Seating into the lands or not

[muleyman]

I see alot of you guys seat your bullets into the lands. Is this more of a personal choice or is this recommended by the particular manufacture or just to get a few extra grains of capacity. I see several companies advertise to seat off the lands and jump the bullet in. In fact Barnes for most TSX's actually recommend .050 from the lands. Also by seating into the lands does this drastically jump up chamber pressures and/or affect velocity. Thanks for the replies.............

 

[Tikka Lover]

Depends on your gun and bullet. Some shoot more accurate into the lands some shoot better out a ways, like the Barnes. Every guns is different, my 300 win. mag. shoots Bergers best touching the lands, my Tikka doesn't like it as much, about .020 off the lands.

It can make a pressure spike, so if you try it don't load the first one at max.

 

[loaders_loft]

muleyman, here's the trouble with seating bullets in contact with the lands, as I see it. You must be very careful with your method of measurement and you must make sure the bullets are not seated too long from run to run. Seating bullets in contact with the lands and Measuring COL from the bullet tip is a disaster waiting to happen.

You really need a comparator and OAL gage for repeatable results.

Besides that, if you are at or near max pressures with your load, and something changes (ie, temperature, seating depth, altitude, small powder variations, primer lot, case capacity, etc) then you run a risk of excessive pressure! Not fun.

You will find yourself safer in general by seating bullets .020-.040 off the lands (Stoney point OAL gage recommendation). Somewhere in there, you'll find a sweet spot your rifle likes best.

If in doubt, the safest practice is to simply seat bullets to spec COL and call it a day.

 

[BountyHunter]

It totally depends on the gun and bullet.

as a rough rule, VLDs tend to shoot best for extreme accuracy in the lands up .020-.030 and other such as Sierras tend to shoot best off the lands. The Barnes TSX is a totally different beast that shoots best as far off as .050-.070

Now you must be careful with your measurements on any bullet especially if you are loading at the upper edge. A bullet seated .020 off the lands and then seated another .015 in the case is going to cause pressure spikes anyway.

Magazine OAL might drive you choice anyway.

Now if you are starting at .020 in for single shots and max mag oal for mag guns, you only have one way to go and that is back after you work your powder load up. That way you go from max pressure to lesser. That is simpler and safer.

With a comparator and bullets sorted by ogive, it is relatively simple and easy to insure consistent results IMO instead of starting in the middle and jumping back and forwards all the while changing powder loads I am sure.

BH