How shallow can you seat a bullet?
- Thread starter MD
- Start date
You can take a fired case and bump it in your sizing die just enough to hold the bullet in place and then chamber this test round and measure overall length and adjust from there.
You will need to start low and work up your load, I have Quickload software and you would be surprised how much the chamber pressure can vary by just seating the bullet deeper into the case or seating it longer and closer to the rifling.
You will need to start low and work up your load, I have Quickload software and you would be surprised how much the chamber pressure can vary by just seating the bullet deeper into the case or seating it longer and closer to the rifling.
Some rifles, just don't care if the "ogive" is close to or touching the lands. It's an old bench rest shooter's trick to seat the bullets tight into the lands. This makes up for "slop" in the chamber and the neck supports the bullet until it is well into the rifling.
If you have a very tight chamber or at least a tight throat, and everything is nice and straight, you shouldn't have to seat your bullet against the lands. IT WILL INCREASE SPIKE PRESSURES.
It can definitely make a difference in accuracy under some conditions. If you have a commercial, off the shelf sporter, it likely won't help enough to make a big difference.
If you're going to hunt with the rifle, it is only common sense to load the ogive at least .010 in off the lands.
Weatherby used to use a lot of freebore in their chambers to get away with the overbore capacity loads that were required by the proprietary cartridges chambered in their rifles.
Just one more caveat, PO Ackley felt that a bullet should be seated at least one bullet diameter into the neck and that the neck should be at least one bullet diameter long.
- Location
- Ottawa origanally Muskoka
Some people make a long dummy round up, cover the bullet in smoke/soot. Then chamber and extract the round carefully. Finally they measure the length of the bullet that has had the black soot scaped off by the lands. Deduct this measurement from the dummy rounds OAL and you will be seating your bullets @ the lands.
- Location
- Ottawa origanally Muskoka
That being said; My Mosin Nagant gets best accuracy with much less than 1x bullet Dia in the neck. Why? Because I shoot cast 150gr spitzer bullets from a gun designed to chamber 220gr round nose bullets. But! Unloading a live round is a pisser when your bullet comes out of the case and fills your action full of powder!
And some of the most accurate shooting done in history actually required seating the bullet in the bore and then keeping the powder in the case with a piece of card.
Practical for hunting? Hardly. Practical for precision shooting? You be the judge.
Blastattack
CGN Ultra frequent flyer
- Location
- Winnipeg MB
That's exactly what the Alberta Single Shot Rifle Association does for their target guns. They have a special tool to seat the bullet, and a charged case (usually blocked with that spongy plant foam stuff) is inserted behind the bullet. Action closed, fire, and extract. Really unique stuff.
