I took the time to use the split neck method of getting a COL for my 300RUM,...and then I spent hours getting the seater plug in my Wilson to seat that EXACT SAME bullet, to just that exact depth.

Here is where it gest interesting,....just for sh!ts and grins I measured COL on the successive rounds loaded. Now,..how come an occassional round will measure up to .004-.005" less? I am assuming it is just a difference in the length of the HP tip (you know none of them are the same up front). Is this simply a difference in the tip,..and am I more than likely still seated at the lands with the varying rounds?

I thought about this after repsonding to another thread on COL,...and I remembered I wanted to ask this question.

I use the same method for setting the overall length for my rounds and have found the same thing to be true. You have set the seating depth off of the ogive of the bullet and as long as your die is tightened down well, I wouldn't worry about it. Just chalk it up to a QC issue for the manufacturer.

Dennis

You should have a consistent bullet to land dimension if the diameter at which you measured the bullets is close to that of the start of your rifling.

On a related topic, I once went through a box of bullets with my "Sinclair nut" and a good caliper measuring the length of bullets from the base to a consistent spot on the ogive. I wanted to see just how consistent the bullets were *before* I added any variations in seating.

It turned out that there was a *lot* of variation, but in this case it was simple to cure. There were pretty much TWO distinct length bullets in the same box! I presume that this was from two bullet making presses.

I sorted the bullets into the two groups and then my heavy-barreled .22-250 did in fact shoot a bit smaller groups. I forget the difference in group size between sorted and unsorted bullets now, but it would only be noticeable in an accurate (ca 0.5 MOA) rifle like this was.

jpb