Mike all the bullets you intend to seat for length consistency before seating. Depending on the bullet manufacture, I found up to ten thous. difference from base of bullet to ogive. That will not help your test. I normally move 5 thous. Develope all my loads this way. If you can, get bullets of the same lot. And, bullets of same manufacture but different box, can be very different. I assume coming off seperate production lines. Check them before you seat them.
Good point. My seating dies, not the best available, tend to seat from the bullet nose, to the ogive, resulting in more consistent OAL than base to ogive measurements.
One curious finding when measuring surplus 7.65 Swiss ammo, which has always shot well for me, is that their manufacturing process ended with the same result.
