jump space on remington 700 sps tactical 308win
- Thread starter thechineseguy
- Start date
Do you seat your bullets so that they touch the lands? Or do you leave a little gap between the ogive and lands?
There are different schools of thought when it comes to seating the bullets out far enough to engage the lands. I once talked with David Tubb about that. No, he wasn't a friend but a nice guy and an avid competitor that was always willing to speak about his theories and listen to those of others.
His theory was that if your rifle shoots best when the bullet is seated so it engages the lands, the chamber is either slightly oversize or not perfectly aligned with the axis of the bore. Given his stature in the shooting society he was sponsored by manufacturers of components of every description. He also had access to some extremely knowledgeable and skilled machinists. Those machinists were even more anal than he was. They would put together a half dozen rifles for him and as often as not he did his own break in and load development for. He could afford to be fussy. I managed to purchase one of the rifles that was rejected. It shot way better than I did and 99% of shooters would have been thrilled with it. For some reason he wasn't satisfied with it. He would shoot about 20 rounds through a rifle with a specific load that was a very good starting place with the reamers and components he used. If it didn't shoot well from the first couple of shots, it was rejected. That man could shoot better than any man I have seen. He also had/has his own company where he as well as his machinist built rifles to match standards.
Some rifles will shoot like lasers with bullets seated a long way off the lands. Others need to have the bullets seated out far enough that the final seating is done when the bolt lever is cammed closed. Whatever works for your particular rifle is what you need to do.
I asked him about ammo that isn't loaded perfectly concentric. He told me to get some better loading equipment. For the best accuracy, chambers should be cut to minimum spec and the cartridges should be loaded to just fit without any slop. Necks especially should be tight. Most match reamers are made with below spec necks and throats that just accept the diameter of the bullets. The necks on the cases used need to have their outside diameters turned down so they just fit when chambered. Neck sizing dies with interchangeable inserts are available.
It gets tedious and incredibly expensive. You need to know when to say WHEN. Pick up one of Tubb's books. Lots of good thoughts on technique etc.
