Barnes Bullets can you seat with a groove showing

WVELK

WKR
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Jul 2, 2020
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I guess it is okay to seat a Barnes bullet with all or part of one of the grooves remaining outside of the neck. I am working on a couple of bullets in a 7MM Mag. One is the 150 ttsx and it needs to be seated .200 off the lands to get the groves all below the outside edge of the neck. The other is the 168 LRX and it need seated about .107 off the lands to hide the grooves. Do you seat with any of a groove exposed outside the neck? It just does not seem right to me I guess. I am not a Barnes guy so looking for experience.
 
yes, it's fine. I end up doing it on nearly every cartridge/bullet I ever hand loaded.
obviously you want to know where your lands are and start at about .050" off in my experience.
 
Totally fine, I don't pay attention to the grooves at all. For Barnes, I start at 0.050" off the lands and that's usually where I end up.
 
So to get .050 off the lands are you putting a bullet in a empty case, closing the bolt, removing and measuring the length? Then seat .050" shorter?
 
I load mine at 2.825" coal. I use R-P brass, CCI-200, 49g of Varget. I ran across an older thread where they were being loaded at 2.810" . Funny thing is, Barnes site recommend them at 2.735 and the TSX at 2.810". With Varget, at 2.735" I was compressed. I don't have my notes with me but my jump at 2.825" is more than the .050" recommended. prob closer to .100" - .120" in my T3 lite. I tried TAC but didn't get good results. With these, velocity is your friend.

Oh, one other thing, I reload based on CBTO (cartridge base to ogive). The reason for this is sometimes the plastic tips get dinged up and give you a false reading. I just know my COAL is 2.825" from my early targets. My CBTO measurements are in my journal.


130 TTSX.JPG
 
I load mine at 2.825" coal. I use R-P brass, CCI-200, 49g of Varget. I ran across an older thread where they were being loaded at 2.810" . Funny thing is, Barnes site recommend them at 2.735 and the TSX at 2.810". With Varget, at 2.735" I was compressed. I don't have my notes with me but my jump at 2.825" is more than the .050" recommended. prob closer to .100" - .120" in my T3 lite. I tried TAC but didn't get good results. With these, velocity is your friend.

Oh, one other thing, I reload based on CBTO (cartridge base to ogive). The reason for this is sometimes the plastic tips get dinged up and give you a false reading. I just know my COAL is 2.825" from my early targets. My CBTO measurements are in my journal.


View attachment 879337
Awesome thank you for the information!
 
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