bullet seating varying .002

[yamadog]

bullet varying .002 when seating wondering what I can do to get it better . my equipment I using is rockchuker supreme , redding shell holder , redding deluxe seating die with mic on it , 162 gn a-max and nosler brass . I anneal case ever 2 reloads chamfer , I clean in ss pins .

 

[LaHunter]

could be that your seating die contacts the bullet in a different location than your measurement tool. If the bullets have just a little variation (which is very possible), this could lead to the .002" variance. May just be the bullets and not your equipment.

One other thing that may help, after you seat the bullet, rotate the cartridge in the shell holder about 1/3 of a turn and seat the bullet again, then rotate another 1/3 of a turn and re seat a 3rd time. This seems to reduce some of the variance in my seating depth.
Hope this makes sense.

Good Luck

 

[Firearrow]

Can be one of two things. First is that your bullet length varries slightly from one bullet to the next. Check your bullet lengths with you caliper and comparator. Second is the amount of downward pressure you use when seating your bullet. If you use more pressure than the last time, or vise versa then your seating depth will very. Add this to bullets with different lengths and there ya go.

 

[918v]

.002" is nothing. Don't worry about it.

 

[yamadog]

I use comparator to measure my OAL . and I was rotateing them but made it worse

 

[Firearrow]

Is it a compressed load

 

[yamadog]

Is it a compressed load

no a good bit from compressed its a 7mm stw only 77.7 gn of powder h1000

 

[Firearrow]

I'd use your comparator and measure the remain bullets you have and sort them into different batches. Then load each group up paying close attention to the amount of downward pressure you use when seating the bullet. Especially at the end.

Hope this helps.

 

[yamadog]

thanks

 

[Gene]

You have a lot of good advice here. Are you measuring from the tip of bullet to base of case, or from ogive of bullet to base? You can google ogive if you don't know what it is. All bullets vary slightly in overall length. It is near impossible to keep the OAL to less than .002" - and there is no harm in that much difference - especially with hunting bullets. I shoot competition BR and am happy if I can keep OAL's (measured to the ogive) at that variance. Sorting bullets by their measurement to ogive will help, but it is time consuming and with Bergers, I do not do it.

 

[yamadog]

from ogive of bullet . measure with hornady comparator. I never measure from the tips of bullets . got this load down to 19 fps spread 6 sd with a 5 shot group and .400 ctc group size at 100 yards at 3224 fps . I'm sure group would be tighter if not for me .

 

[snowpro440]

The loaded rounds that vary from original expected dimensions should be set aside for sighters and the loaded rounds that are within your tollerences shoot them for hunting, You will see the differences , I use this tool to sort my bullets prior to loading. Bob Green New Products

 

[Trickymissfit]

from ogive of bullet . measure with hornady comparator. I never measure from the tips of bullets . got this load down to 19 fps spread 6 sd with a 5 shot group and .400 ctc group size at 100 yards at 3224 fps . I'm sure group would be tighter if not for me .

if your talking +/-.001", I'd forget it. But if you are looking at +/-.002", I would be looking around. Your issue may start with your cases before even loading powder. Are the bases flat and square? Is your press camming over consistently? If the cases are flat and square, I'd be looking at the dies. see if you can borrow a second set of dies.
gary

 

[ohiohunter]

Neck tension? Do you turn your necks?