need confirmation on seating depth.

darcy32171

darcy32171

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I go by the hodgdon site, but would like to know if other reloading guides use the same seating depth. Its for a 22-250. Imr 4895 and sierra 45gr soft points.
Hodgdon doesn`t show the Sierra brand, but calls for a seating depth of: 2.340.
I`m just a little curious on this cause the bullet seems like it is "just" seated. I can`t pull it out with my fingers though. I made up 20 loads between 36-38gr to see what I get for a "petload". I`m just curious if "all" 45gr bullets are the same length and it is safe to go by the info I have with the Hodgdon site. Thanks,Darcy
 
Bullets can vary by large amounts in length from different types and different brands of the same weight. So you should confirm your data with a few different manuals(if you don't have any manuals to look at stop and go get at least 1). I am not familiar with that bullet so I will let someone else chime in on that
 
Well - The seating depth listed corresponds to what they did the load test with, nothing else. In most cases they dont specify the bullet, aside from weight. Some manuals, like the Lee, specify the SAAMI OAL limit. Manufacturers will put a cannelure on the bullet for guidance .
In your case, its sounds like you're good to go. You dont need a lot of engagement in the case for things to work.
 
Sierra shows a COL of 2.350 for that bullet.
h ttp://accurateshooter.net/Blog/sierra22-250loads.pdf
I tend to use those numbers as a starting point, going longer or shorter based on chamber length and accuracy testing.
 
Those of us who were reloading long before the loading manuals started to show OAL for cartridges, used our own formula for seating.

1) The bullet had to be seated at a very minimum of half calibre deep. That is, a 30 calibre had to be seated at least .15" deep. Deeper for hunting cartridges.

2) The bullet couldn't protrude so far that the action wouldn't close on it.

3) For normal shooting, they couldn't be so long as to not work through the magazine.

I know, you modern reloaders will not pay any attention to this, thinking we were all lucky that the rifles "didn't blow up in our faces," and that we knew nothing about proper reloading.
But hey, it was safe, simple and it worked.
We found out that sometimes the rifles were more accurate if the bullets were seated to hit the lands, or miss the lands by a few thousands. And would you believe we even discovered how we could accomplish this, provided the bullets could be seated that far out?
 
H4831 said:
Those of us who were reloading long before the loading manuals started to show OAL for cartridges, used our own formula for seating.

1) The bullet had to be seated at a very minimum of half calibre deep. That is, a 30 calibre had to be seated at least .15" deep. Deeper for hunting cartridges.

2) The bullet couldn't protrude so far that the action wouldn't close on it.

3) For normal shooting, they couldn't be so long as to not work through the magazine.

I know, you modern reloaders will not pay any attention to this, thinking we were all lucky that the rifles "didn't blow up in our faces," and that we knew nothing about proper reloading.
But hey, it was safe, simple and it worked.
We found out that sometimes the rifles were more accurate if the bullets were seated to hit the lands, or miss the lands by a few thousands. And would you believe we even discovered how we could accomplish this, provided the bullets could be seated that far out?
Click to expand...

I think that's a great formula I always load to about .010 off the lands if mag and bullet allows for it. I have never really thought about minimum depth for seating the bullet into the case because I have never really encountered a problem like that but when I do I will be using the half the caliber rule. Thanks for the info
 
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