pumpkinslinger wrote:

Now I plan to quit tinkering and just go shoot the things and see what happens.

Excellent idea....... This is one of those things that often gets over thought but until you get an understanding of what's going on it'll drive ya nuts !!!

Good stats Pumpkinslinger. Thanks.

Looking only at #1 and #20... The OAL was .009" different but the comparator length is 0.001".... Go shoot the dang things and quit worrying so much... the SST is a good bullet and it has enough bearing surface that it will be more forgiving about jump to lands than an Amax IMHO...


Mac -If what you are doing is working for you and you are good to go with it. Do not clutter your head with this minutia...

BUT - I have found from experience that for my .223 target loads, within a box of Hornady 75 BTHP and Sierra 77 Matchkings the bullets may come from two or more finishing swagers that put the final shape on any bullet. These will have slighty different profiles from ogive to tip. From lot to lot you really need to look closely before you just stick another bullet on there if you are jamming .010" into the lands.

I have measured bullets and found that the bullet length from base to tip can vary by up to .012" within a box of match grade bullets while the base to Ogive measurement will not vary more than .001",.002"at most. That part of the bullet shape must be easier to control.

One more point on the subject. If you want to track throat erosion - you should pick a bullet and mark it so you do not lose it and use the same bullet over time with a comparator. Just using any old 55jsp will not give you a valid reading.

Just remember - you are measuring from base of the case to tip of the bullet to get a relative measurement from ogive of the bullets profile to leade or throat, using a seating die that hits on a different point on the bullet profile that your calipers or your comparator! I gave up fiddling with it for the most part and load them mag length and shoot'em under 1 MOA out to 300 yards - (now 600 yard loads.. I take a little more care with those)

Here is the comparator I'm using, just for discussion's sake.

www.sinclairintl.com/....omparators

You guys make my head hurt.

Go to Natchez Shooters Supply and buy some Nosler loaded ammo. Problem solved.

Gee tc, where is the fun in that??

I have been using a ogive comparator for all of my reloading along with a moal guage made by stoney point. It has saved me many headaches. Nosler and Sierra tips are so not uniform that it is ridiculous.

tcknight wrote:

You guys make my head hurt. Go to Natchez Shooters Supply and buy some Nosler loaded ammo. Problem solved.

I did that for my 221 before I got dies and time to work with it....... Worst damn ammo I ever bought !!!
So basically I paid 50 bucks for 50 pieces of once fired 221 brass. ........... jokes on me I guess !!!

Just as a thought; have you compared case-neck tension and case-neck thicknesses? Your expander ball may be just large enough that it expands the necks on some cases (depending on neck thickness) just enough too much to hold the bullet against the compressed load.

Since I haven't had time to shoot these loads yet I was able to measure them again today. There was no "growth" during the last two weeks.

I have found, in general, that slightly compressed loads give very consistent chrono results and great accuracy. I'm curious to see how your .260 likes them.
I hope you get a chance to go shooting before the weather in NC gets too nasty this winter. It's been warmer than normal here in western MA, but I'm still freezing. I wish we could swap the bowhunting and black powder seasons around just once.

44marty wrote:

I have found, in general, that slightly compressed loads give very consistent chrono results and great accuracy. I'm curious to see how your .260 likes them.

I have just finished doing a work up for loads on my buddie's 300wsm and the two best load combinations were with Reloader22 71.6gr which is compressed and .6gr over the max load and the second was with imr4007ssc 58.0gr. Both shot very good and are sub moa although the re22 load strung left to right 3/8-1/2 inch center to center. Comments???

Pumpkinslinger wrote:

I was able to measure them again today. There was no "growth" during the last two weeks.

What does a bored shooter do to pass the time? Watch his bullet grow.

Dahhhhhoooo!

Slim, LMAO! What can I say...

Right now I have nine loads waiting to be tested. They've shut my job down for the week after Christmas ("furlough") so it looks like I might finally have some time to hit the range. Naturally today I've ended up with my arm in a sling, something wrong with my shoulder... At least its the weak side so maybe I can still do some testing off the bench.