TPM Reloading - The Precision Rifle Reloading Series - Episode #5 - Bullet Seating 

That is an excellent idea!

Thanks for watching!

Thanks John, this has been a great ride and it's just the beginning. I only wish I had done this 10 years ago. Hindsight is 20/20.

Thank you!

I’m probably just as eager as you guys. I’m itching to pull the trigger on these.

Thanks Javier!

Thank you!

Good luck! Be consistent and you'll nail it!

Thanks Juergen that was a great article. It has got me rethinking what I thought I knew already. I appreciate it!

Second that! Thanks for the info on that article. Marc is one of the greats in the industry and the man knows his stuff! I’ll read over the article in a few. Im still looking for another article on bullet jump I read a couple months ago, I’ll post it if I find it.

Very interesting... if you get a chance, could you post a link to the interview? "Soft seating" into the lands is a common practice among target shooters and benchrest shooters. They will do exactly what you said, and seat the bullet long so upon chambering, the bullet contact the lands and is pushed back into the case. That whole method relies on very light neck tension. I know a few people who do this and they run neck tension as low as .0005" compared to the .0015 - .0025" neck tension I run on various cartridges. If you run too heavy of neck tension and try and and chamber a round with a long loaded bullet, you may get it to slide back a little, but it won't be consistent round to round. Also, you will also most likely stick the bullet in the lands which can make a mess if you have to clear the chamber and the bullet is removed from the case neck. Then we get into the bullet profiles. The secant ogive VLD type bullets really like to be seated at, or slightly into the lands which the tangent ogive profile bullets are less jump sensitive and don't mind being further back. Great points, I'd be interested in watching that interview. David Tubbs certainly knows his stuff. Thanks!

@@triggeredprecisionmachinellc ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-qP4PBnX6cZ8.html

Outstanding, thank you.

I have in the past and sad no measurable gain so I haven’t done that in years and years. I look at things in terms of performance gain per minute. The performance gain I saw wasn’t substantial enough for the time it took to go through and sort the bullets. I’m getting into ELR shooting this year so I may revisit this and see what effects it has at 2,000+ yards. Thanks for watching!!!!!

The 43gr load in my old barrel used to run 3050 with the 115. It is stout for sure, but never any pressure issues in over 1,000 rounds. The extra case capacity I get from seating the bullets out long helps immensely. I suspect I wont have the same pressure tolerance with this new barrel. When I chambered it, I had to use the second to smallest bushing I own for the chamber reamer... Pretty tight. I'm betting the mid to low 42 gr loads will be on the money.

Me either. I forgot about the seating depth issue. Absolutely spot on. If you have the right combo of light / inconsistent neck tension and too much compression on the powder, it will actually push the bullet out slightly. Great point, Todd. Thanks!

I’ve read a few articles on them but I’ve never seen one in person. The principle behind it is solid. Headspace is measured per the SAAMI spec from a position in the middle of the shoulder to the bolt face. It’s very possible and even likely that we will have slight variances in this dimension after full length sizing or shoulder bumping. By using the shoulder, you theoretically eliminate that variance. It’s a great idea. I’d like to get ahold of one someday.

@@triggeredprecisionmachinellc I’m using it and works great. I do a COAL max length with my Hornady gauge, zero the Accuracy one gauge to it and then check each loaded round after bullet seating for seating depth and consistency. It would make a great RU-vid video after you try it. Gauge is not expensive.

I'll throw it on my list and grab one soon, thanks!

@@triggeredprecisionmachinellc Terrific! Looking forward to your thoughts.

Nope, you didn’t miss it. That is scheduled to be one of the final episodes of this series. 😁

Keep up the good work!

Thank you!

That monster is an Area 419 sizing die I just got a couple weeks ago to test out. The jury is still out on it. It's VERY expensive and so far I can't see any benefit over my Redding Type S dies. I'm going to throw out a video on it as soon as I get some more time one it.

@@triggeredprecisionmachinellc I use Mighty Armories sizing dies. I love them. Extremely well polished inside the dies.

I'll check em out. Thanks for the info!

Lots of tangent ogive bullets like for example, the 168 gr .308 Sierra match king, seem to like to be seated from .020 - .040” off the lands. There was an article written on this recently where jump distance testing was done. In a nutshell, they found the bullets like to be either seated close to the lands, or a country mile away. That’s where our searing depth test comes into play after the OCW. As long as my bullet is out of the lands, I’m happy. It’s just a safe place to start that shouldn’t have any detriment on the OCW test, and won’t give you any unexpected pressure spikes.

I use a lot of VLD bullets that work closer. If you truly find the spot where you are "off jam", I start at .005 for load development. And then seating depth test just increases.

​@@rflguru - I'm still learning what a good seating depth is to start but I've noticed something over the last nine months of my 6PPC loading for benchrest shooting. For some reason that cartridge, or bullet design likes to be just touching the rifling. I've gone through a load process three times for three different barrels and a different bullet for each barrel and came up with the same answer. I'm gonna try this for a 223 using a V-max bullet to see if there is something to this.

@@triggeredprecisionmachinellc thanks for the info!

No problem. Thanks you for watching.