Thread: Bullet seating depths

Hi Fellas, just a quick question.

If you have a resonable load but want to play around with bullet seating depths to try to improve it what increments would you try?

If for instance your seating depth was 2.688 and you wanted to go shorter what depths would you try?

Any advice would be appreciated

Cheers

I remember someone (maybe Eric Cortana) suggesting increments of 30 thou' - that's next on my to-do list as well

Depending on your supply of components, 3 thou or 5 thou increments. Cortana suggested 3 thou.

Have a read through this, may give you something to go by....

https://bergerbullets.com/vld-making-shoot/

this'l be interesting.
IIRC berger talk of trying 30 thou increments.
In my limited experience my rifles generally like 120-160 thou jump so thats a lot of shooting
to get to there from jam at 3 thou increments

yea,I type slow

Thanks guys, that gives me something to work on.

Cheers Fellas

Originally Posted by matagouri

Have a read through this, may give you something to go by....

https://bergerbullets.com/vld-making-shoot/

Thats really good info . Thanks

Originally Posted by matagouri

Have a read through this, may give you something to go by....

https://bergerbullets.com/vld-making-shoot/

Have you done it @matagouri? Curious to know if you found it successful

Yes have had a bit of a play around with it in a couple of rifles, and yes did see a slight difference in group size to make it worthwhile....

Hopefully kiwi greg or 7mm saum will chime in with their thoughts...

My process used to be load up groups of 3 rounds at 3 thou increments around my initial seating depth & shoot them. Worked fine most of the time provided you were in the window of what the projectile/rifle liked to begin with but sometimes involved a fair bit of shooting to get to the final load that worked & in todays climate as far as components its not ideal.

Now days i take my press & seating dies to the range with me. Ive bolted my press to a length of timber so at the range i can G clamp it to a bench to use it. Once i have done my powder charge ladder test & have decided on a charge, ill load up something like 24 rounds at home & seat them all at the longest COAL i plan to run. At the range ill put a couple of rounds through to warm things up/foul it if i have cleaned it, then start shooting groups. Ill fire 2 shots, if i know there was no operator error and the 2 shots arent within the group size im looking for i move on, firing more shots at that same seating depth isnt going to magically get better, just waste components and barrel life. To start with ill make bigger adjustments (6 thou at a time). Shoot 2 more at 6 thou less, if theyre looking good a 3rd. Repeat this process untill i find something that looks promising. When ive found a seating depth that looks promising, lets say 2.688. Ill seat 3 rounds to 2.691, 3 at 2.688 and 3 at 2.685. Shoot them and see how things look. Maybe even 3 at 2.682 to see how far the window goes. If its looking good and consistent / group size im after, ill seat a few more at the depth that worked best, Shoot some more to confirm im happy with it and job done.

Has definitely helped me save components + time by having my press at the range with me and being able to do whatever i want on the fly. If something looks good, can try it again straight away to confirm rather than going home and wondering if thats gonna be the load till you next range trip, or going home loading a bunch at that seating depth only to find next range trip it was just a fluke.

Originally Posted by 6.5 CRD

My process used to be load up groups of 3 rounds at 3 thou increments around my initial seating depth & shoot them. Worked fine most of the time provided you were in the window of what the projectile/rifle liked to begin with but sometimes involved a fair bit of shooting to get to the final load that worked & in todays climate as far as components its not ideal.

Now days i take my press & seating dies to the range with me. Ive bolted my press to a length of timber so at the range i can G clamp it to a bench to use it. Once i have done my powder charge ladder test & have decided on a charge, ill load up something like 24 rounds at home & seat them all at the longest COAL i plan to run. At the range ill put a couple of rounds through to warm things up/foul it if i have cleaned it, then start shooting groups. Ill fire 2 shots, if i know there was no operator error and the 2 shots arent within the group size im looking for i move on, firing more shots at that same seating depth isnt going to magically get better, just waste components and barrel life. To start with ill make bigger adjustments (6 thou at a time). Shoot 2 more at 6 thou less, if theyre looking good a 3rd. Repeat this process untill i find something that looks promising. When ive found a seating depth that looks promising, lets say 2.688. Ill seat 3 rounds to 2.691, 3 at 2.688 and 3 at 2.685. Shoot them and see how things look. Maybe even 3 at 2.682 to see how far the window goes. If its looking good and consistent / group size im after, ill seat a few more at the depth that worked best, Shoot some more to confirm im happy with it and job done.

Has definitely helped me save components + time by having my press at the range with me and being able to do whatever i want on the fly. If something looks good, can try it again straight away to confirm rather than going home and wondering if thats gonna be the load till you next range trip, or going home loading a bunch at that seating depth only to find next range trip it was just a fluke.

This ^^^ is exactly what I do for the same reasons.
I have tried the berger 30thou seating test twice for good results also as I've shown on a different thread before. However you are giving up alot of case capacity very fast going in at 30thou at a time.

You could get ahold of an older style Lee whackamole or even the wee hand press. With a good seating die they still make for straight rounds.

If you want to run out of projectiles trying to make your way across the full spectrum of seating depths then you can do something like working out in 3 - 5 thou increments from jam as Eric Cortina suggests. Overkill for a simple hunting load. The Berger method is a good way to find the right general area and then fine tune from there (if required).

One of the best bits of advice Ive ever read in reguards to where to seat projectiles to
if your unsure where to start,seat to the cannalure where a projectile has one.....
if nothing else it gives you a known point to work from..sometimes it just works..job done LMFAO.