Thanks , I’ve always used dark blue markers. Love the smoke !If you really want to get down in the weeds on finding your lands, click the link & scroll down to "finding your lands":
Videos | wheeleraccuracy
www.wheeleraccuracy.com
Otherwise, I smoke a bullet with a Bic lighter. A square mark on the bullet is somewhere around .020" in the lands, dependent of course on the number of lands & their profile. I always use Wilson inline bullet seaters, so I make a dummy round & write what the stem length is on the round with a Sharpie for reference.
Again, this is for reference for that lot number of bullets, in your chamber, that you can reliably change seating depth changes in the future.
Distance off the lands for Vmax bullets
- Thread starter mspingy
- Start date
Sgt_Mike
Well-known member
The method that @alf and @AWS demonstrated I used for a long time to find contact in the throat. It is a pretty good method. Most of the time I'll do kind of the same, although a little differently. I've pretty much went with finding "jam" length (seat a bit long and coat the ogive with lube to prevent sticking)
But I don't chase the lands, I'll only adjust the seating when the accuracy drops off by increasing 0.003" at a time to get back in the node for seating. I also never load "into" the lands anymore..... ever. I avoid contact with the throat, years ago I actually found out a majority of bullets actually fired better when they "jumped" or rather had a bit of distance from throat contact. This lead to me finally realizing that the bullet being concentric to the throat had more effect than relationship to the "lands".
While I don't know Erick Cortina at all, other than watching his channel I ran across this video:
Which made sense to me. Will it work for you ? IDK but it seems to work for him as a F-Class shooter.
Also a fan of his challenges that he post most the time I find them as a good source of entertainment. You may reject his method which is fine. But I actually adopted it with a creedmoor series caliber found a working load way faster than my old method.
The bullet seating depth is touchy subject as Benchrester's will proclaim "into the lands" some others will proclaim jumping. A lot will sit and spend a lot of time chasing the lands as it wears.
I personally would not go 0.010" "into the lands" just does nothing but raises pressure quicker in my opinion.
I find jam length subtract 0.020" ( but if you want to go 0.005" or 0.010" it is fine just pick a start point to reference from) And then find the widest accuracy nodes with powder charges. Then adjust seating depth.
Now with this conversation if I'm shooting cast bullets Yes absolutely I'll jam the bullet into the throat / leade. I've been know to seat 30-06 bullet 0.025" into the lands. Why well cast loads usually are reduced loads from jacketed because of leading the bore. So honestly the pressure is nowhere near as great as a jacketed bullet. But that is not what you seem to seek, I'm quite sure your using jacketed, thus the cast load methods are out the window and are irrelevant, IMHO.
Whichever method you choose to adopt I wish you the best of Luck. And would love to hear how it progresses for you.
Respectfully
Mike
But I don't chase the lands, I'll only adjust the seating when the accuracy drops off by increasing 0.003" at a time to get back in the node for seating. I also never load "into" the lands anymore..... ever. I avoid contact with the throat, years ago I actually found out a majority of bullets actually fired better when they "jumped" or rather had a bit of distance from throat contact. This lead to me finally realizing that the bullet being concentric to the throat had more effect than relationship to the "lands".
While I don't know Erick Cortina at all, other than watching his channel I ran across this video:
Which made sense to me. Will it work for you ? IDK but it seems to work for him as a F-Class shooter.
Also a fan of his challenges that he post most the time I find them as a good source of entertainment. You may reject his method which is fine. But I actually adopted it with a creedmoor series caliber found a working load way faster than my old method.
The bullet seating depth is touchy subject as Benchrester's will proclaim "into the lands" some others will proclaim jumping. A lot will sit and spend a lot of time chasing the lands as it wears.
But there is nothing special in the 22-250 vs the .223 or other Center fire .22's in the finding optimum seating depth. Sure the leade angle /cut is/maybe different but the methods are the exact same.
I personally would not go 0.010" "into the lands" just does nothing but raises pressure quicker in my opinion.
