fishead

I am about to load some midway dogtowne bullets 55 gr FBHP for a winchester 22-250 coyote mod 70, my question is how far off the lands do I start, or can it be touching the bullet?any one got a good recipe for this bullet? thanks guys

bigcountry

I like to be 0.01"-0.03" or more away to start. I have found great loads deep also close to 0.5" on some mag calibers.

with Barnes bullets, I start usually deep 0.05" from lands.

Big Z

Now this is just speaking in general, but I usually start at the lands, and if need be I'll back off in .01" increments, but usually I'm within .03"

jeepkid

Probably have trouble getting to the lands with that bullet...but if they are touching or jammed watch for pressure spikes...

7MMXBOLT

IMO, you are better off starting .010 - .020 off the lands as every rilfe is different. Find a load that groups good and move the seating to see if it improves. What works in one rifle may be a dangerous situation in another. As "jeepkid" pointed out, you run the risk of over pressure.

Just not good common sense to start off touching the lands from the start! Why risk it?

Sniper151

I've found that .027 seems to be an all around good seating depth. I'll lube an empty bullet that I want to use in a sized, empty brass. Close the bolt slowly four times pulling the bullet out before each chambering and guage the depth each time then back it down to .027 from the lands. It seems to work well on all my reloads with no feeding problems and very good accuracy.

bigcountry

Let me get this right, your saying your able to seat a bullet in a sized case with the bolt alone? One if you able too, you would be jamming the bullet in the rifling .05" or more, two, you probably wouldn't be able to extract it without pulling the bullet out of the case.

SecondChance

Thats what I was thinking. I start out at .005 out, load 5 and send them. See what happens. Load another 5 at .003, send them. If it does not get better, load 5 at .007, send them and see what happens. Go from there. Range just outside back door of house.

7MMXBOLT

I use my chambers on all my bolt guns as a OAL gage like "sniper" does but a little differently. Instead, I cut 2 slits down the neck of a empty fired case and insert the bullet of choice into the neck. long enough so when the chamber is closed the bullet gets seated deeper into the case to your chambers length off the ojive of the bullet. Because of the slits in the neck, I can adjust the neck tension with my fingers so that the bullet won't pull out after chambering the cartridge. Chamber the round enough times until I can get a consistant OAL. This tells me at what length the bullet touches the lands. Take that measurement and back off however far you want for your seating depth to be. Best way to do this is to use a case that has been fired in the said rifle a couple times without resizing the shoulder or the body. If you try using a sized case your not going to get an accurate measurement of your chamber nor would you be able to push the bullet into the neck with your fingers.

To cheap to buy a Hornady/Stonypoint OAL gage I guess!

bigcountry

This is the common procedure we all use. Very well documented.

But its extremely difficult to seat a bullet using a bolt on a rifle. anyone that has loaded a bullet too long knows this. I am just shocked, hes able to shove the bullet into the case with a bolt.

I did a bunch of tests a few years ago comparing the "jamming length" from a simple split case method compared to barely touching the lead/lands using stoney point. I found 0.005" difference. I imagine seating a bullet using the bolt alone in a sized neck would be 0.02-0.05" longer.

Here is the results of my tests
http://www.huntingnet.com/forum/relo...l-results.html