Thread: Seating deprh wuestion

Question for the reloading experts I’m making a new load for a 308 when I measure the bullet searing depth to be just off the lands the projectile is only half way down the neck so my question is how far does a projectile need to be down neck, please excuse my ignorance

it SHOULD be calibre depth in...7.62mmish the .308 is a round that usually has a bit of a space walk before projectile meets rifling...it was designed that way. personally I seat it for concentricity..eg nice n deep so it starts out straight guided by the brass. hope that heaps.

Go easy on those elicit compounds fella

For 308 seat projectile for concentricity ie it’s a boat tail seat it so the start of taper is just below bottom of neck. You’ll still have quite a jump but 308s seem to tolerate this quite well

Yeah, recommendation is normally as deep as bullet diameter, which is pretty much full length of neck in a 308 case.

Thanks for help much appreciated

I just set all my .308 loads at 2.8 col,they all shoot well.

Many of my loads only had 3 or 4 mm grabbed by the neck due to a boattail bullet.....not a problem in a bolt gun.....rattle gun Id be loading to SAAMI lenght.

Originally Posted by muzza

the other thing to check is over all length in relation to your magazine length - dont seat the projectile so far out that the cartridge wont fit in the magazine

Mag length pretty much determines it for me. Can't fit in mag= no go.

Originally Posted by The bomb

I just set all my .308 loads at 2.8 col,they all shoot well.

My Brno ZKK601's have 2.87 inch mags, the only projectile I have had to seat to mag length is the 308 178gr eld-x.
Most projectiles would be jammed into the lands at 2.80 inches in my rifles.

Start load development with the projectile seated to manufacturers recommended depth that will give you a known point to compere with
later loads.