Interesting results with seating depths

Attachment 13441I trialled some different depths as with the proj almost on the lands it was doing moa and as it usually will do 1/2 with the amax and the match are pretty similar in weight and shape so was a bit disconcerted as I had loaded up 150 of the little suckers and didn't want to pull them all.
I had just read an article about tuning loads buy pushing them down a mm at a time so I had the original length with two more lots each 1mm shorter than the last and the results were a bit of an eye opener to say the least.
the groups went from .95 .78 .475 using the optimal charge weight method of grouping.
The shortest oal were basically 4 in one hole and one just out so I will be trying a bit more of this as a part of my load development.
I will try load a photo of the target but this new phone takin a bit of driving

Sorry this in the wrong section, and that isnt the phone i was has having trouble with by the way!

Nice shooting

So you're saying the biggest jump to the lands produced the best result in this case?
I guess you have seen this stuff?
Berger Tips for Loading VLD Bullets « Daily Bulletin

What cal and make of barrel Andy?
Nice wee group there.

Yep your onto it wild man,I had never had to worry to much about seating distances in my rifles as just seat then to 20 to40 thou of the lands and they all shoot half moa with hand loads.One thing i am doing that gets on my wick is that my tikka 6.5x55 to get any where near the lands you dont have the projectile very far into the case so i have a cunning plan.
A few years ago i shot some 139g scenar factory ammo to get the brass and the first group at 200yds was 13mm, My mate reckons it was a fluke so gave him the rifle and he shot a 10mm group and this was very consistent results we found.
So as a result of this i am going to get the factory length measured with a comparator and try some 140 amax with the same jump and see if it is as accurate as them been seated out further.
I am picking i might get a better ES as a more even neck tension and a bit more pressure so the necks arnt getting so sooty.
I will post some results once i do some shooting

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Originally Posted by R93

What cal and make of barrel Andy?
Nice wee group there.

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Just a stinky old tikka varmint in 22-250 with one of steves wholesaler new sun optics tactical 8x32x50 scope using 35.5 of 08 in some pmc brass that was floating around shooting the hornady 52g match as the 52g amax out of stock for a while.

I shot my 6.5 with the projectiles seated at 81mm and got the large group and then pushed then into hornady factory lenght out of their manual which was approx 4mm shorter and got this result.anybody else mucking around with this stuff
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These groups were shot at 200 yds

Yep ladder then seating depth.
I usually start on the lands and only change if it doesn't shoot as well as i would like

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Gidday Andy:

What do you mean by this "using the optimal charge weight method of grouping". I have read the stuff about it but am interested in how you are applying it to seating depth . . . Ta

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Originally Posted by Tentman

Gidday Andy:

What do you mean by this "using the optimal charge weight method of grouping". I have read the stuff about it but am interested in how you are applying it to seating depth . . . Ta

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instead of shooting the a group of three that are the same length all at once i will for example if i have 4 lengths to try i will have four dots on my target that are marked with the diferent seating depths and then when i shoot i shoot one of each length until i have fired the four and then start again as this means the barrel has about the same temp and fouling for the the twelve shots to keep it relative to all the different loads.
I hope i haven't confused ya

Yea so, you will start with one shot of 79mm, then 1 of 80mm. Then an 81mm, then an 82mm. Then follow the cycle.

Thats right a?

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Originally Posted by puku

Yea so, you will start with one shot of 79mm, then 1 of 80mm. Then an 81mm, then an 82mm. Then follow the cycle.

Thats right a?

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Yep Puku and shoot at the coresponding target each time.
Thats what i did in the first post photo and the second photo further down i was just mucking around and shot at the same dot with three shot groups but i could see where they were landing and was pretty surprised by the results

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Originally Posted by andyanimal31

Yep Puku and shoot at the coresponding target each time.
Thats what i did in the first post photo and the second photo further down i was just mucking around and shot at the same dot with three shot groups but i could see where they were landing and was pretty surprised by the results

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That is what I was starting to do with 150 bergers. I found where there was pressure just off lands. Then was going to load up different jumps like berger recommend.
But then I got a box of Nosler lr Accubonds

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Thanks Andy - I thought that's what you probly ment but just wanted to clarify. I do the same thing doing ladder tests, shooting 2 or 3 loads at once.

Tried the seating depths in the berger artical with norma bullets in a 308.
Groups got a lot better at 120 thou jump.

I don't load smokeless powder but jump is important as without it you can get a pressure problem, is this correct?

You can load with no jump perfectly safely. Just work up as normal don't jump in at 5gr over book max and jam them into the lands:D

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

You can load with no jump perfectly safely. Just work up as normal don't jump in at 5gr over book max and jam them into the lands:D

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Don't be a killjoy VC, you aren't a real reloader unless you've flash burnt your eyebrows off at least once in your life :D

Brian's group shrunk considerably as the jump got larger it was very apparent, my .243 is shooting cold bore exactly right then the next 2 will group very close but 3 inches low and 2 inches left, seems to get better with shorter jump anyone have any ideas?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by nor-west

Brian's group shrunk considerably as the jump got larger it was very apparent, my .243 is shooting cold bore exactly right then the next 2 will group very close but 3 inches low and 2 inches left, seems to get better with shorter jump anyone have any idea

Thanks

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Is the barrel just cold or have you removed the copper fouling too? ie clean barrel.

Clean and cold

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Originally Posted by Brenick

Is the barrel just cold or have you removed the copper fouling too? ie clean barrel.

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Bedding?

Try just putting one oiled patch down it before putting it in the safe instead of cleaning it fully.

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Ok it was full of copper when I got it wouldn't shoot into 3 inches, thoroughly cleaned it shot under an inch and now it's shooting as above.

Cheers.

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Originally Posted by veitnamcam

Try just putting one oiled patch down it before putting it in the safe instead of cleaning it fully.

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+1. Don't remove the copper fouling. Just the powder residue and then shoot it again and see what happens. The totally clean bore could be your problem. A bit of copper build up can be a good thing for consistency.