I reloaded my first rounds today, and ran into a bit of a problem when it came to bullet seating. I was loading some 30-06 rounds for my M1 and was using Hornady 150g FMJBT bullets. My manual said to have a min OAL of 3.300 when using IMR4895 powder, but at this depth there's still 1/8-3/16 of an inch space from the case mouth to the crimp grove. Dose this matter, I was still able to crimp the bullets using my Lee factory crimp die.
Newbie reloading question.
- Thread starter lorne19
- Start date
Not a good idea to crimp a jacketed bullet where there is no crimp groove.
In the first place, those bullets shouldn't have to be crimped, period. However, they are maybe not seated deep enough, the way you describe it, for the neck to hold the bullet. The best procedure would be to simply seat them a bit deeper, say maybe just touching the crimping groove, then they will hold fine, without crimping.
There will be no difference, whatsoever, in pressure whether you are using 4895, or any other powder, in seating them another 1/8 inch deeper.
In the first place, those bullets shouldn't have to be crimped, period. However, they are maybe not seated deep enough, the way you describe it, for the neck to hold the bullet. The best procedure would be to simply seat them a bit deeper, say maybe just touching the crimping groove, then they will hold fine, without crimping.
There will be no difference, whatsoever, in pressure whether you are using 4895, or any other powder, in seating them another 1/8 inch deeper.
Here a pic of one of the rounds that i loaded up. My concern is that if i seat the bullet all the way to the crimp grove I'll be under 3 inches OAL. That seams pretty short for a 30-06 round. As for crimping everything I've every read about reloading for the Garand said to crimp every round, and with a LEE factory crimp die i don't need a crimp grove. I've used non crimped rounds rounds in my Garand before and have had some slit issues in the past.
Thats seated too far out, According to my hornady handbook that exact bullet should be seated to 3.260". even the bigger 168 grain A-max has a COL of 3.240" using 47.1 grains of imr4895. so i'd think you could go even less than 3.260". These are stats for M1 Garand loads.
Don't go by the COAL's in the Lee load data sheets... i've found them to be off before.
If it's not compressing the powder you can seat them deeper. i would just keep turning the die down, checking every 1/2 turn by shaking them to see if you can hear the powder shaking around in there. once it starts to compress the load then you can have dangerous pressure issues, and thats really the only thing you need to worry about if it functions through your gun.
Don't go by the COAL's in the Lee load data sheets... i've found them to be off before.
If it's not compressing the powder you can seat them deeper. i would just keep turning the die down, checking every 1/2 turn by shaking them to see if you can hear the powder shaking around in there. once it starts to compress the load then you can have dangerous pressure issues, and thats really the only thing you need to worry about if it functions through your gun.
My lee manual says 3.3 with 45.4g IMR4895, but I think that pushing it down to 3.26 sounds about right. But there's no way I can go all the way down to the crimp grove, that put me to 2.950. I loaded one up just to see and that's definitely not going to work. I'm going to try seating them to 3.26 tomorrow and see how that works. Thanks for the help everybody.
it may be worth mentioning that the case trim length for that load should be 2.494" if your cases are too short that would obviously make a difference also. this doesn't seem right to me, it should be seated to the cannelure in my opinion. did you check to ensure your caliper was properly calibrated? that would be the first thing i'd check out.
I have been shooting the same Hornady .308 150 FMJ BT in my M1 and M14. In both the .30-06 and 7.62x51 I am seating the bullet to the cannelure and crimping with the Lee factory crimp die. Rounds that were made similar and not crimped also worked fine.
150 grn shouldn't stick that much out, you are doing something wrong . There is no problem shooting without crimp . But ,for Gerands , you better have them crimped , The FEEL will tell if nothing else. Try matching with factory ammo just to find out how much they are in length and if they feed perfect in Gerand. But don't crimp if it's not at the cannelure
You should crimp those bullets. There are a couple steps that you should take to set up your full length resizer die (before you pound out 100 rounds). The m14 and m1 are almost the same in this regard. strip your bolt completely (all the springs and pins). Keep adjusting your full length sizer die until you can feed a resized brass and lock up the bolt with finger pressure only. It is a good idea to use small base dies with semi autos however if you follow this process they may not be required. When it comes to bullet seating it really doesn't matter if it is a semi or bolt. The first question is how much room do I have in my magazine for seating these bullets out? Next is where is the bullet sitting in relation to my lands. Take a felt marker and paint your bullet so you can see if and when it does in fact touch the lands. In a semi auto you will want them ten thou plus off the lands. Also the M14 and M1 garand are sensitive to certain powders. keep your pressures within what they were designed for in that era.
Okay so i did some more fooling around today and here's what i got. I have one round of military 30-06 and it measures 3.327. my Lee manual says to put it at 3.300 but has you all saw that meant the bullet was seated to far out. someone suggested that Hornady manual says to put it at 3.226, witch i did this puts me right to the crimp grove but not on it. When i seat the bullet onto the crimp grove I'm at about 3.186-3.189. now even at this point the powder is still lose in the casing and not compressed. So any input on what OAL I should go with? Brass oal is 2.486-2.488, I'm using 45.4g of IMR 4895, and CCI l rifle primers.
Are you measuring the brass with a primer in it? the primer can make it measure out longer than it really is.
if it were me, i'd just keep pushing the bullet in little by little until the cannelure is about halfway into the case. if the powders still shakin', load em all to that depth. COL is not that important as long as it will function, unless you are shooting for 1/2MOA accuracy.
it may not be a bad idea to load a powderless dummy round first and load it into the mag and see if it will chamber when you close the bolt. if it will you should be good to go.
if it were me, i'd just keep pushing the bullet in little by little until the cannelure is about halfway into the case. if the powders still shakin', load em all to that depth. COL is not that important as long as it will function, unless you are shooting for 1/2MOA accuracy.
it may not be a bad idea to load a powderless dummy round first and load it into the mag and see if it will chamber when you close the bolt. if it will you should be good to go.
I've loaded a few thousand rds for the Garand using the 150gr Hornady FMJ seated to an OAL of 3.280 without crimping (the cannelure is considerably above the case mouth at this length). No problem with either functionality or accuracy.
