Seating Depth?

[muslmutt]

It has been stated in another post that seating depth is more important to accuracy than concentricity. How big of a difference does it make? Is it the last step in your load development? Is it in your opinion load specific, or will a rifle prefer all bullets or loads seated the same distance from the lands?
Thanks.
Matt.

 

[Larry Elliott]

One of the reasons that people try to find the "jam length" for a bullet is that if loads are developed with the bullet at the rifling, the only way to go with the bullet is deeper in the case. Concentricity should be taken care of with the sizing and bullet seating steps, so after they're sorted out, seating depths are the last step in load refinement. The bullet shape has something to do with where the bullet likes to be. Some bullets (VLD's) with large radius ogives (pointier bullets) generally like to be seated in or close to the rifling, while "standard" bullets aren't usually as particular.

I was told by a gunsmith that rifles with steep throats (larger included angle) tend to like their bullets seated farther from the rifling, and in one rifle I was having problems with he seemed to be correct.

 

[murphy]

On seating depth

Seating depth is load specific and is less forgiving in light hunting rifles than target rifles. The mistake that most people make is that they move their bullets about in tiny amounts in and out. About1/16" at a time is the correct amount,moving around in thousandths of an inch in sporter weigh rifles is a waste of time and bullets. Murphy

 

[sbindy]

I seat my bullets to jam .010 with .001 of neck tension so that it easily moves in the case when the bolt is closed. I find that using this method my results on target are more consistent day to day. Everytime that I thought I had found the magic depth, the condition would be different the next time out and I would have to start all over. Seating into the lands removes that variable altogether. All you have to do then is find the powder it likes. I also FL size my cases with the shoulder bumped back .001. That way, when I chamber a round, the only contact points are the boltface and the lands. It helps to keep the case more concentric this way since the only support it has is at each end. Then you can get on with the business of shooting in the wind.