observed? Smaller groups? No unexplained fliers? How do I differentiate POI changes due to seating depth changes and that of amount of powder used that might be "reducing group sizes? Or different primers? Or anything else? ( I have a chronograph )
Question 2) Is there a "norm" for varing seating depth when one is changing the depth to get what ever results we're suppose to be getting? Should one vary groups of say... 10 testing rounds..... .010", .020", .030" or more? I find it hard to believe that with all the varibles involved a shooter can see POI results with only .010' or .020" difference between testing groups. I would think I'ld see a change in POI results if I made sizable seating depth changes ie: to the lands, then .020" off then .040" off then .060"....... but make mychanges in multiples of say..... .020"
Question 3) I one finds that seating depth "X" is giving whatever desired results one gets with varing seating depth should you go back and vary powder charges... or any thing else?
Thanks for "educating" me on this topic.
I usually seat bullets off the lands and not really paid attention to the POI results as I dont know if its me, the gun, the load or... the seating depth ( I shoot CMP and NRA HP matches so dime size accuracy at 100 yards is nice but really not needed).
I had a rifle out recently and on a lark varied the seating depth from just touching, .010" off and .020" off the lands. At 250 yds the 10 round grouping of the .20" off appeared to be more "rounder".
It got me thinking that perhaps there is something to this seating depth issue that I should address but.... I really dont know where to go with it.
Question 1). What POI should I see if I seat off the lands? I know shooters will say "better accuracy" but what exactly should I see? "Rounder" groups as I seemed to have observed? Smaller groups? No unexplained fliers? How do I differentiate POI changes due to seating depth changes and that of amount of powder used that might be "reducing group sizes? Or different primers? Or anything else? ( I have a chronograph )
Question 2) Is there a "norm" for varing seating depth when one is changing the depth to get what ever results we're suppose to be getting? Should one vary groups of say... 10 testing rounds..... .010", .020", .030" or more? I find it hard to believe that with all the varibles involved a shooter can see POI results with only .010' or .020" difference between testing groups. I would think I'ld see a change in POI results if I made sizable seating depth changes ie: to the lands, then .020" off then .040" off then .060"....... but make mychanges in multiples of say..... .020"
Question 3) I one finds that seating depth "X" is giving whatever desired results one gets with varing seating depth should you go back and vary powder charges... or any thing else?
Thanks for "educating" me on this topic.