Seating depth Berger VLD vs hybrid

[trickytune]

Hi I have been reading as much as I can and just done some testing now I need answers!

Quick run down first

Rifle Savage 16FCSS Weather Warrior 260 Remington
Projectiles Berger 140 VLD hunting and Berger 140 Hybrid's
The rifle is brand new unfired as I am waiting on my Forster Ultra seater dies to be made. So while I wait Im trying to do as much as I can and my aim is to develop a load with as few shots fired as possible or at least be pretty good.
As I can't go down the seating bullets in a cartridge road yet I have used a cleaning rod (very carefully) to mark bolt face to end of barrel then I measure from end of bullet tip to end of barrel and using a short piece of arrow shaft to lightly hold the projectile in place i take a measurement. These measurements I can take almost 100% repeatable.
With the VLD I get 2.893" COAL and hybrid I get 2.948" COAL. Then with a marker pen I make the projectile black and get a mark from the lands gently as possible (done on both). Subtracting the measurement from bullet tip to ogive from COAl should give me CBTO. And if all done right I would expect that no matter what bullet you do this with they should always give the same CBTO as this is the measurement of the rifles chamber not projectile. BUT... the VLD gives me 2.185" CBTO and the hybrid gives me 2.216" CBTO!! So I am taking a stab at this (and this is my main question) the VLD seems to be more pronounced contact of the lands due to its secant ogive (therefore probably the better one to get the measurements from) and the hybrid has a tangent ogive so I probably can't feel it as well and end up pushing it in further and throwing my calculations out? Was planning on starting around .010" off the lands.

Measured my magazine and it looks like I can squeeze up to 3" COAL max.

 

[AZShooter]

Thought I'd let you know that the hybrids are seating depth friendly.

Hybrids don't require you play the lands exercise, just seat the hybrid to fit and feed from a magazine and shoot with no seating depth tweaking. Some distances to the lands are quite large. One 6mm-284 jumps .160" A 300 WSM jumps close to .200" All have shot excellently.


To date I have used the following hybrids:

338 300 gr Match Hybrid OTM Tactical (long throated 338 RCM)
308 230 gr Match Hybrid Target ( 300 RUM and 300 WSM)
7mm 180 gr Match Hybrid Target ( 7mm/375 Ruger)
7mm 168 gr Match Grade Classic Hunter ( 7 Rem mag)
6mm 105 gr Match Hybrid Target (6mm-284)
6mm 95 gr Match Grade Classic Hunter (6mm-284)

 

[trickytune]

Just tried the remove firing pin way I saw on youtube and I'm going to do that once my dies arrive. I didn't realise it was so easy to dismantle the bolt. At least I have an idea of roughly where to start.

 

[AZShooter]

I reread your post and have another suggestion. You said you can't do any bullet seating yet. No dies?

When you get to seating actual bullets in empty cases, try this: Polish the bullet jacket with fine steel wool and carefully place the dummy round into the chamber with as little contact as possible. Close bolt and then extract round. If the bullet contacts the lands you will be able to see tiny regularly spaced rectangular marks in the jacket. You can adjust your seater die from there.

I have the Hornady Lock-N-Load Overall Length Gage Bolt Action and even made my own cartridges once I special ordered the tap. BUT I very rarely use it. I prefer the steel wool method.

 

[trickytune]

Yeah no dies yet but at least I have a solid way of doing it once they arrive. I will be using mostly hybrids but do have some VLD so should know at least where they are. Thanks for your input.

 

[Engineering101]

trickytune

An easier way of finding out your Max COAL with any bullet is to resize a case ready for loading (use a beat up case or one with a defect). Split the case down the neck with a hacksaw. Remove any burrs. By hand place the bullet in question so it is held in the case. Put the resulting dummy round in your chamber and close the bolt. Remove round and measure COAL. This is your max COAL with that bullet. Repeat to verify the results are consistent within 0.002". When neck tension is right you should be able to pull the bullet out by hand but just barely. You can also use this dummy to setup your bullet seating die. I have one of these dummies made for everything I load.

 

[4bycamper]

trickytune

An easier way of finding out your Max COAL with any bullet is to resize a case ready for loading (use a beat up case or one with a defect). Split the case down the neck with a hacksaw. Remove any burrs. By hand place the bullet in question so it is held in the case. Put the resulting dummy round in your chamber and close the bolt. Remove round and measure COAL. This is your max COAL with that bullet. Repeat to verify the results are consistent within 0.002". When neck tension is right you should be able to pull the bullet out by hand but just barely. You can also use this dummy to setup your bullet seating die. I have one of these dummies made for everything I load.

+1 Exactly. This is the way I do it.
When I weight sort my cases, I will have several that are too light or too heavy.
These are excellent candidates for the hacksaw.

 

[trickytune]

Yeah I will do it when my dies arrive I only have brand new Lapua cases. Was just trying to work it out the other way. A lot of the information is for reloading and assumes you have used cases etc. This case I would call loading as I have brand new everything. I do however have some old 308 cases I will resize for practice and testing.