Question on seating depth experimentation.

Koda_ said:

IMO, starting from .020" off the lands go forward in .003" increments no more than twice. I prefer to stay .010" off the lands for hunting ammo (technically .009"). Going back into the case go in .005" increments no more than what puts the base of the bullet past the bottom case shoulder. Always check for pressure signs and velocity changes along the way.

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I'm just getting ready to charge cases. Your advice sounds like a good place to start. In a day or so, maybe I can share how well they worked out.

I'm not real wild about jamming rounds into the rifling either for hunting. I loaded some rounds like that for my brother. We were together hunting deer and he seen some deer. He fired one shot and then the next one jammed and when he tried to clear it, it pulled out with the bullet stuck in the barrel. I think the second one may have moved under recoil but I'm not sure. That rifle was done for the day until we could get back to where we had a cleaning rod. So, I ended up giving him my rifle for the day and my reputation for being able to provide reliable rounds took a hit. And my dad who was then deceased always warned me about loading my rounds into the lands for that very reason. If I only would have listened.

MarkInPA said:

I just did make this purchase. Do these serve the purpose of the dryer sheet? The front bag came very full and I question if it may be too hard. I'm considering leaving some of the sand out.

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Stand your rifle up and look at the bottom and see if it's straight. Surprising how many are noticeably not. If it noticeably not, I wouldn't use the rabbit ears or you'll pull your hair out( if you have any)

Read my post on seating close to the lands...don't be scared.

In the days of nosler and sierra only, for hunting guns, we had most of our rifles, and the other ones we loaded for, touching if not engaged a little farther.

Dad had a terribly eroded .270 that would stick bullets but he had them looooong.
And HOT. Only way it would group. Those type bullets make it easy to find the hard wall, when measuring chamber length.

MarkInPA said:

I just did make this purchase. Do these serve the purpose of the dryer sheet? The front bag came very full and I question if it may be too hard. I'm considering leaving some of the sand out.

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That slick silver material is really nice. You don't need to add anything.

For the front bag I like about a 90% full. You don't want it rock hard and you don't want it so loose the forend can push the fill around.

For the rear bag, if the ears have a separate filling port AND the width of the stock is about the same as the ear spacing then fill the bottom portion full. Then fill the ears about 80% full so that you can push the ears around a little with your fingers but when you set the stock between the ears and tap it down with your fist the bottom of the stock is not quite touching the base/bottom portion of the rear bag and the ears have formed alongside the stock.

You should then be able to move the rifle back and forward freely.