Seating dies and the ogive ...

[dwm]

Why don't seating dies contact the bullet at the ogive instead of close to the end of the bullet?

Would make sense to me that the seater should contact the bullet at the ogive, thus providing consistent overal length to the ogive, even if there are slight inconsistencies in bullet length and shape ...

 

[EZShooter]

Interesting question....

The only thing that I could surmise is that with a varying (albeit ever so slight) length, the die manufacturers are worried about 1.) the rounds possibly not fitting in a rifles magazine, i.e. some might, some might not if you are trying to load a bullet close to the lands and 2.) they would get the 'hey, my reloading die sucks, because it is reloading ammo that has varying lengths', i.e. someone that doesn't know the importance of the ogive's distance to the lands vs the overall length of the cartridge and how the two can vary....

EZgun)

 

[Mikecr]

Great question.
It does SEEM like a better idea to get the bullet nose deeper into the seating plug.
I think with Secant ogives it would work better, but worse with more common -Tangent ogives.

With tangents, contact nearer the tip provides a steeper angle of contact. If your contact were near the nose/bearing junction, there would be such a shallow contact angle that the bullet might wedge into the plug inconsistantly, leaving higher variance in distance to the lands.

Well, just a theory.
I'm sure it was worked out long ago