Been handloading for nearly 50 yrs. now and have always been able to find an accurate load by means of powder charge. I have never fooled with seating depth, I have always seated bullets to loading manual COAL specs.
= clueless and proud of it!
WOW, have to agree with keith on this one, I don't have even one single rifle that the bullets are seated to loading manual COAL specs !!!!!!!
I've got to disagree with the "clueless" comment (on a factual basis - obviously it's a mean thing to say but I'll ignore that for now). There may actually be some significant insight to be gleaned from gunswizard's experience. More and more target shooters are starting to back way off the lands, and plenty of factory loads that are WAY off the lands shoot lights out (180 Remington CL in the 30-06 in my buddy's Mauser for instance).
I just backed off the 140 ABs in my 270 WSM to about .060 off the lands and it is now much more accurate than my "normal" starting point of .025".
It might just be that a big old factory jump is going to work fine most of the time, but what do I know? I've been doing this for 40+ years myself and am recently discovering things about seating depth I never knew.
Cheers to all,
Rex
