Seating issue for Bench Rest quality cartridges

[DennisPA]

I've been shooting short range benchrest for the last couple years and now I'm trying my hand at the long range ie.1K. Here is my seating depth issue. I sort my bullets by base to ogive in .001 groups. I seat with Wilson seating dies and I can usually seat them to within .001 to .002 of my desired depth. But more frequently then I would like I get some that are up to .004 off my desired depth.
I’ve heard that seaters don’t always use the ogive to seat. The die maker picks an arbitrary point along the curve between the ogive and the meaplate. What is throwing my seating depth off so much? Is there that much of a difference in the curve even if the base to ogive is relatively consistent?

[eddiesindian]

Ive often wondered the same thing. 15 or so yrs ago I optted to stop trying to get "every" rd exactly and precisely the same as far as bullet depth. I rather pay more attention to same neck tension (same brand) same lot# of propellant (with exact powder chargs) and same lot# primers.... Ive given up on plaiyng with seating depths just as long ago as well (to me....I found no proven advantages)
getting down to the natts ass of trying to do what your doing will IMHO...drive you crazy
im loading to std aol, and hitting steels from 100 out to 1K....to me?...reading and adjusting to wind when sending them out to distance is far harder to achieve than worrying about such small variences in depth.
Reloading is so subjective....what works for some doesnt work for others and i can respect that...just dont let it drive your crazy.
If your getting 1/4" to 1/2" patterns at 100 (consistantly)..then I gaurantee your ready for distance (providing you have ballistics calculated)
Good luck....if you do happen to find some kind of info as to your depth issues, let us know. Im curious as to what the culprit is.

[sharpshooter]

I had sort of the same problem....I found that the particular bullet I was loading was bottoming out on the tip of the bullet inside the seating die stem, instead of the ogive. The bullets had a sharper, smaller meplat that touched the bottom of the blind hole in the seater stem. It wasn't by much, but it was giving me a concentricity problem. I only found this after I started trimming meplats for uniformity and suddenly the concentricity problem disappeared.

[Williarj87]

Wilson makes VLD seating stems for that reason. some people say they still get the same issue, others say it fixes their problem.

[GaCop]

Your issues were also driving me bonkers! Looks Like I'll have to get away from my expensive comp seating dies and go with Wilson and an arbor press.

[Nandy]

I read somewhere that for some die makers you can send the die back with the bullet you intend to use and they will match the seating stem to it. Call first to make sure that service is offer for the bullet/die combo.

[eddiesindian]

I read somewhere that for some die makers you can send the die back with the bullet you intend to use and they will match the seating stem to it. Call first to make sure that service is offer for the bullet/die combo.

true that:
I called up Lyman 15 or so yrs ago with questions and much to my suprise?...they advised me to send the die stem in along with the projectile. I gave it some thought and decided to leave well enuff alone. I figured 7rds thru the same hole with one of my Shaw barrel,d 223 target gas guns was sufficient.

[MacDR]

I too have given up trying to get perfection in seating depth. I still set my OAL to ogive rather than bullet tip because I believe that gives the best results. I have also made up several seating stems for VLD's which often bottom out in the standard stems. In the end, even with match grade bullets and the best dies small deviations will occur. IMHO they have very little impact on accuracy if any but chasing the elusive is part of the fun.