Seating depth

Outrider · Post by **Outrider** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 6:01 pm

I did a search to see if this question had been asked before and couldn't find where it had, so here goes. When you are assembling the first loads for a new rifle what do you guys start at for a seating depth? Should your first load be just touching the lands? As you change seating depth in subsequent loadings how much do you change it? Thanks for any help.

Omaha Poke · Post by **Omaha Poke** » Mon Feb 02, 2004 6:34 pm

Outrider, bullet seating depends a lot on the design of the bullet. I have some bullets that I can seat into the lands, and some I can't. It also depends on the individual rifle being loaded for. Some will allow a much longer OAL of the loaded round than others. My ideal is to have the bullet loaded so that the lands engrave the bullet well into the first driving band. You should get a number of oppinions on this one. You will just have to experiment and see what works best for your rifle and load.

Randy

Post by **Kirk** » Tue Feb 03, 2004 7:35 am

Hi Outrider, put bullet only in chamber, measure from base of bullet to back of barrel with calipers. Now as you will see, with a little simple math you will know the max. length that you can go with this particular bullet. Hope this helps, if not give me a call. Thanks Kirk

Ken Hartlein · Post by **Ken Hartlein** » Mon Feb 09, 2004 9:47 am

That's the way I do it, I do it 10 times, take an average, then back off .005 to .010 from the average. Works good. It's real easy just to drop the slug itself into the barrel and measure it with calipers. I get a better reading if I lay the slug in the chamber and slowly raise the butt up to let the slug slide into the barrel.