Hornady concentricity gauge
- Thread starter tomL
- Start date
I don't know if the quote will work. But to echo sonics point you shouldn't be using it to bend every bullet. That would be absurd. Manually bending, sorry, straightening bullets, you're introducing variables in the neck, shoulder, tension etc.
You should use them to identify if/that/where there is a problem in your process, and then change and test (preferably one at a time) different parts of your process until you get the runout down to a level that is acceptable to you.
OR, once you sort bullets out into different groups of concentricity, you might find that you can't shoot well enough to tell the difference between .001 and .005 runout, and decide to save yourself a lot of aggravation and time. This is the route I ended up going down. I CHOOSE to use a certain seating die over another that loads straighter, because the first one is micro adjust and a design that makes it easier to use.
You should use them to identify if/that/where there is a problem in your process, and then change and test (preferably one at a time) different parts of your process until you get the runout down to a level that is acceptable to you.
OR, once you sort bullets out into different groups of concentricity, you might find that you can't shoot well enough to tell the difference between .001 and .005 runout, and decide to save yourself a lot of aggravation and time. This is the route I ended up going down. I CHOOSE to use a certain seating die over another that loads straighter, because the first one is micro adjust and a design that makes it easier to use.
- Location
- Western Manitoba
That was my experience - I used to peel neck walls, measure and sort to concentricity, etc. - until I proved to myself with 5 shot groups at 100 yards that I could not prove which was which group - turned or not turned; sorted .003" or less versus .004" or more, etc.. So I gave up doing all that - for me and the store bought rifles I was shooting, it was just "busy work", that made no difference that I could show myself. However, maybe a habit was formed - I find I can no longer seat a bullet in one go - it goes in about half way, then rotated perhaps 180 degrees and the seating gets finished I have not proved whether that is making a difference or not - but it was one of the techniques that were recommended back in the day to get better concentricity numbers.
My Hornady one sees very little use
Years ago a "friend" lent me one. I sorted all my ammo into little groups with various levels of concentricity and hit the range to test.
I don't remember how the different batches worked but I do remember having a handful of the absolute worst, most out of concentric ammo lying on the bench at the end of the day. Rather than pull them, I decided to shoot them. Turns out the most out of concentric ammo shot just as well as the most concentric ammo.
I handed my buddy back his stupid gauge and never looked back. There are things worth doing to create accurate ammo but bullet seating concentricity isn't one of them.
mmcintyre1220
CGN frequent flyer
- Location
- Tillsonburg, Ontario
Not sure what type of precision you are chasing but, keeping things under 1/2 moa out to 800 yards ( I don't have anywhere to shoot further) did not require any of this stuff. I check some of my loads with a friend's tool and found my runout was not the best however, I see no down range effects.
There is always a rabbithole to go down but for me, this will never be one of them. Imo, annealing is far more important and gave me a lot of consistency.
There is always a rabbithole to go down but for me, this will never be one of them. Imo, annealing is far more important and gave me a lot of consistency.
