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Rifles, Reloading, Optics, Equipment
Reloading
Seating Depth Informative Thread
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<blockquote data-quote="Okanogan" data-source="post: 1820431" data-attributes="member: 90397"><p>For determining when the bullet is just touching the lands in my bolt guns, I have found lifting the bolt without feeling any resistance to be more repeatable for me than trying to do the same thing based on bolt closure. Wheeler Accuracy has a good video showing what I eventually adopted as my preferred method for determining max length without being in the lands. I use the Hornady tool for my ARs but practicing with it on my bolt guns tended to give me 0.010-0.020 inches into the lands compared to the Wheeler Accuracy method. For most of my AR platforms it doesn't matter because max COAL is controlled by mag length but for rifles like the Valkyrie, it does matter for some bullets.</p><p></p><p>My experience has been seating depth is very important in my load development but not to the point I would have characterized it a single over riding factor with group size. I have two GAP 300 WMs and have found I can vary group size with them after optimizing seating depth just as much with velocity as I could with seating depth. With the lighter barreled (#3 Bartlein) the groups open up as I increase velocity above 2800 fps with Berger 215s. The heavier barreled (#6 Bartlein) is just becoming happy above 2850 fps with Berger 215s. I attribute this behavior to different barrel harmonics. Without a good chronograph it would be very difficult to figure out what was going on.</p><p></p><p>The basics of load development require picking one variable and optimizing it before moving onto the next variable and then fine tuning later. I agree with the basic premise of the thread and for my bolt guns, I usually start with varying seating depth and then move to powder/ velocity. For an AR platform rifle though, I often start with powder/ velocity because I'm generally more limited in my ability to adjust COAL to be near the lands if I want to stay with-in magazine length limits. As indicated in various threads, others on the forum do things in a different sequence and I don't disagree with how they chose to do their load development.</p><p></p><p>I like the way that Adam McDonald of Autotrickler fame described load development in one of his early posts. Paraphrasing, he said rightly or wrongly he would assume group size was dominated by seating depth and SD/ES was dominated by powder charge/ selection. He just changed one variable at a time to optimize each and then cycled back trhough to fine tune.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Okanogan, post: 1820431, member: 90397"] For determining when the bullet is just touching the lands in my bolt guns, I have found lifting the bolt without feeling any resistance to be more repeatable for me than trying to do the same thing based on bolt closure. Wheeler Accuracy has a good video showing what I eventually adopted as my preferred method for determining max length without being in the lands. I use the Hornady tool for my ARs but practicing with it on my bolt guns tended to give me 0.010-0.020 inches into the lands compared to the Wheeler Accuracy method. For most of my AR platforms it doesn't matter because max COAL is controlled by mag length but for rifles like the Valkyrie, it does matter for some bullets. My experience has been seating depth is very important in my load development but not to the point I would have characterized it a single over riding factor with group size. I have two GAP 300 WMs and have found I can vary group size with them after optimizing seating depth just as much with velocity as I could with seating depth. With the lighter barreled (#3 Bartlein) the groups open up as I increase velocity above 2800 fps with Berger 215s. The heavier barreled (#6 Bartlein) is just becoming happy above 2850 fps with Berger 215s. I attribute this behavior to different barrel harmonics. Without a good chronograph it would be very difficult to figure out what was going on. The basics of load development require picking one variable and optimizing it before moving onto the next variable and then fine tuning later. I agree with the basic premise of the thread and for my bolt guns, I usually start with varying seating depth and then move to powder/ velocity. For an AR platform rifle though, I often start with powder/ velocity because I'm generally more limited in my ability to adjust COAL to be near the lands if I want to stay with-in magazine length limits. As indicated in various threads, others on the forum do things in a different sequence and I don't disagree with how they chose to do their load development. I like the way that Adam McDonald of Autotrickler fame described load development in one of his early posts. Paraphrasing, he said rightly or wrongly he would assume group size was dominated by seating depth and SD/ES was dominated by powder charge/ selection. He just changed one variable at a time to optimize each and then cycled back trhough to fine tune. [/QUOTE]
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Seating Depth Informative Thread
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