bullet seating depth?

[harrell]

Is it a general rule to seat the bullet to at least a depth equal to the diameter or the bullet? thanks

[charlie brown]

From what I have read, that is the general rule.

[Roskoe]

In a perfect world . . . the base of the bullet is seated even with the base of the neck - the front of the bullet is about .010 back from touching the rifling - and the loaded round fits in the rifle's magazine.

[Rebel Hog]

Agree with Roskoe! This way it keeps the free bore to a minimum, but safe.
I find that Weatherby ammo is seated to much and has excessive free bore.
The bullet has to jump to far to print on rifling and will not print straight.
Best to reload any factory ammo with with excessive free bore, backing off
.10 or untill it clears the magazine. There are other ways to do this, but I
started using the Stoney Point free bore gage. IMO, I think it's the best way
to bullet seat reloaded ammo.I use the Redding Bench Bullet Seater and set it
at .10 under bullet/rifling contact and adding .001 till it clear's the magazine.

[Roskoe]

Another technique from yesteryear that is coming back in the riflesmithing world is the grinding of chamber reamers without a throat. So the reamer cuts the body, shoulder, and neck. Then, as a second step, you cut the throat with a throating reamer - custom tune the throat length to a specific bullet/seating length. Many of the old reamers from P.O. Ackley's collection at the Trinidad Gunsmithing College are cut this way.

[vangunsmith]

To answer all your answers go to the may issue of Rifle Magazine and read the study done by the EXPERTS at Nosler on this subject gentleman. vangunsmith. You might learn something. I thought id let you read it for yourself,rather than tell you. vangunsmith

[handloader1]

I loaded some Barnes 180 gr. XLC's for a .300 Win. Mag., and the instructions in the box stated, "one should seat the bullet's shank in to the case's mouth at least 2/3" of the bullet's diameter". Good luck.

[harrell]

thanks for the information. the seating depth question arose because I have a long throated rifle. When I try to load close to the lands it would leave very little of the bullet in the neck. was wanting to know what the least bullet depth in the neck is required? thanks

[thndrchiken]

Seat the bullet far enough out so that it will reliably cycle through the action and fit in the magazine. Otherwise you'll have feed problems or a single shot. The accepted standard is at least the diameter of the bullet, although we all know how that goes on some guns.

[Vapodog]

One diameter deep is a rule of thumb.....there's nothing sacred about it.....more or less is up to you and will work fine.