windrider919
08-14-2008, 02:52 AM
I am pretty much only a SP shooter but enjoy a little BP now and then. It warms the blood sometimes to reestablish my roots in this age of fast change. I also have focused exclusively on one rifle / cartridge.
While reading a recent thread that wandered off topic I had wanted to add an item I discovered that was making DRASTIC effects on my accuracy.
In a match, the shooter does not worry much about cartridge durability. That is for the field shooter. Hence the debate on bullet seating depth. The match shooter does not worry about rounds in pockets or cartridge loops where a long seated bullet might be knocked askew or even out entirely. One of my fellow shooters rifle is most accurate when he pushes the bullet into the bore with a rod of precise length and then inserts a loaded case that is sealed from spilling by a wad.
But, the point I was going to make is to watch how you size the case. I found using standard .458 Win Mag dies that when I loaded a PP .458 (final dia.) bullet It seemed OK. No crimp, just enough taper die to straighten out the bell in the case mouth and not tear the patch. But I just was not getting any accuracy. Then, for an unrelated reason I had to pull the bullets out of some loaded rounds. And found that the OD of the PP bullet inside the case had been swaged down to .449 in the normal loading process! No bullet is going to perform well when its back half is less than bore diameter[including PP here in case you are confused, people.] And there was never going to be enough obturation to overcome that handicap.
In fact, I found that case neck tension as tight as I expected to hold jacketed bullets in the case ALWAYS crushes / re-sizes all but the hard lead bullets. So I stopped resizing my brass for cast and PP except for about 3/16 inch right at the case mouth.
By the way, i am not using 'thick' brass. I use factory brass, buying 100 and using them until I have 'consumed' around ten then throwing away those for a new batch, annealing occasionally as necessary.
So, in conclusion, There are several well kown reasons to seat well out, depending on chamber size. i just wanted to point out that allmost all the long seaters also do not use tight case neck or crimp to hold the bulet. It is just another way to prevent changes in dimension to the bullet that would affect accuracy. Now I know that lots of BP shooters don't size either, their bullets are just pushed into the case with just a little more than thumb pressure, so it really is not a secret, just not very well known.
So for the reloader who seats his till they look 'traditional length', thats OK as long as you are not inadvertantly sizing the bullet inside the case as you load it and then wondering where your accuracy went.
While reading a recent thread that wandered off topic I had wanted to add an item I discovered that was making DRASTIC effects on my accuracy.
In a match, the shooter does not worry much about cartridge durability. That is for the field shooter. Hence the debate on bullet seating depth. The match shooter does not worry about rounds in pockets or cartridge loops where a long seated bullet might be knocked askew or even out entirely. One of my fellow shooters rifle is most accurate when he pushes the bullet into the bore with a rod of precise length and then inserts a loaded case that is sealed from spilling by a wad.
But, the point I was going to make is to watch how you size the case. I found using standard .458 Win Mag dies that when I loaded a PP .458 (final dia.) bullet It seemed OK. No crimp, just enough taper die to straighten out the bell in the case mouth and not tear the patch. But I just was not getting any accuracy. Then, for an unrelated reason I had to pull the bullets out of some loaded rounds. And found that the OD of the PP bullet inside the case had been swaged down to .449 in the normal loading process! No bullet is going to perform well when its back half is less than bore diameter[including PP here in case you are confused, people.] And there was never going to be enough obturation to overcome that handicap.
In fact, I found that case neck tension as tight as I expected to hold jacketed bullets in the case ALWAYS crushes / re-sizes all but the hard lead bullets. So I stopped resizing my brass for cast and PP except for about 3/16 inch right at the case mouth.
By the way, i am not using 'thick' brass. I use factory brass, buying 100 and using them until I have 'consumed' around ten then throwing away those for a new batch, annealing occasionally as necessary.
So, in conclusion, There are several well kown reasons to seat well out, depending on chamber size. i just wanted to point out that allmost all the long seaters also do not use tight case neck or crimp to hold the bulet. It is just another way to prevent changes in dimension to the bullet that would affect accuracy. Now I know that lots of BP shooters don't size either, their bullets are just pushed into the case with just a little more than thumb pressure, so it really is not a secret, just not very well known.
So for the reloader who seats his till they look 'traditional length', thats OK as long as you are not inadvertantly sizing the bullet inside the case as you load it and then wondering where your accuracy went.