Optimal bullet seating depth?

[Wannashootit]

Hey guys;
New reloader, and sorry for asking this as I know it's probably been discussed a thousand times. I had no luck using the search function as it seems to return 1,000 hits not related to what I typed in no matter how I phrase it...

New Remington 700 VTR in .223.
Just got the OAL and bullet comparator gauges. For paper punching (generally bthp's), do I want the bullet touching the lands, or if not, how much of a jump should I try?

Thanks in advance.

 

[vman]

Re: Optimal bullet seating depth?

Hey man

Generally speaking greater accuracy is obtained when a bullet is just touching the lands or a fraction of a hair away from it.

Thats not to say you wont still get decent accuracy with a slightly larger jump.

With that in mind, if you can seat your bullets to the lands and still mag load or have them feed internally, then your in a good spot.

Remingtons are known for their longer throats so you may find that you cant seat to the lands AND load to mag length... you may, every rifle is different i guess.

If your using a VLD projectile I would say most deffinately seat them so they just touch the lands, possibly even bite into the lands.

Most other non-vlds shoot well with a little jump, but as I said before they most all shoot better when theres no jump.

I generally have two loads. One is seated to lands and i punch paper long range with this load and single feed. I might also use this for long range hunting, again with single feeding.

For scrub hunting where I might need follow up shots, I load to mag length and go with a slight accuracy sacrifice.

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Optimal bullet seating depth?

Thanks- appreciate the advice.
I was told the same thing about our semi-auto and mag length limitations- I had no idea that could apply as well to a 700 bolt action.

I suppose if it is an issue, the rifle can be single-loaded instead of feeding from the mag (?).

Guess I'll find out tonight when I get into it...

 

[Fred_C_Dobbs]

Re: Optimal bullet seating depth?

There is a sticky at the top of this forum titled, "Hand Loading for Long Range 3: finding start OAL"

 

[Wannashootit]

Re: Optimal bullet seating depth?

Thanks, good read.
I skipped it over because I'm not shooting long range...