Bullet neck depth

[RonR]

one would think, but even Douglas will vouch for me that guns and ammo can be hard on a marriage, or 2, possibly even 3

I often wonder how much time some of you spend. I am finding it difficult to balance right now My wife consider's this my "second girlfriend right now"

A poll on how much time guys spend on reloading hunting types vs. precision guys would be of interest to me.

Ouch...lol.

As always appreciate the efforts to respond.

Ron

 

[RonR]

That is correct, bullet depth is less than half the bullet diameter. The bullet is a rimmed cartridge, 218 Bee. All I have is Winchester brass. The rim thickness averages .055 but my books give me a spec of .065 thickness. I don't know of any one but Winchester making 218 brass and the idea of reforming 32/20 brass is daunting. When I use a cartridge length of 1.880 I get a group of about 3/4" but if I use a cartridge length of 1.995 and jam the bullet into the rifling, I will get 3 rounds into a 1/4" and the other 2 about an 1" or 1 1/2" lower. I believe with the 1.880 rounds I am not getting proper headspace. If I can get this brass to start headspacing on the shoulder, maybe I can make it work. If not, I will have to learn to neck down brass.

A good challenge.

Ron

 

[RonR]

RonR If I had a 7-08 and was loading it for hunting, here is what I would do.

I have had a bullet come out of a case and dump powder in the action before. Several times. Each time the rifle was out of action until I could clean it out. I took it out of stock, washed it under hot water tap, then sprayed with bake cleaner, then re-lubed. Can't do that in the field, when you need the rifle for the first or second shot.

So, given that experience, I would rank reliability ahead of accuracy. So how important is 20 though over 40 thou? have you tested both for accuracy and decided it just has to be 20 thou?

I like the one caliber seating depth idea. But I would not hesitate to go shallower.

But, because of my bad experiences with bullets popping loose, I would do two things. I would use a Lee factory Crimper to add a little crimp. And I would increase neck tension. T do that, I would re-size my decapped brass with the expander button removed. This would give max neck tension.

Thanks Ganderite. The powder dumping is something I am wary of...ergo this post. You have illustrated what can happen and what needs to be avoided.

Reliability is first of course, and to be truthful I was really skeptical about not using a crimp on hunting rounds but I field tested last year to build confidence in relying on the process of .002 neck grip. I am ok for that for now...but I will share that I didn't have the lee collet set properly on once session and the SSTs were pushing into the cartridge with not much force. What that told me is that my process checks were not failsafe and ergo made me a wiser reloader when it comes to safety or powder dumping when ejecting. I believe that if I used a crimp I never would have known I had this inconsistency and carried on merrily totally ignorant of what was occurring.

I appreciate your time to respond and suggestions and consider your posts carefully, on this and other threads.

Regards
Ron

 

[RonR]

I agree completely with Ganderite. For a HUNTING application and a hunting rifle, I would not worry about any of this extreme accuracy/benchrest stuff. I would simply find an optimum charge weight and seating depth, using 10-20 thou jump as the starting point and seating deeper until about 100 thou jump. Somewhere in there you will find a load that gives you close to the maximum accuracy potential of the load and rifle, and that is what you should use..

Hi P-17 and thanks for weighing in. Sound advice.

I should state a couple of things for everyone following up on this thread
- this path I am on was started on the basis of fixing inconsistent neck seating depths. I have a few hundred cases of federal brass we've saved to start out with. There was no intent at that time to try and make our hunting rifles bench shooters. It's just that we are at this point now to try and adjust the process to get consistent cartridges from start to finish.
- From support here, which has been EXCELLENT, the inconsistencies are mostly contributable to inconsistent neck thickness and case hardness.
- I've neck turned to get consistent neck thicknesses because the federal brass was all over the place
- I haven't gotten into annealing yet, but that's on the "futures" list.

I've experienced what Ganderite talks about (opening action and spilling powder into the mechanism because of seating too deep). This happened during an international match, and I lost because my rifle was gummed up. Imagine if this happens in a hunting situation, or when facing down an angry bear?.

Just tasty animal hunting here. ( I haven't eaten any bear) I don't think my marriage could support another species added to the list. Your point is well taken.

I have started using the Dan Newberry process and find it to be simple, systematic and useful. The normal practice is that you play with seating depth AFTER you have found the optimum charge weight..

That's where I am at. Thanks for the name of the process.

I applaud you for pursuing accuracy to the highest degree. .

As stated before...this just happened. Not intentional at all. I am learning a s4^&pile thanks to you and others.

The ogive to base measurements on all the bullets we have to sample is the purpose of this post. Some of them if loaded at 2.800 were creating a jam situation for our rifles, and others I would have to seat long to get .020. I needed to know a bit more physics/mechanics but in this case it boils down to not having a powder situation occur.

Thanks P-17

Ron

 

[RonR]

Don't overthink it Ron. If you're crashing through the woods looking for moose, or in the desert looking for cowardly extremists, make sure the bullet is good and firm in the neck either with more contact area, or a tighter neck tension. If you're at the bench shotting singles, trying to shoot 0.145" groups (Dave, that's amazing!!!), then as long as the bullet stays in place, you're golden.

-J.

GGG, wondering where you were. "If you're crashing through the woods looking for moose, or in the desert looking for cowardly extremists..." LMAO

You are great at boiling things down.

Regards
Ron

 

[RonR]

Could you have gunsmith set the barrel back one thread and re-chamber?

Or see how it likes 160 gr round nose bullets? That would be my first experiment.

Ganderite that's also on the futures list...

Now that I have these responses I can make the pills that our bolt's will take. Can hardly wait to get out there.

Again much obliged!

Ron

 

[Gunneegoogoo]

GGG, wondering where you were. "If you're crashing through the woods looking for moose, or in the desert looking for cowardly extremists..." LMAO

You are great at boiling things down.

Regards
Ron

I can boil it down once I understand it, but until then I'm fretting and worrying just like you are....!!!