Anyone tried Bergers Test for VLD seating depth?

[Winny94]

Im potentially running into issues w/ fitting 180 class 7mm bullets in my mag (a 183 smk needs about 55-60 thou jump - so if anyone has the relevent measures b/w the 183 smk and 180 vld hunter, id appreciate anyone sharing. I havent bought the bergers yet).

Found an interesting article on bergers site and basically they say they found theres 30-40 thou range of jump the vld works in, so they recommend (2) 3-shot groups of .010, .050, .090 and .130 jump. They say 3 groups will suck, one will be pretty good, then fine tune from there.

Has anyone tried this method? Any variations/tweaks i should implement? Should this be done before or after finding the optimal weight charge? (ive always done weight testing followed by depth testing, but Berger recently suggested otherwise when i had a question about their 195 EOL).

Thanks for any help!

 

[Yote Klr]

I do seating depth test for every barrel.
My 28 Nosler likes 175 EH at .095" jump.
My 300wm likes 185 Hybrids at .090" jump.
My one 6.5wsm likes 140 ELDM at .060 jump.
My 6mm CM likes 105 Hybrids at .060 jump.
My 270wby likes 150 ABLR about a quarter inch, lol it has .375" freebore still its a solid .55 moa 5 shot barrel.

 

[Jabot]

Only luck I had with vld is at the lands or seated slightly in to them a couple thousandths . 140vld I run in a 260 .3 inch groups. The 130 vlds I run in a 6.5x47 .2-.3 inch groups and 168 I run in 7 mag .6-.7 inch groups "factory 700 not to proud of the 7 mag"

 

[TF160 Guy]

I came across the same article a couple of rifles ago and decided to try it although slightly modified. I used .10, .25, .40, .55 (a greater jump compressed powder too much for my liking) and shot 4 round groups at 200 yards. My results mirrored the article with the .40 being better than others. Did another test at .35 and .45 settled on .35.
Did this after OCW.
Gives me sub MOA and consistent groups and velocities.
While not the single solution, it is a step in the load development process that worked for me.

 

[FCS]

Im potentially running into issues w/ fitting 180 class 7mm bullets in my mag (a 183 smk needs about 55-60 thou jump - so if anyone has the relevent measures b/w the 183 smk and 180 vld hunter, id appreciate anyone sharing. I havent bought the bergers yet).

Found an interesting article on bergers site and basically they say they found theres 30-40 thou range of jump the vld works in, so they recommend (2) 3-shot groups of .010, .050, .090 and .130 jump. They say 3 groups will suck, one will be pretty good, then fine tune from there.

Has anyone tried this method? Any variations/tweaks i should implement? Should this be done before or after finding the optimal weight charge? (ive always done weight testing followed by depth testing, but Berger recently suggested otherwise when i had a question about their 195 EOL).

Thanks for any help!

0.040" jump with VLDs is a great place to start, increase as needed. VLDs do NOT need to be in, at or just off the lands to shoot well.
Start at 0.040 off, find charge, fine tune jump.

 

[Steel head]

I’ve jumped 140 VLDs over a tenth of an inch with excellent accuracy.

 

[bsekf]

Good article on the Berger site about CBTO testing before load testing. The Classic Huntere bullets are supposed to be more forgiving than the VDL's.