Load work up...seating depth test first OR charge weight first?

[Bigeclipse]

Do you like to do a seating depth test first or charge weight test first?

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Charge weight.

Steve

 

[WeiserBucks]

Charge weight for me .

 

[desertcj]

Also charge weight here. Seating depth to fine tune...

 

[Sykes]

Charge weight

 

[coachA]

I do the charge weight

 

[Rick Richard]

Charge weight

 

[dmoon]

Charge weight also

 

[Trnelson]

Charge weight

 

[kyron]

depends. if you are shooting VLDs, Litz and Berger say seating depth first. But that is also not really fine tuning seating depth.

 

[coop2564]

Depends on gun too. My Bergara has long throat I cant reach lands and function with magazine so on it I set my longest coal that will work in mag then worked up load.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

Depends on gun too. My Bergara has long throat I cant reach lands and function with magazine so on it I set my longest coal that will work in mag then worked up load.

If you look at it that way then I guess I too start with seating depth as I always figure out the max depth that is convenient for the rifle before I start working up charge weight. Then one charge weight is found the only way that seating depth can be adjusted is deeper to find better accuracy, if needed.

Steve

 

[Mike 338]

I guess I'll buck the trend. Seating depth. Although VLD bullets exposed the fallacy of "close to the lands is most accurate" rule, it can and does apply to any bullet although I don't much mess around with seating depth on pistol or lever-action calibers.

1. Find the maximum charge with bullets about .020" off the lands. A chronograph can be helpful here as sometimes you should stop even though signs of pressure aren't evident. I just use one shot for each charge weight.
   
2. Throw a powder charge about 1-1/2% below max for the next step.
   
3. Do a "rough" seating depth test in 30 thousandths increments, starting at .010" off the lands. .010", .040", .070", .100", .130" jump. Like coop2564 said, if your magazine length limits how long your bullet can be, than that's you longest bullet seating depth unless you don't want to use the magazine and go single-shot rifle, which is fine too. Start with the longest bullets first and watch for signs of pressure as seating depth does definitely affect pressure on both short seating depths and long depths. Don't get skimpy on shots here. Shoot 5 or 6 shots per group to get some real data. Don't waste you time if your just going to use 3 shot groups.
   
4. After you find which one groups best, use that rough seating depth and workup you powder charges.
5. "Fine tune" seating depth and powder charges but you probably won't need to.

 

[RockyMtnMT]

I guess I'll buck the trend. Seating depth. Although VLD bullets exposed the fallacy of "close to the lands is most accurate" rule, it can and does apply to any bullet although I don't much mess around with seating depth on pistol or lever-action calibers.

1. Find the maximum charge with bullets about .020" off the lands. A chronograph can be helpful here as sometimes you should stop even though signs of pressure aren't evident. I just use one shot for each charge weight.
   
2. Throw a powder charge about 1-1/2% below max for the next step.
   
3. Do a "rough" seating depth test in 30 thousandths increments, starting at .010" off the lands. .010", .040", .070", .100", .130" jump. Like coop2564 said, if your magazine length limits how long your bullet can be, than that's you longest bullet seating depth unless you don't want to use the magazine and go single-shot rifle, which is fine too. Start with the longest bullets first and watch for signs of pressure as seating depth does definitely affect pressure on both short seating depths and long depths. Don't get skimpy on shots here. Shoot 5 or 6 shots per group to get some real data. Don't waste you time if your just going to use 3 shot groups.
   
4. After you find which one groups best, use that rough seating depth and workup you powder charges.
5. "Fine tune" seating depth and powder charges but you probably won't need to.

That is exactly how I do it. Except I don't use steps 2, 3, and 4. And step 5 I only adj the seating depth but very rarely need to do this. Much of the ability to shortcut this is because of the bullets that I use. They simply do not care about seating depth. Very rarely do we make a seating depth adj to get good sub moa accuracy. This is in factory rifles and custom rifles. Full custom rifles seem to shoot slightly better. Makes it hard to sell custom rifles.

Steve