Free: Contests & Raffles.
Depending on your bullet selection....yes seating depth can absolutely have a significant impact on accuracy. With that said, that is usually the last thing I tweak and it is really fine tuning a load....that in most cases shoots very well as is. For hunting bullets, I almost never seat less (closer to the lands) than 0.02 off the lands. As for mag length vs. seating to the lands. Sometimes magazines will dictate your OACL / seating depth of the bullet. In this case, you often cannot get to 0.02 starting point.... at which point you just start where you start and go from there. Well...unless you want to turn a mag fed rifle into a single shot rifle. It is acceptable to have longer jumps and some bullets actually prefer it. Mono's like jump (in my experience) and absolutely do not like being jammed (jamming mono's can cause a dangerous premature pressure spike). Hope that helps...and I'm sure others will have good info as well. Lots of experience on this and other boards with hand loaders. I would follow up any advise with good research and load safe. It really is addicting.
Quote from: jrebel on December 12, 2023, 11:28:27 AMDepending on your bullet selection....yes seating depth can absolutely have a significant impact on accuracy. With that said, that is usually the last thing I tweak and it is really fine tuning a load....that in most cases shoots very well as is. For hunting bullets, I almost never seat less (closer to the lands) than 0.02 off the lands. As for mag length vs. seating to the lands. Sometimes magazines will dictate your OACL / seating depth of the bullet. In this case, you often cannot get to 0.02 starting point.... at which point you just start where you start and go from there. Well...unless you want to turn a mag fed rifle into a single shot rifle. It is acceptable to have longer jumps and some bullets actually prefer it. Mono's like jump (in my experience) and absolutely do not like being jammed (jamming mono's can cause a dangerous premature pressure spike). Hope that helps...and I'm sure others will have good info as well. Lots of experience on this and other boards with hand loaders. I would follow up any advise with good research and load safe. It really is addicting. Altered my original post. I forgot to say the important part. Yes, its not that I think seating depth doesn't matter, but more... if my jump is already a long way... THEN does seating depth matter, if I'm ultimately loading hunting rounds that really ought to fit within the mag well. And of course its helpful if they actually eject without pulling the bolt. I'm just running into scenarios where the bullets I want to shoot might be 0.100" short of where most people would start their efforts, which makes me wonder if at that point it even makes much of a difference. I can't see where 100 thousands off and 103 thousands off make that much of a heap of difference.
On the question of which caliber bullet and rifle. I have many I want to work on, but I've started with my top 2.First, is me chasing a dream. I picked up a 1970 vintage 375 H&H Model 70. I got it glass bedded and free floated. I'd really like to get that thing shooting to the point where I'd feel like I can hit an elk out to 400 or 500 yards if I had to, even though that would NOT be my intent. Still, I can't really justify carrying a rifle that I don't feel good with out to 400, because sometimes those shots come up. I like it... because it is cool. Nothing more. Unlike my rifle below, I like this one in spite of its horrific performance. It used to shoot maybe 4" with factory ammo before the work. Now I'm closer to 1.5" with just some intro hand loads, which might be as good as I can get, but that doesn't mean that I don't have a desire to chase ~1" with it.Second is starting to love a rifle I've never loved. I have a Parker & Hale 300 WM. It used to have a front site on it that I thought was ugly, and stock that was kind of beat up and just haven't ever loved the rifle. It always shot well, even with factory ammo, there was no reason not to love it, it always outshot everything I had, even with federal. I left it in a case after a hunt and the barrel rusted like h*ll, and then I realized a lot of work had been done to it (pillared, bedded, free floated), which is why I decided to do the same work to the 375. That said, if I'm shooting maybe 1-1.5" with crappy federal, I thought maybe I could really turn it into a shooter with handloads and reach out say 800 yards or so with practice.I have other rifles, but these are the ones I've decided to start with. TRYING to use copper for shorter range, to avoid eating lead. I realize the 300WM isn't likely to kill something at 800 yards with copper.I did kill my elk and deer this year with hand loaded copper in the 300WM. Elk at 350, deer at 20. Recovered the deer bullet just before the hams on a frontal, with all weight retained.
Interesting take on it here: https://bergerbullets.com/getting-the-best-precision-and-accuracy-from-vld-bullets-in-your-rifle/ Okie John