Just to clear it up

[Scottish Highlander]

Ok , as it say's.
I recently read about a post and posted about Lands setting up of your over all length. I have a good load for a particular bullet that I am loading and trying to set it up as best as it is going to be for me and my rifle.

I have an OAL length of 70mm with bullet tested seated at that deapth and a certain powder weight behind it. I'm getting good results and was going to now change the seating depth to see if it pulls the group in a bit tighter because I think there is room for improvement.

As I said OAL is 70mm

I have a dummy bullet setup onto lands and it is about 2.5mm longer so I am about that from the lands. I was always told keep it back from the lands as it is bad news to you and your gun !!!!!
Not any more as I've read from on here it is almost a myth , correct me if I am wrong .....

So I have decided to work out my bullet seating depth 1/64th inch at a time which is 0.2mm.
I was going to Load 3 or 5 bullets at each increment to see what the results are and take it out to see if I get the group pulling tighter.

Eg.

3 bullets at 70.2mm
3 bullets at 70.4mm
3 bullets at 70.6mm
3 bullets at 70.8mm
3 bullets at 71.0mm

Go and shoot them and see how it all lay's out on paper...
If I do this at about 71mm the bullets wont chamber through the magazine and I will need to manually load them one at a time....
Is there any point to this and if it is worth doing please comment below...

Thanks Jamie

[Mike / Tx]

While I might not be the most OCD of reloaders, what I usually do when working on a new load is as follows.

I will usually start off similar to what your doing, in that I will find the bullet I want to use. Then I will search over loads until I determine about what powders are going to seeming work the best for my intended velocity window.

Once I have a couple or three powders, I will set up a dummy round, or rounds, and test for function in the rifle I am loading for. I have in the past found that when loading some bullets they work just fine when sitting at the bench slow firing them one at a time. However the same great feeding bullets will jam like crazy when your in a rushed second shot or follow up shot situation. So I will take a couple and load them in the magazine then I will set the muzzle down pretty hard on top of one of my leather boot uppers to simulate recoil, then I will run them through as fast as I can.

Sometimes the tips will hang up in the tiny gap between the action and the magazine. Usually it is with the plastic tipped bullets but not always as I have had some tight tipped HP's like the Barnes or Berger do it as well.

Once I finish up with that I will take 20 cases to the range with me along with my powder measure, dies, and what not and start low and work up. At this point I am not really looking for top accuracy so to speak, but more at how the powder(s) are going to work up through the data from low to high.

Once I have found that I can either get top end if I want or not, I will then concentrate on accuracy. Usually I will back off the top end load a full grain. This eliminates any issues I might run into with the changing temperatures we get suck a big spread on. I hate when I have a great load at 70 degrees but at 85-90 it is flattening primers, and I have seen that more than once.

Once I have everything I like as far as the powder charge, and somewhat of a group, I will then start to adjust the seating depth in around .005" increments. I have found that, just like with most powders, there are usually two areas the rifle will like the bullets at. I don't mind shorter to an extent, but I don't want too much of the bullet shoved off into the case either. I usually go about half of the bearing surface or so, and if I haven't seen any thing I am crazy about I might try another primer or simply swap out powders, and start over.


It might sound like a lot of work, but when I am done I have a load that is as accurate as I can get it, and will usually hold that same accuracy all year long no matter the temp spreads.

[Magnum Wheel Man]

I load pretty much as MIKE / TX described...

I have a lot of Contenders, & it used to be known ( at least to me ) for best accuracy, load tight to the lands, however Weatherby Rifles are known for their long leades & still get very good accuracy...

one thing to watch out for, is that your chamber pressure can raise greatly if there is no room for bullet jump... so if you are working on a "warm" load, you may want to stay off the lands... I'd suspect the pressure issue is why Weatherby generally keeps the bullets back a ways...

[Scottish Highlander]

Thanks for replys