seating depths, for the love of god.
- Thread starter Tikkat1x
- Start date
I an sure your getting compressed loads.
My .223 load is Lapua brass remy 7.5 primer. 69grn TMK
Case volume 2.03cc weight 6.12 grams
25.8 grn N140
COL 2.972
Load at 1.962.
I use a Redding Micrometer seating die to seat the bullets
If you search on here I posted years ago about the issue I had. Turned out that I had a mix of Lapua brass which had different case volumes. With above load some compresed others were.
I resorted to buying a new box.
Also note Lapua comes in 2 type standard and Match.
The above load is super accurate out of my 26 Border Match barrel.
D
My .223 load is Lapua brass remy 7.5 primer. 69grn TMK
Case volume 2.03cc weight 6.12 grams
25.8 grn N140
COL 2.972
Load at 1.962.
I use a Redding Micrometer seating die to seat the bullets
If you search on here I posted years ago about the issue I had. Turned out that I had a mix of Lapua brass which had different case volumes. With above load some compresed others were.
I resorted to buying a new box.
Also note Lapua comes in 2 type standard and Match.
The above load is super accurate out of my 26 Border Match barrel.
D
This.
Poss that primers may be proud. You need to uniform the primer pocket and make sure its clean. With your load may be advisable to use Remmy 7 5 primers as CCI SRP may pierce as too soft..
I use a Lee hand primer and you can feel when they are fully seated. Primer when seated correctly is level or miniscularly below the case head.
D
I use a Lee hand primer and you can feel when they are fully seated. Primer when seated correctly is level or miniscularly below the case head.
D
none of the primers seem to be proud, i have a anvil base on my callipers and i held them to a light and saw no gap whatsoever,
die has no movement, lock nut as tight as can be, opened up yesterday and all cleaned and looked fine, die is ran down,( as its a summit ) die screwed to the shell holder, then backed off a full turn,
and measured off the ogive
the brass is 4 times fired, age wise not so old i dont think, i bought it as once fired 6 months ago,
i tried some dummy rounds earlier and no change, still all over the place
good point, i do have some sako and ADI brass i can also try, i also use sierra 55gr spt bullets in the sako brass, i can try run up some of those and see if the same problem occurs
i re did all my measurements after changing from hornady to derraco comparator,As Lateral says…. when it was still possible (simple) many years ago, I imported a few 100 Nosler 6mm Ballistic Tips and the seller broke down the boxes with the bullets in a plastic bag for ease of posting.
I discovered when loading these later that not all bullets are made the same (different machines?) and was getting a variance in seating depth which drove me nuts to a point.
In the end I just loaded them and never had a problem, if there was a variation in POI it was minimal and there are too many other variables that will affect your POI outside of straightforward target shooting when you strive for the same position with every shot.
Having switched to the very nice Derraco comparators… there’s always the chance that the hole in the middle is different to your previous comparatorMy ShootingShed comparators in .20 & .223 are different to the original StoneyPoint versions. So it was a case of re-measuring chamber length etc from scratch to maintain consistency.
Cheers
Fizz
i seat my primers with a lee bench primmer and i think it does a great job, never seen one proud, im guessing the rounds will shoot ok as im not after bullet on bullet, its just i know this should not be happening
good plan, although im sure this has not happened before, unless when iv set it and checked a few as iv gone iv been unlucky not to pick up on any of the dodgy ones
i will try a couple of things mentioned at the weekend when iv more time
the answer is out there, none of the primers seem to be proud, i have a anvil base on my callipers and i held them to a light and saw no gap whatsoever,
die has no movement, lock nut as tight as can be, opened up yesterday and all cleaned and looked fine, die is ran down,( as its a summit ) die screwed to the shell holder, then backed off a full turn,
and measured off the ogive
That's the obvious discounted then, but I would still be looking for a cause in the die or setup. Colin's excellent suggestion about the stem should be pursued too.
Brass has been suggested (without any explanation as to why), but the only way brass could contribute to the problem is if there is miniscule neck tension and your bullets are slipping in the neck. Where these ever neck turned in their first life?
Have you tried moving the bullet with a bit of muscle power?
Multi fired brass of known poor quality (Hornady is not exactly known quality brass) that has not been annealed could absolutely show up differences in seating depth measurements due to random brass flow, neck tension differences etc. I would be surprised if it would be up to 20 thou variance in total but I have seen differences in non annealed Lapua brass of up to 3 thou either side of target and that is using mandrels to set tension. OP's brass is supposedly once fired and then fired 4 further times.
Annealing completely sorts this out. Probably not that important to most people's shooting applications but seating feel is demonstrably consistent when using annealed brass and I get total variance of 1 thou (0.0005" either side of target) when seating. In poor quality brass, whether from a manufacturing standpoint or a prep point of view, that seating effort is hugely different and calipers confirm it. Less neck tension equals shorter OAL and more neck tension equals longer OAL. Certainly in hardened brass. Still not convinced it would be up to 20 thou variance though. That seems excessive.
Seating die needs inspecting. Maybe a foreign body in there. Have the calipers taken a dump?
Also how is the brass being sized? Is it with a FL die with expander ball? Is that ball square to the decapping stem? Or is it damaged or not consistent in some way leading to variance in neck tension?
To my mind, something is getting in the way of the internals of the neck accepting a bullet in a uniform way. Might be a combination of things. Dirty dies, something in the way of the seating stem, poor brass. I would take it all apart, give it a proper clean and re-assemble. Then I try again. If no different, I would get some decent brass, freshly annealed and try again.
To the OP, using unknown brass of questionable quality is a false economy. Use the best brass. Lapua, Nosler, Norma, RWS etc. I have had bad experiences with Federal, Hornady, Sako and others. Never had material longevity issues with Lapua or Norma. I know others who use Nosler and RWS for ages without issue.
Smellydog
Well-Known Member
Staking ammo needs to perform when it connects on the beast ! target ammo should be capable of a single bullet 5 shot group and the opening up of the bullet on impact is not required .
so, as iv just made 100 rounds im going to see how they shoot, and then look into this more when i next make some more, daft thing is, iv just got about 500 to the point where they just need powder and bullets, so its use them or deprime them all, and iv loads more once fired, in the box Hornady brass, loads of sako brass and loads of ADI brass, i was going to get rid of it all and buy new lapua as i did with my 243 brass, so if this problem continues and or it doesnt shoot well, i will dump it all and buy lapua, re cleaned my die again today, has to be spotless now, brass in annealed after every use,
the VDL stem is in my 243 die,
ColinBr
Well-Known Member
Get a VDL stem for the 223 die
Don't bother ditching your brass either. Why do that. Jumping in too quickly mate
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