Newbie and Seating Depth

General RE LEE

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I have been scouring You Tube, this forum, articles, etc and have a good grasp on the reloading process from a beginner's perspective. I have a Hornady Lock n Load classic single stage kit on the way.

I understand the principles behind seating depth but it starts to get really advanced from my perspective. Will my Hornady reloading manual give me a simple COAL to measure so I can get shooting right away without tuning seating depth? I certainly want good accuracy but my Tikka T3x 6.5 isn't very picky and shoots tight groups. I don't want to load the cartridge long where I would have to load cartridges individually. I figured I could measure my Tikka T3x magazine and now the Max COAL for my particular bullet combo.

Is the bullet comparator and getting technical on seating depth a necessity starting out?
 
If you're new to reloading I wouldn't overcomplicate things right off the bat. Seating depth is very importantbut but it can be confusing and overwhelming to a new reloader or even an experienced one at first. I would load to the book's max COAL for now. You can use a set of calipers to measure you COAL and run with that until you're comfortable with reloading and want to dive further down the rabbit hole haha.
 
If you're new to reloading I wouldn't overcomplicate things right off the bat. Seating depth is very importantbut but it can be confusing and overwhelming to a new reloader or even an experienced one at first. I would load to the book's max COAL for now. You can use a set of calipers to measure you COAL and run with that until you're comfortable with reloading and want to dive further down the rabbit hole haha.

thank you. Is measuring max allowable COAL for the detachable magazine in my Tikkas a good baseline?
 
thank you. Is measuring max allowable COAL for the detachable magazine in my Tikkas a good baseline?
The only issue with that is you might end up jamming bullets in the rifling with ammo loaded to max magazine length. The only way to know would be to find out where your lands are and then measure your magazine. If your magazine is a shorter length then the length to the rifling, then I would just load to the magazine max length and work from there. If you touch the rifling before you're at max magazine length, then I would back off 0.020 from the lands and work from there.
 
The only issue with that is you might end up jamming bullets in the rifling with ammo loaded to max magazine length. The only way to know would be to find out where your lands are and then measure your magazine. If your magazine is a shorter length then the length to the rifling, then I would just load to the magazine max length and work from there. If you touch the rifling before you're at max magazine length, then I would back off 0.020 from the lands and work from there.
Thank you. I've heard some different methods of finding how to touch lands such as loading a dummy round and marking the bullet with a marker and chambering the round. I might try that method.
 
Thank you. I've heard some different methods of finding how to touch lands such as loading a dummy round and marking the bullet with a marker and chambering the round. I might try that method.
I have used that method in the past and I don't recommend it. It will give you inconsistent results. I use the Wheeler method and the only method I recommend. You simply remove the firing pin assembly and if your action has a plunger ejector remove that too. Then take a sized piece of brass and seat a bullet in it that's loaded very long. Then try to chamber the round. You want the round to close with the bolt dropping effortlessly on it without resistance. You just seat the bullet deeper and deeper until the bolt closes without resistance. Record that number and that's your length the lands. From there you check to see if it fits in your magazine or not.
 
I have used that method in the past and I don't recommend it. It will give you inconsistent results. I use the Wheeler method and the only method I recommend. You simply remove the firing pin assembly and if your action has a plunger ejector remove that too. Then take a sized piece of brass and seat a bullet in it that's loaded very long. Then try to chamber the round. You want the round to close with the bolt dropping effortlessly on it without resistance. You just seat the bullet deeper and deeper until the bolt closes without resistance. Record that number and that's your length the lands. From there you check to see if it fits in your magazine or not.

just curious why do I need to remove those parts for this method to work?
 
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