Bullet seating inconsistent

Any chance you have used that die to load cast bullets at some point? Often the lube or waxy stuff can build up and move around in the top of the die, greatly affecting your seat depths..If so, disassemble the die and clean thoroughly.. Just a thought.
Cheers:)
dB
 
:( these are FMJ bullets and I dont use cast bullets :(

Edited to add: I just reread Silverback's post the bullet length varies by about 1 hundredth of an inch. Does this mean that I should just set the die to 2.975" OAL for one cartridge and leave it? Or adjust for each cartridge I make because it's really becoming annoying to break up about half of the rounds I make and reseat the bullets...

Edited again to add: Any Calipers out there already setup to measure the ogive?
 
Last edited:
Just leave everything alone. What you are seeing is the production tolerances in the length of the bullets which is typical with most brands.
 
I find the same thing with the FMJ .308. Overall length measured with the calipers varies. I assume the length at the olgive is consistant.
I have the Stoney Point attachment for calipers to check the shoulder height (highly recommended), I'm sure it could be used to check length at the olgive but never tried it. I don't worry about it with FMJ, I would use better bullets if I was after ultimate accuracy.
Assuming that you're OK for mag length, the olgive is where your distance to lands matters anyways.
 
Use a comparator that measures somewhere down from the tip, where it will not be subject to tolerances.

Remember, when you seat the bullet, the die is pushing on the ogive, not the tip. Since the bullets can vary in OAL, this shows up if you measure from assembled case head to bullet tip. You can actually take the adjustable portion of the seat die off of the press and measure from case head to the end of the seat die, if you want to check your consistency of length. Compare this to your dummy load that you made up to check your distance from the lands, or whatever.....

Again, look up info on an overall length comparator.

Some one else chime in here with more info on this........
 
Keebler750 said:
Use a comparator that measures somewhere down from the tip, where it will not be subject to tolerances.
.... Compare this to your dummy load that you made up to check your distance from the lands, or whatever.....
.....
Click to expand...

Keebler's right on the money here... but I just wanna add one thing to ease your mind.... the actual (what you are measuring tip of bullet to case head) length of the round (so long as it fits in your magazine) DOESN'T matter. That's not saying you should ignore your reload manual for min overall length, but what reloaders are concerned about is the consistency of the distance from the part of the bullet that first touches the lands, and the lands in your rifle. That's part of the reason why bullet seaters push on the ogive and not on the tip... the other reason being the tips are generally subject to crushing. But don't feel bad if your OAL measurements (if you're taking them with a plain jane caliper) are off a little. Specialty tools are available for better measurement techniques, but don't worry about it.
 
I was just building some .223 tonight with Hornady 75 gr Match bullets for my Tikka Tactical, and I was getting .015" variation in OAL measured to the tip. This is unusual for these bullets, as they're usually consistent to .005" or so, but I'm not too concerned as my seating die locates off the ogive, as we have discussed above.

I weigh them to 0.1 grains and put them in batches, but I haven't bothered measuring such things as consistency of diameter, or bullet profile and length.

I typically get .4 MOA out of these, back to 300yds.

I thought it interesting that we were just talking about that here, and my loads tonight were a little different than usual too.

I don't expect accuracy to be affected, but if I do notice something, I'll post it in this thread.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom