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Rick4570

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Do you folks get powder charge right first , or seating depth?
Thanks in advance
 
Resize, prime, expand, charge(once you are getting consistent drops with whatever measure your using) seat bullet (I start off with the die backed off and then slowly turn the die in until I am at the cannelure or correct depth if no cannelure for OAL), then crimp if what I am reloading requires it.
 
Resize, prime, expand, charge(once you are getting consistent drops with whatever measure your using) seat bullet (I start off with the die backed off and then slowly turn the die in until I am at the cannelure or correct depth if no cannelure for OAL), then crimp if what I am reloading requires it.

Do you start with bullet just touching the lands?
Load some cartridges with varying powder charge, get a group you are happy with, then adjust seating depth?
I'm talking rifle cartridges like 30-06 , 25-06. ,
 
Between those two and only those two powder charge.

Ron
Ron,
Can you please elaborate? Like I said I don't have much experience with bottlenecked cartridges, but wouldn't proper length be crucial for feeding and chambering and if you were to start short and increase length at the same powder charge decrease pressure and changing the velocity and pressure ? I'm interested to learn this too.
 
i can truly say it does not matter and it will be argued both ways. You should do one then the other and then go back and fine tune. You may do two process at a time and look for the maximum charge for your rifle and OCW at the same time. That takes two off the table and then do a seating depth test. The details come from where you start for each one. Depending on your application you may run max mag length then run your ocw or you may be able to get into or close to the lands. There may be some inside information that you can use to shorten the process. If a bullet is very common you can ask. A lot of popular bullets like the match king and the eldm are very common and people state often "shoots best for me XXX off the lands" I find the most common number happens to be .020 off and baring any further information i would start there.
 
Depends on your goals. For hunting ammo in a modern rifle, I will usually start with the length in a reputable manual (this is what their data was developed with) and work up to the desired velocity. If accuracy is acceptable, I stop there. If not, I will either scrap the load completely or drop down a couple of grains and try pushing closer to the lands and work up.

For high power match ammo (rapid fire), my loads are essentially dictated by magazine length. For long line single load ammo, I will start a couple thousandths off the lands and work up the charge, checking for accuracy.

In some of the military rifles I load for with known long throats, I will find the ZERO FEREEBORE COL and see where this lines up with the magazine and components I have. Often the throat is too long to make magazine loaded ammo touch the lands. In this case, I will usually start with the max magazine length minus a little bit depending on the particulars of the rifle's feed system, then work up the powder charge.

I cannot stress enough, any significant change (a change in COL is absolutely significant) must be worked up from below maximum with good loading protocol for safety, so yes, COL first!
 
For me I get the powder charge first,
I load to the suggested COL

Once I have a powder I know my gun likes then I play with seating depth

Can’t stress this enough “change one variable at a time!”
 
Ron,
Can you please elaborate? Like I said I don't have much experience with bottlenecked cartridges, but wouldn't proper length be crucial for feeding and chambering and if you were to start short and increase length at the same powder charge decrease pressure and changing the velocity and pressure ? I'm interested to learn this too.
Sure I can elaborate a little. The question posed was:
Do you folks get powder charge right first , or seating depth?
Thanks in advance
Then there was my reply:
Between those two and only those two powder charge.

Ron

Normally with some exceptions I have my order of events for reloading a cartridge, I figure most here do. My once fired brass is pretty clean and I do not pick up range brass with few exceptions. again this is just me. The following while not always the case is pretty much how it goes for me. Bottle neck rifle brass.

1. I lube and resize the brass. Since the brass is pretty clean I am not worried about dirt. I also keep my loading dies clean.
2. Since full length resizing normally gives you brass longer than you stated with I now trim the brass. This is where I want all my brass trimmed uniformly.
3. Now I toss the brass in a tumbler and clean it. When cleaning I like clean primer pockets so after shaking it out I check my pockets for any remaining media.
4. I have an RCBS case prep center with primer pocket brush and also allows easy chamfer inside and outside my case necks. I can also run each case up and down on an inside case brush
5. Using a powdered lube like Mica I just get the insides of the case necks.
6. I charge the cases be it hand weighing each charge on any of several scales or using a RCBS throw or RCBS Chargemaster. Regardless, this is the point where I charge my cases.
7. I seat my bullets.

The order is always subject to change depending on any number of variables. However, looking at the original post " Do you folks get powder charge right first , or seating depth"? Between those two I charge and seat in that order. One reason I get a little fanatical about trim is I want my brass as close to identical as possible. I just figure the idea behind ammunition be it hand loads or commercial starts with uniformity. I don't give seating depth a thought till a whole bunch of other things have been addressed. :)

Ron
 
I first find a GENERAL seating depth that assures the fit and feed of said ammo from mag to chamber and not binding up when chambered (plunk test) using a dummy round with no primer. Then find a good load that is accurate. Finally I mess with seating depth to try and improve accuracy. As far as the OP's post the round chambering first is more important than either of the two items asked about.
 
Since I'm still working on powder charge on some new bullets I received, I say charge, after I get close with my charge I will try length but only on the rifles I feel it will make a difference (I'm loading for 7 30-06s).
My last bullets were Hornady 150s and I found 1 rifle that length made a big difference in at 300yrds, I just bought some sierra 150s and will try them when the ground dries out so I can get to the back of the property with my truck.
 
For my rifle handloads, seating depth aka "distance to the lands", is near/at the bottom of my list of load work up items. I start with an OAL suggested by the bullet manufacturer and use one powder, varying the charges. I change one thing at a time starting with powder charges, then bullets, then maybe primers, and other methods like crimping or sizing/neck sizing, and lastly experiment with distance to rifling...

I arrived at my best load in this manner. I get 7/8" groups from my 308 Ruger with LC brass, Nosler 155 HPBT (using Nosler OAL data) with IMR 4064...
 
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