Inconsistent seating depths

[T28w]

So I’m working up only the third load in my reloading journey and wanted to see if this is normal.
300wsm Norma brass and 168 Barnes ttsx is what I working on and I have about thirty rounds loaded up for a ladder test and when seating the bullets and measuring cbto if each round, I noticed pretty inconsistent results. I have a Redding type s match seater on a frankfurt arsenal m press.

I measured 6 random bullets out of the box and there was difference of .005 from the highest to lowest. This is kinda the variation I’m seeing in seating depth also. So my question is if the bullets themselves have a variation of their size, could or should I expect to see a similar variation when seating them?

I also don’t know or feel like accuracy will be affected enough to matter as I am looking for a decent hunting load. but if I’m going through the trouble to reload and be as accurate as I can I want to see if this is normal. Or is something off in my setup. The other loads I have done for. 6.5 creedmoor has much smaller discrepancies.

 

[Cahunter805]

Are you measuring base of the case to Ogive with a comparator?
I always swap the seating stem of my Redding dies over to the VLD stem. For me it’s much more consistent and works well with tipped bullets also.
Another factor that can affect seating depth is neck tension. It must be consistent and neck wall thickness variances can affect that as well.

 

[C.Cass]

compressed loads? If so that is kind of par for the course.

 

[NW Hunt€r]

Different bullet makers have different tolerances.
I’ve got a box of 500 Berger 140 hybrids that seat to the exact CBTO every time.
When I load bullets with inconsistent bearing surfaces, I seat them .005” short of my desired CBTO. I measure them with my comparator attached to my calipers to see where it is at lengthwise.
I then adjust my die and for the final seating.
It’s slow but sure. As mentioned earlier, if you are seating a bullet on top of a compressed load of powder, you will have difficulty hitting your CBTO #.
Ive had CBTO grow after a few days because of compressed loads

 

[T28w]

Are you measuring base of the case to Ogive with a comparator?
I always swap the seating stem of my Redding dies over to the VLD stem. For me it’s much more consistent and works well with tipped bullets also.
Another factor that can affect seating depth is neck tension. It must be consistent and neck wall thickness variances can affect that as well.

Yes. Sinclair comparator
Brass is virgin but had an expander ball run through mouth and chamfered

 

[T28w]

compressed loads? If so that is kind of par for the course.

No

 

[T28w]

Different bullet makers have different tolerances.
I’ve got a box of 500 Berger 140 hybrids that seat to the exact CBTO every time.
When I load bullets with inconsistent bearing surfaces, I seat them .005” short of my desired CBTO. I measure them with my comparator attached to my calipers to see where it is at lengthwise.
I then adjust my die and for the final seating.
It’s slow but sure. As mentioned earlier, if you are seating a bullet on top of a compressed load of powder, you will have difficulty hitting your CBTO #.
Ive had CBTO grow after a few days because of compressed loads

I’m .050 off lands as rec by Barnes. I would be more concerned if was was trying to seat close to lands. I am going to range tomorrow and I’ll see how they shoot.

I’m definitely not going to seat, measure, adjust die, and seat again. Lol. I know I can’t shoot that good and will have to just settle just a decent load.

 

[Cahunter805]

Yes. Sinclair comparator
Brass is virgin but had an expander ball run through mouth and chamfered

So did you FL size all your new brass before loading? What sizing die are you using?
I would bet the plastic tip of the TTSX is bottoming out on the seating stem before the stem is touching the bullet Ogive. This will give inconsistent results. You can drill out the stem so the bullet fits better also.

 

[Lawnboi]

You can only be as consistent as your components. If your runout is about what bullet runout is, and as above your seating off ogive and not off the tip, then I’d guess it’s just an inconsistent bullet.
There’s probably a reason you don’t see most competitors shooting Barnes

 

[Harvey_NW]

Pull the seating stem out an put the bullet in as though it's being seated and you'll easily see if the tip is bottoming out or not.

One thing I've made a habit of doing is fully seat, then once you've cleared the die on the down stroke spin your case 180 in the shell holder and go through the seating revolution again. You'll feel that some of them get bumped and some of them don't. My assumption is that the ones getting bumped had a bit of runout, but I'm too cheap to buy a concentricity gauge. Anywho, that also helped my cbto consistency issue.

 

[wapitibob]

I’ve loaded hundred of Barnes tsx/ttsx and they were a bit inconsistent, enough that I backed off my seater .005 and crept up to it, for every bullet. Brass has been annealed after every firing, carbon neck lube always, virgin brass acted the same.
I just bought 50 hammer hunters and can tell you they seat within .001. I noticed the difference immediately.
I measure to the end of the hammers, not the ogive and get that .001.

 

[N2TRKYS]

I’ve seen inconsistencies in bullets from Noslers to Bergers. I haven’t seen that it makes any difference in accuracy.

 

[T28w]

So did you FL size all your new brass before loading? What sizing die are you using?
I would bet the plastic tip of the TTSX is bottoming out on the seating stem before the stem is touching the bullet Ogive. This will give inconsistent results. You can drill out the stem so the bullet fits better also.

Did not resize. Redding type s die. Only ran the expander ball in and the back out to uniform the mouth. When I was chamfering the inside prior to doing this, they were not uniform. I didn’t even have a bushing in the die.

 

[T28w]

I’ve seen inconsistencies in bullets from Noslers to Bergers. I haven’t seen that it makes any difference in accuracy.

I’m hoping this is true and thinking I will be happy.

 

[Cahunter805]

Did not resize. Redding type s die. Only ran the expander ball in and the back out to uniform the mouth. When I was chamfering the inside prior to doing this, they were not uniform. I didn’t even have a bushing in the die.

So you ran the brass through the die with the expander ball but didn’t use a bushing to size it back down? Why no bushing? Usually you want to resize new brass to straighten necks and make consistent but also set neck diameter.
How hard was it to seat a bullet? Can you move a bullet by pushing on it?

 

[T28w]

Plenty of neck tension.

 

[452b264]

You sir need a VLD seating stem.

 

[NW Hunt€r]

I’m .050 off lands as rec by Barnes. I would be more concerned if was was trying to seat close to lands. I am going to range tomorrow and I’ll see how they shoot.

I’m definitely not going to seat, measure, adjust die, and seat again. Lol. I know I can’t shoot that good and will have to just settle just a decent load.

If your acuracy window is wide enough, you don’t have to do all that bull——.

 

[Rich M]

We had this issue with some "blem" Nosler partitions, 165 gr I think. It seemed like none were the same length.

Got suspicious and loaded up 50 or 100 Sierra bullets and they were a lot more consistent.

Stop buying the blems after that.

 

[4ester]

We had this issue with some "blem" Nosler partitions, 165 gr I think. It seemed like none were the same length.

Got suspicious and loaded up 50 or 100 Sierra bullets and they were a lot more consistent.

Stop buying the blems after that.

In my experience that’s normal for Nosler (non-blems). Have seen that with Hornady as well. Sierra’s and Berger’s are much more consistent. I’ve never used Barnes so really can’t comment on the OP.


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