You may have seen some allusion to this over where I was talking about my new Criterion Barrel under Aftermarket Barrels.

I consider bullet seating force one of the most overlooked factors in achieving consistent muzzle velocity (low ES and SD figures).

I'm currently working on a way to test required bullet seating force... before bullet seating. I can't go into detail because I do not yet have all the materials to perform the testing (I should have it all this week), but if it works out in that testing I'll pass along all information. I will also say, if it works, it's considerably cheaper than a K & M Arbor Press w/ Force Measurement and a Wilson seating die.

Whether this method works or not, I'm convinced there has to be some way to do this preliminary testing and I'm going to find it.

You might ask, if you prepare all your brass identically, won't the bullet seating force be the same? I think guys using the K & M Arbor with Force Measurement can answer this. I've seen other forum posts with K & M readings and from what I've seen they vary widely... and sometimes wildly. I believe this has to do with variances in the molecular makeup of the brass. One table I saw had reading ranging from under 20 lbs to over 30 lbs. The author indicated he had prepared all the brass identically.

You might might also ask, why would you want to test for seating force before actual bullet seating? Efficiency mainly. Here's my reasoning:

Say you have 300 cases that you’ve prepared. You need 100 cases for an upcoming match. You start seating bullets using a system like K & M offers for measuring seating force. What if you don’t come up with 100 the same out of the 300? You’re going to have 1) prepare more cases/rounds and 2) have a bunch of odd lot rounds lying around.

With my method, provided it proves itself in testing, if you have 100 cases that all force weight test the same prior to bullet seating, then you've got 100 cases for your match… and no leftovers. Also, on future preparations, you can stop when any category reaches the number of rounds you need for a match. Say I had 300 cases and I’ve got the following spread (note, my method will likely require less force than actual bullet seating, but it should be proportional):

60 @ 6lbs
80 @ 7lbs
92 @ 8lbs
68 @ 9lbs

I would only have to keep preparing cases until any of those weight categories reaches the 100 mark. Then I could make 100 rounds with NO leftovers. Say I hit 100 of the 8 lbs sort group first and had the following distribution:

66 @ 6lbs
90 @ 7lbs
100 @ 8lbs
78 @ 9lbs

I make complete rounds out of all the 8 lb sort group and am left with

66 @ 6lbs
90 @ 7lbs
0 @ 8lbs
78 @ 9lbs

Another match comes up and I start prepping cases until the next category hits 100. Maybe something like…

88 @ 6lbs
100 @ 7lbs
35 @ 8lbs
90 @ 9lbs

I use the 100 @ 7lbs for the next match.

Never do I have whole rounds sitting around waiting for mates. Will I have to change my sight settings when using 6 lbs instead of 8 lbs? A click or two possibly. But you won’t be using stray odd lot rounds for those spotter/foulers. With my method, you can use the same quality rounds you’ll be shooting in the competition.

And what if you come up with another crucial step in your reloading process? You might be able to rework the prepared empty cases. If you have entire rounds laying around, your only choice is to shoot them all as spotters or foulers or pull their bullets (risking scaring them in the process), dump the powder and hope you don’t have to waste perfectly good primers also?

Stay tuned. As I said, I should have results toward the end of the week.