Bullet Seating Length ?

[Greywolf18]

I just got into reloading this year and so far have enjoyed it along with the $$$ savings! I finally got one of the Hornady COAL thingies to check how long my bullets should be to be touching the lands. The max length according to the Hornady reloading book says 2.810. When I did everything with the device it came out to 2.960! Thats .150 OVER the max length. I went through and redid it literally about 10 times and it went anywhere from 2.94-2.97 everytime. My question is, is this normal? Should I not make the rounds longer than the max or should I start at the 2.960 and start making loads .01" off and start working back to the 2.810? I know some people say their guns like the bullets to be jammed in .01....so should I try that? I knew every gun was different, but I really didn't expect to see THAT much of a difference when testing it. Thanks again for the help!!!

 

[Stormrider]

What kind of rifle and bullet?

Normally if you seat longer than the established COL you won't hurt anything. It will reduce chamber pressure and lower velocity. However, when you get near or into the lands it can sometimes raise chamber pressure dramatically.

 

[Nape.270]

The reson for the max coal is so it will fit in your magazine.

 

[Greywolf18]

I'm shooting a 700 SPS Varminter in .308 shooting 165 gr Hornady SST's.

 

[Stormrider]

...When I did everything with the device it came out to 2.960! Thats .150 OVER the max length. I went through and redid it literally about 10 times and it went anywhere from 2.94-2.97 everytime. My question is, is this normal?...

With Remington rifles it is normal. Most all that I have have long throats and so will take longer than normal spec cartridges...

If you want to use the gun as a repeater you are limited by the magazine length.

If you don't mind single loading you can make them longer.

I have one 308 that I can seat Berger 185's to over 3 inches with over 47 grains of Varget... My normal 308 load is 45g Varget and the Sierra 175g smk seated to magazine length.

All because of the length of the chamber/throat.

I'd just try the SST's loaded to spec and see what they did. You can always make them longer if you want and if nothing else you have a baseline for performance...

 

[Greywolf18]

I don't care about making it a repeater...at least for now lol

If it comes down to that, I guess I'll get real good at speed loading gun)

Thanks for the help, glad to know I wasn't just screwing up a small thing like pushing a bullet with a plastic rod