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Bullet Seating Sanity Check

gibson

Private
Minuteman
Aug 23, 2020
21
19
Greetings to the forum.

First post here, but I have been lurking for about a month now and thanks to the group here my groups have improved at the range.

I have been reloading for around twenty years but never gave much attention to consistency, resulting in accuracy. My general approach (to my 30-06) was to open a book, select a velocity, drop the powder in the brass, seat the bullet to the cannalur and call it a day. Groups would range from 3-5 inches out to 200 yards and that was good enough for me. Fire the brass three times, toss it.

Since adopting many of the methods I have learned here my groups are now at .75-1” at 100 yards. Having just picked up a chronograph, I now have “the sweet spot” with a bullet I have been learning these new methods with. Now it is time to find the proper bullet jump and would appreciate a sanity check on my approach. Note that I am using Hornady products: Modified Case, headspace gauge, bullet comparator.

1) Obtain OAL using modified case and bullet comparator.
2) Measure headspace of Modified case.
3) Subtract the modified case case gauge measurement from the OAL.
4) Since my fired bass is longer than the modified case I then find the difference and subtract that from the fired brass headspace measurement.
5) Add the measurement from steps 3 and 4. At this point, the bullet should be at same measurement as step one..the ogive touching the lands.
6) Subtract the desired amount of jump from step 5, and that is my seating depth.

Is my thinking right here? My goal is to be able to move out to 400 yards and feel like I can take that shot a deer instead of having to wait for those 100-150 yard shots. I always thought I was just a lousy shot, now I know it was more about my lousy reloads.