Can a Case be too Short?

[del2les]

In general is OK to seat a bullet .040 up the neck to compensate for a short case or a long throat chamber?

Depends. I routinely seat bullets at or just above the neck/shoulder joint with exceptional accuracy and to take full advantage of the powder capacity for velocity. If you are not using a heavy recoiling round/rifle combo and neck is sized for sufficient hold, you should be ok.

In more than a few of my BR and varmint rifles, either I partial neck size only or if it improved group size I use a neck collet sizer specific for the tension desired. In one BR rifle, a 1/3 neck size gave the best groups, so obviously little to zero tension on the remaining neck/bullet mattered little.

Uniformity seems to be the biggest factor, so unless heavy tension is required to maintain bullet seating during recoil or to insure uniform ignition of a powder charge before bullet movement, you can have very good results with minimum bullet seating depths.

So the answer is: It depends on several factors. Try it and see which is better for your situation.

 

[del2les]

Just curious, as I end up with short cases quite often, I think mainly due to using a VLD inside chamfer. Anyway, I no longer trim cases .010 under max case length, usually .005 under as I know they'll get shorter over time. But how short is too short to not use? I'm kind of a miser, and unless they are over .015 short or shorter generally use them. I get leary if they are shorter than .015 though, or do folks use cases much shorter? Also depends on what I'm going to use them for, if competition or hunting, I'm more picky, but if just shooting paper I just load em up.

One way to look at this is to compare a 6mm Rem to a 243 Win and ask if the 243 loses anything against the longer 6mm neck?

Most all of the Gibbs improved designs greatly shorten the neck of the parent case, and many of those are great shooters
Same for some of the GNR Contender cartridges

 

[Kudu 1]

I have used 7mm Rem. mag. brass to make 257 Weatherby , one well lubed pass through a 257 full length sizing die and I have a new 257 Weath. case . They chamber well and I follow up with a reduced load firing . After the original resizing the over all length comes in at 20 to 25 thousandths short of specified length for 257 Weatherby brass . I have used these for multiple shots and never have to trim and they work fine until the primer pocket grows .

 

[Dom]

Thanks to all, appreciate the responses and different views. Are the Sinclair Chamber Length Guages a good way to measure? For 6 bucks a caliber, I think I'll try a couple and see, won't be out much if they don't work as advertised. I've had good results from Sinclair purchases in the past, good outfit.

 

[243winxb]

https://saami.org Look up the tolerances for your cartridge.
Using the trim length found with a chaamber gauge may not be a good idea.

Using longer then the maximum trim length will defeat the purpose of the "safety zone". The extra .010" is there for a reason.

 

[J E Custom]

Thanks to all, appreciate the responses and different views. Are the Sinclair Chamber Length Guages a good way to measure? For 6 bucks a caliber, I think I'll try a couple and see, won't be out much if they don't work as advertised. I've had good results from Sinclair purchases in the past, good outfit.

Sinclair makes good tools and they should work. I personally like to use Cerrosafe because it gives me more information about a chamber and is reusable to measure more chambers.
https://www.brownells.com/search/index.htm?k=cerrosafe&ksubmit=y

After making a chamber cast, I will use a blank chamber drawing and measure everything i can and anything important for future loading. Cerrosafe is only good dimensions for about 200 hours as per the instructions.

It can be melted in hot water and can be remelted the same way for re use.

Just another method to measure chambers

J E CUSTOM

 

[RODSTRADLEY]

I know this is an old posting but I have used Bismuth for years. Is the Cerrosafe about like Bismuth, or the same thing?

 

[243winxb]

Cerrosafe

http://www.csalloys.com/products-cerrosafe-alloy.html

Bismuth different in pure form. - Some alloys containing it will change diameter as the casting cools. Read the Cerrosafe instruction.

Cerrosafe shrinks slightly during initial cooling. It then expands to the
chamber's original size about one hour after cooling to room temperature.
After cooling for about 200 hours,the chamber cast will expand about.0025"
over the actual chamber size.Cerrosafe is completely reusable;the chamber
cast can be remelted and reused after all necessary measurements have
been taken.

 

[Mikecr]

I know this is an old posting but I have used Bismuth for years. Is the Cerrosafe about like Bismuth, or the same thing?

You should have started a new thread with your question.
It is somewhat cyber-rude to fire up a 2yr old thread just to hijack it with a question unrelated to the original..

 

[RODSTRADLEY]

You should have started a new thread with your question.
It is somewhat cyber-rude to fire up a 2yr old thread just to hijack it with a question unrelated to the original..

My apologizes to you and anybody that thought it was (cyber rude). You learn something new everyday. Once again I apologize.

 

[FEENIX]

My apologizes to you and anybody that thought it was (cyber rude). You learn something new everyday. Once again I apologize.

As per @Mikecr, your post will get better visibility and responses relevant to your query instead of getting under the OP's thread.