260 w/130g VLD load developement

[zane243]

So I spoke to the maker and he assured me that I can rule out bedding and action screw torque as the issue due to the aluminum pillar bedding system they use.
I made a mistake in my first post, the twist is 1:8. I confirmed that physically yesterday. I'll seat my last 8 rounds 4x.08 & 4x.10 and test them. I also got my hands on some 140g vlds to try. If I don't see improvement I'll be looking at either LR accubonds, smk or scenars. Interested to hear opinions on those if you've used them.
On the vlds I did find a video yesterday from berger talking about how redding have made a seating die with a micrometer designed for vlds due to people having issues with their dies not seating consistently due to the length of the ogive on their bullets. My lee dies do leave a faint ring around the bullet which is described in the video as the least concerning of two issues when seating vlds. The other issue mentioned is the die contacting the top of the bullet which mine does not do.
Does anyone have thoughs on this? Could the lee dies I'm using be part of my problem?

 

[BrentM]

Couple of thoughts. Remove the plunger and see how and where it contacts the bullets. Bergers seem pretty uniform to me so I feel comfortable they are seating well, but I did also ensure my plunger does not contact the tip of the bullet.
Another thought is how you measure seating depth. I use a Hornady ogive guage called an OAL guage. On my calipers I have Hornady flat base on one arm and the bullet ogive guage on the other arm. When I load a round I measure the ogive to case base and this remains consistent through all my loads.

Another thing I do is reload in the field. It might seem weird to some but I have a good set up for loading in the cab of my truck and developing loads in the field. This saves me a lot of time and expense. I tend to load 2 rounds and shoot them. If I do my job and they group fine I will add another. If that depth etc gives me what I want I can tweak a little and fine tune.

Straight ammo/bullets. If you dont use a concentricty guage to check your bullet alignment then you might try a little trick I like to use. I insert the bullet and press it in about 1/4 of the seating depth, I then turn the case 1/4 to 1/3 and press it to 1/2 the depth, and so on. By turning the case as I seat the bullet I have gotten more concentricity in the case neck. In some instances I have my bullet at .001 run out or less. In almost all instances my run out is less than .003 with this method. I think high end dies address all this but I don't have high end dies yet.

 

[brd922001]

Zane, what is the twist rate of your barrel? If it is 1:9 you are using a bullet that is too heavy. Try going to the VLD 120s.

 

[zane243]

1:8" mate. Sorry I made a mistake in my first post.