Seating depth in BP cartridge rifles

[fiatmom]

Should the bullet be in the lands. just touching or set back away from the lands. I will be shooting black powder, Pioneer , and smokeless. The rifles will be a 1874 trap door in 45-79, a 50-70 rolling block, 56-50 Spencer and a Shiloh Sharps in 45-70.
The old rifles seem to have a long throat.
Thanks

[littlejack]

Your rifle will "definately" let you know what it likes.
Jack

[mustanggt]

My 74 sharps likes it kissing the grooves. I had a problem getting the compression die adjusted just right to have one grease groove exposed. I ended up going up down up down with the plug. Finally I just said the heck with it and left it at half a grease groove and shot them that way. There was no consistency at all. One would be in the bull and the next would be high, left or right. So I will get it seated where it belongs and I won't chase the bullets around the target. You are going to have alot of experimenting with all of those rifles to play with. Good luck.

[NickSS]

My Spencer likes the bullets seated all the way in the case. This is mandatory as overall length is critical for feeding through the action. As far as the other rifles you have it depends on the rifle but generally I seat the bullet so that the bullet is just touching the rifling for my target loads while hunting loads have all the grease grooves covered. You will have to experiment to find what your rifle likes. I am working currently with a new Sharps rifle and have been having issues finding the right load but I am zeroing in on it. Today I had some reall nice consistent groups so I am close.

[fiatmom]

Nick SS funny you have the same initials as I do.
Nick S

[Mk42gunner]

fiatmom,

I don't know about the other rifles, but my .43 Spanish Rolling Block needs the bullet off the lands. If the breech won't close with no resistance, the breechblock interferes with the hammer fall.

Robert

[semtav]

Like littlejack said, your gun will tell you.
My 40-65 likes the bullet just off the lands, my 45-90 likes the bullet just touching the lands, and my 45-120 like the rifling enraving one whole land on the bullet. with the loads I'm currently using for each. a different bullet/ load may be different for the same gun.

[oldracer]

As a newcomer to all this I have been asking lots of questions and this was one of them. The man that did my trigger job had a wall covered with plaques and awards so I figured he was a pretty good source of info. When we slugged the barrel and noted that measurement he said the best way is to take a bullet and put it into a case and then close the rolling block. Pull it out and then the ogive will have been touching the lands and pushed the bullet into the case. He suggested trying several loads starting with that dimension (touching) and backing off about 0.001 for 5 or 10 loads and shoot them to see if accuracy gets better and if so how much extra seating is needed until accuracy starts to go down. He said mainly that is because ALL the rifles are different as has been noted and that one from the same company will shoot different from the same company's next one off the line. In my case the gun was hand built with a Badger barrel and hand cut chamber so it could be any setup possible and add to the fact that it sat for a long time will require some experimenting! Whoa, I thought, this is not at all like throwing together an AR-15 and jacking off a bunch of rounds through a red dot sight! But it sure is a hell of a lot more interesting!

[montana_charlie]

...and jacking off a bunch...
Oh, my!

[oldracer]

That's the term we use when the guys with lots of body art, wearing camos/tactical gear and carrying 3 or 4 bags of AR-15s and mags come out to the range for their monthly "combat sessions"! Casual conversations have shown most were never in the military and most do not have their guns sighted in so they can even hit the backers for the targets! But they do generate a lot of nice new brass for those of us that also reload 223 cases.

[montana_charlie]

guys with lots of body art, wearing camos/tactical gear and carrying 3 or 4 bags of AR-15s and mags
Ah! The mental image is inspiring. I haven't seen the real thing...and probably won't...except that some of that persuasion may have been at the last gun show I attended.

I had the impression they already had their 'fan'...and they were wishing they had some 'manure' to throw into it.

CM

[home in oz]

With that many rifles, shooting them should keep you out of mischief for awhile...

[Bad Ass Wallace]

Each rifle will be different. Most of my Sharps except the 50/70 like to touch the lands. That little 38/55 Highwall I,m holding likes its 380gn bullet fully engraved into the rifling.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v152/BAWallace/Picture029.jpg

[bigted]

bad ass wallace....dosnt look like ya much care for the sharps rifle.

[saz]

oh, my!

lmao!