Dead Length?

Is'nt that the length of something that can change length, when it is in the non-activated state?

ie. A hydraulic cylinder before it is lengthened by pumping hydraulic fluid into it?

Just guessing.
 
I'm assuming that the "dead length" you are refering to is from a Lee Precision dies ad, and something about their "dead length" seater, yes?

I interpret dead length to mean the length from the base of the cartridge to the beggining of the land diameter of the bullet.
 
There are several ways, one of which is to buy a Stoney Point Cartridge Length Gauge. These are actually handy gadgits, but they are cartridge specific, which is why I haven't bothered to buy one.

My own system is as follows. Take a bullet and place it nose down in the muzzle. With moderate hand pressure twist the bullet, and a line will be scored on the bullet at the ogive. Next, place a flat base bullet nose down in a resized unprimed case. Chamber the round, making sure the bolt locks closed. Eject the cartridge. The length of this cartridge matches the length from the bolt face to the lands. Match this length to the length of your cartridge case from it's head to the line on the scored bullet, and adjust your bullet seater accordingly.
 
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Found this on a net search:
"Dead Length" Seating Die
This die features a mechanism that holds the bullet straight and true while seating it. It yields seating depths just as consistent as any other seating die I've used. In my experience, seating depth varies mostly due to inconsistencies in bullet shape, but if you have a lot of consistent bullets, the Dead Length Seating Die will yield excellent results.
 
The Lee Dead Length seater die is set up to contact the shell holder when installed correctly. Since it doesn't crimp they can do this, unlike other dies that would crush the case due to over crimping. Their theory is that by contacting the die bottom all the slack and compression in the press/ram/shell-holder will be taken up, giving more consistant seated lengths.The only factor left is the distance from the base of the shell-holder to the seating stem. There's something to this, watch the shell holder sometimes when you are seating bullets. Sometimes it will move down a bit into the ram, sometimes it won't, depending on the resistance of seating that bullet. It can be quite a variable in some instances.

I'm not sure where the name came from, but there's already "Dead center", "Dead calm", "Dead weight", "Dead to rights". Why not "Dead Length"?;) It could be a marketing thing. The term doesn't have anything to do with Length to lands.

I don't use a lot of Lee dies anymore, but the dead length seater comes with the collet die set so I have a few around.
Dogleg
 
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