I find jam length subtract 0.020" ( but if you want to go 0.005" or 0.010" it is fine just pick a start point to reference from) And then find the widest accuracy nodes with powder charges. Then adjust seating depth.
Now with this conversation if I'm shooting cast bullets Yes absolutely I'll jam the bullet into the throat / leade. I've been know to seat 30-06 bullet 0.025" into the lands. Why well cast loads usually are reduced loads from jacketed because of leading the bore. So honestly the pressure is nowhere near as great as a jacketed bullet. But that is not what you seem to seek, I'm quite sure your using jacketed, thus the cast load methods are out the window and are irrelevant, IMHO.
Whichever method you choose to adopt I wish you the best of Luck. And would love to hear how it progresses for you.
Respectfully
Mike
bowhunter57
Well-known member
To load with the bullet just touching the lands, has always been a standard for me. Savage and Ruger rifles.
The only rifle manufacturer that I've heard of that suggests loading the bullet to not touch the lands, is Whetherby.
The only rifle manufacturer that I've heard of that suggests loading the bullet to not touch the lands, is Whetherby.
alf
Well-known member
I've shot Benchrest of several different flavors for over 35 years, and have never not loaded into the lands.
The vast majority of the times it carries over into my hunting rounds.
Now whether to stay there or not is a different point, but when you start in the lands there's only one way to go for a seating test.
The vast majority of the times it carries over into my hunting rounds.
Now whether to stay there or not is a different point, but when you start in the lands there's only one way to go for a seating test.
Thank you Mike . It’s just older gun I got from a deceased friend . The barrel is slightly fire cracked but the little gem is a hammer. It’s done 1/2 on a calm day . I like to shoot it ! I put it in a cheep Magpul chassis . I had to machine ( on my bench mill ) the aluminum mag well opening to fit a cheep mag well I bought. It’s all on the cheep but as usual it’s winter and all my hunting loads for my 6.5 and 06 were done over the holidays . Now I’m bored and figured I might as well tinker with this to see if it can do any better with load dev. as I’m half way through the 300rounds of Hornady V max 50s I got last year when I bought it. When I got it I was intrigued with it as it’s a little hammer. Hart Rifle barrels is 7 miles down the road from me. It’s so fun to shoot I will probably have Jerry spin me a barrel for it after it gets tired. I might pour a slug for it and lap it with 600 to clean it up a little before I start ladders. I don’t know if you’ve ever lapped a barrel but there is little or no nothing online about it . Harts make button barrels . I was watching the kids lap one day and they indexed the lap every 30-40 strokes. The very few videos online about lapping say never do that ! Funny what you learn by asking and listening . I took a POShit Howa 1100 and lapped the barrel starting with 200. Added a Harrells cheep tuner on it and I’ve got sub groups with it regularly after a long process with every velocity of Eley match that Freelands had. They are nice about selling singles for load dev.
Thanks again . I’m going to be set up with a pound of H380 and use some H4350. I hope the later does well because it’s not temp sensitive . I’m headed out this week to pull a couple road kills out of the DOT pit for bait. Time to night kill the coyotes when my cell cam pings me out of bed.
MAGA
Joe
Some of the guys shooting the thin shaped Bergers and the like go back as far as .035
That’s a bunch
Very nice !If you really want to get down in the weeds on finding your lands, click the link & scroll down to "finding your lands":
Videos | wheeleraccuracy
Otherwise, I smoke a bullet with a Bic lighter. A square mark on the bullet is somewhere around .020" in the lands, dependent of course on the number of lands & their profile. I always use Wilson inline bullet seaters, so I make a dummy round & write what the stem length is on the round with a Sharpie for reference.
Again, this is for reference for that lot number of bullets, in your chamber, that you can reliably change seating depth changes in the future.
alf
Well-known member
As I stated earlier, I look for a square mark on the bullet, which generally is about .020" in the lands.
The problem with so many factory guns is the chambers/throats are not very concentric, so it can be tough to figure out the seating depths. Add in a barrel with a lot of rounds with firecracking makes it worse.