Home Forums Reloading Big Game Rifles Question about rifle seating depth

My friend and I are new to reloading and I have a question after our first try tonight. We ran into some trouble when trying to measure our "rifle seating" depth. We were trying to do it using the procedures in the Nosler reloading manual; ie starting a bullet colored with a marker, chambering the round and measuring the resulting overall length. I had a lot of trouble getting consistent measurements at first with my .30-06 Mark V but got it to 3.327'' after some practice. My friend however got an average measurement of 3.469'' out of his .30-06 Rem 700 which seems really long. Is this normal? Are we doing it right? Even seating the bullet 0.015'' off the lands I'm not sure if the bullet will be seated deep enough to ensure proper alignment. Thanks for all your help.

Different ogives will give you different measurements. The only thing I'd suggest since you're new to reloading is to make sure you don't seat the bullets out so far that they contact the rifleing. This can cause possible pressure problems. 3.327 seems a bit short to me...

You don't have to be close to the lands to shoot good groups. There are several methods to measure distance to the lands and they all work once you go through a learning curve. Measuring COAL to the bullet tip is not the best way for measurement. You need to be measuring to the bullet ogive. There are several tools available for this. Since you are just getting started in reloading, seat your bullet according to the manual depth and concentrate your efforts on consistancy and concentricity.Rick.

We're using the same bullet (165 Gr Nosler BTs) so the ogives should be the same. The Nosler manual doesn't list seating depths or overall lengths other than the SAAMI maximum, is that what we want to use? My Lyman manual has seating depths but they aren't necessarily for the exact bullets I'm using.

I'm not sure if I described the method we were using well. We took a piece of fired unsized brass and inserted the bullet just a small ways into the case neck. We then took a marker and colored the sides of the bullet and inserted it into the chamber. Then we closed the chamber which would cause the bullet to be pushed further back into the case when it made contact with the lands. Then after carefully ejecting it we'd look to see how far up the bullet the marker was scraped off and return it to that position and measure the overall length. In my Mark V the bullets commonly stuck in the lands and i had to use a cleaning rod to push them out, that never once happened with my friends. The thing is, my friends seating depth was so long that even with a .010 to .030'' distance off the lands i'm not sure if the bullet was seating deaply enough in the case neck. Sorry for being so long winded, I just wanted to make sure all the pertinent info is there. I appreciate your expertise and assistance.

I prefer to be on the lands or shortly off the lands, depending on what the bullet likes. I do have two rifles with very long throats that won't allow land engagment with enough bullet still in the case neck. They both shoot well when loaded to a reasonable length. To find the lands, I first put a dent in the neck of a fired case so that it will grip the bullet and then chamber the round a few times, noting what kind of OAL I get. I then load a dummy round a bit longer than that and mark the ogive with a sharpie. It is trial and error for 2-3 minutes on attempting to chamber that round, feeling for bolt resistance, seating a bit deeper each time, re-marking with the sharpie, and examining the rifling marks. I eventually get it to where chambering won't set the bullet back any deeper (measured), the bolt closes with a hint of resistance, and the fresh marks are square (depending on rifling type). I like to use that as my staring point and put that dummy round in the box with my dies.

You need to have the neck at least partially sized just to hold the bullet, you said "a piece of fired unsized brass". Start off with SAAMI and work on a load. You can play with seating depths once you find which powder/primer/bullet combination works best in your rifle. Don't be concerned if the two rifles have different seating depths, I would expect that to be the case. You are working with hunting rifles not bench guns. Being close to the lands is just a place to start working with a load. Barnes recommends that one start 50 thousants off the lands with their bullets. Most WBY Mags have enough freebore that the bullet is out of the case before it reaches the lands. When I work with them, I seat the bullet so that the base of the bullet is even with the neck/shoulder junction. Have no idea how far I am away from the lands.

If you want to check your loads for clearance from the lands make a dummy round. Sized case, no powder/primer, seat your bullet. I use 4/0 steel wool and polish the bullet in a circular fashion. Carefully drop the dummy round into the chamber and close the bolt. When extracting hold the fingers of the off hand in the ejection port so as to guide the case and avoid scraping the bullet on the ejection port. Look with magnification for land marks. Move the bullet out 10 thousants, repolish and repeat the procedure. You should be able to find the lands. There is no magic being close to the lands merely a starting point.Rick.

We put a slight dent i the neck of the case to hold the bullet in as recommended by the Nosler manual.

Maybe we'll just start with making SAAMI maximum length loads and go from there. Thanks for all the advise!

If you do go with SAAMI ink a bullet or two and check to make sure they aren`t jamming in the lands. I`ve a couple rifles that won`t allow some bullets to be so seated. Most rifles however do have deep throats and will work fine this way.

Also I would try to keep one calibar of bullet shank in the case mouth min no matter if it is short of SAAMI or not this way.