Seating Depth Variation

[wwrhodes91]

So I'm new to reloading and I'm having an issue with my seating depth having a .005 variation. Is this a big deal? I'm using unfired lapua cases. I did not have this problem with once fired cases. It seemed like some of the cases took more pressure to seat, is this from variations in neck tension?
Sorry for all the questions.
Thanks.

 

[Rattler56]

Did you resize or at least use a expander before loading ?

 

[sib1948]

^^^^What he said. That could cause variable results in the accuracy of your rounds.

 

[Pinecone]

First, are you measuring to ogive or overall length?

If overall length, there can be that much variance on the bullet tip.

 

[Mikee36]

What they said. And I polish (copper bore brush in a drill) the inside of the necks in my Lapua brass. More consistent seating pressures for me

 

[wwrhodes91]

Yes I resized first. I am measuring from ogive. I did not use a copper bore brush, but I did use a nylon brush to make sure the necks were clean.

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[Rattler56]

Check and clean your seating die, also what bullet are you using ?
The last batch of Hornady .224's I loaded, I had the same thing happen, come to find out that about a third of
them were not round.

 

[Everdeeper43015]

I was having the same issue as you. I started sorting my bullets by Ogive length. I bought the sort stand from Sinclair. Never vary more than .001 from round to round now. In a box of 100 .308 175grn SMK there were four different Ogive lengths varying .010 from high to low. Don't know if this sorting matters that much for tactical competition, but I wanted to take all the variables out and leave just me to blame.

 

[Rattler56]

I was having the same issue as you. I started sorting my bullets by Ogive length. I bought the sort stand from Sinclair. Never vary more than .001 from round to round now. In a box of 100 .308 175grn SMK there were four different Ogive lengths varying .010 from high to low. Don't know if this sorting matters that much for tactical competition, but I wanted to take all the variables out and leave just me to blame.

Agreed, I have never had a problem with Hornady till the last two box's of V-Max,now I am sorting too.

 

[wwrhodes91]

They are 175 SMKs. How much should I expect this to affect accuracy?

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[Rattler56]

Different neck tensions will produce different pressures and it will definitely effect your accuracy, by how much ?
that is a loaded question, no pun intended.

 

[wwrhodes91]

Well I just shot a match and the accuracy was still good, but the trajectory was very low. It matched the trajectory for about 2400 fps. I am using a 20" barrel, but 42.9 gr of 4064 should push a 175 SMK closer to 2600+. Not sure what happened

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[j-dubya]

I am having to sort matchkings too, in the 175's. My latest sorting has the ogive varying between 0.015". The various groups all seem to favor in 0.005" increments with roughly +/- 0.001". I will be getting another box of 500 next week, and am anxious to see what the variance is on those.