I suggest to load up 3-5 rounds of their favourite load, then adjust seating depth 0.003" deeper 6 times in a row, 0.003" each adjustment. Shoot on a calm day at 300m. You will see a difference in group shape and group size.
Seating depth and accuracy
- Thread starter Oldly
- Start date
if you tried the test 3 different days, will the results be repeatable?
If you did the whole test on the same day, one in winter, one in summer, and one in spring? It would depend on your powder you used. The whole point of a powder charge node allows for slight variances. Same with choosing a seating depth node. Finding a node for both increases your odds of staying in tune. Since I have a mic seating die, I can start at the beginning of the seating depth node, and eventually load out longer until I am out of that node. For powder, I stay in the middle.
I already have a good load for my 6.5. I decided to experiment at 100m with seating depth some more, I loaded test rounds based on that, to try against my known load. At 300m, my old load was substantially better. I had even tried 0.001" seating depth change around the 100m results. I could see the change in vertical. First and second load groups were bad, (2.6") third group vertical was probably half of the first two groups, but not a great group. (2.47") Seating depths in order were .139,.140,.141". My known load seating depth is at .155" and had no vertical, two, 2 shot groups that were .647" and .670". Not a perfect test but showed enough. Within 0.016" of seating depth was enough to see that difference.
I already have a good load for my 6.5. I decided to experiment at 100m with seating depth some more, I loaded test rounds based on that, to try against my known load. At 300m, my old load was substantially better. I had even tried 0.001" seating depth change around the 100m results. I could see the change in vertical. First and second load groups were bad, (2.6") third group vertical was probably half of the first two groups, but not a great group. (2.47") Seating depths in order were .139,.140,.141". My known load seating depth is at .155" and had no vertical, two, 2 shot groups that were .647" and .670". Not a perfect test but showed enough. Within 0.016" of seating depth was enough to see that difference.
I plan to do that Monday,the wife come's home tomorrow and I have to get the house back in shape. I have reloading material from the kitchen to the living room and those are not loading area's lol.at this point I'm not worried about a shot out barrel.my plan is to experiment with seating depth and working on fresh untried bullet weights.by seating just off the lands and doing an ocw for each.and then seeing what works.next year replace the barrel,I will say the tika is one smooth action and with the yo Dave spring it is nice.not sure if people put custom barrels on tika actions.but like I said i never did any thing off the lands or uniform brass before,I have weighed out bullets and just weighed out my brass for the first time.not sure about how much improvement I will get but I enjoy the process,its relaxing.
Anchor 3593 i have not loaded for my hunting rifle it gets used every fall for moose hunting then it sits,so I just buy Taylor mades.i have thought about loading for it,but i don't like testing it to much,I've had a torn rotator cuff and my kneck is quite crooked from multiple back injuries and surgeries,so it makes it brutal shooting at times.its why I prefer 223 for range work,I have never shot a 6mm or 6.5 be nice to test it against my body.
Can I ask a question re seating depth, I'm reloading for a Finnlight in 6.5x55 sweed. I've been reloading for years but haven't had the tools to properly measure depth, i just got them. This is a new rifle to me and I'm just starting to reload for it so i thought i would experiment. I have a plethora of different bullets to try out. So where do I start re seating depth? .02 off the rifling? Set all bullets the same then play with charges? I plan on using IMR 4350
Thanks in advance
Thanks in advance
If your Sako barrel is anything like the Tikkas, you'll probably find that it has a long throat. That's not a problem unless you want to seat bullets close to the rifling and also feed from the magazine.
Aside from that, I start at 0.020" from contact with the rifling and work from there. Both my Tikka and my Savage seem to shoot well at about 0.015" of jump. With the Tikka, I didn't find that seating bullets closer to the rifling made any noticeable improvement, so I've stayed at 0.015" jump.
If I'm going to play with seating depth, I first use a ladder test with all the loads seated at 0.020" jump to find the powder charge that shoots the best in a particular load combination, then refine it further if possible by adjusting seating depth.
Be aware that seating closer to the lands may increase your chamber pressure somewhat, since the bullet has less jump space to get moving before it engages the rifling. In other words, keep an eye out for pressure signs as you seat the bullets longer.
You may find IMR 4350 to be more temperature sensitive than you'd like. If you develop a load in cool weather, expect it to get faster with higher pressure as the weather heats up.
Aside from that, I start at 0.020" from contact with the rifling and work from there. Both my Tikka and my Savage seem to shoot well at about 0.015" of jump. With the Tikka, I didn't find that seating bullets closer to the rifling made any noticeable improvement, so I've stayed at 0.015" jump.
If I'm going to play with seating depth, I first use a ladder test with all the loads seated at 0.020" jump to find the powder charge that shoots the best in a particular load combination, then refine it further if possible by adjusting seating depth.
Be aware that seating closer to the lands may increase your chamber pressure somewhat, since the bullet has less jump space to get moving before it engages the rifling. In other words, keep an eye out for pressure signs as you seat the bullets longer.
You may find IMR 4350 to be more temperature sensitive than you'd like. If you develop a load in cool weather, expect it to get faster with higher pressure as the weather heats up.
