I have been reloading for over 50 years and have never had a problem getting a rifle to shoot.

Currently, I decided to load both Nosler lead free 7mm and 30 caliber bullets for my 30-06, 7mm-08 and 280 Remington. I normally load my ammunition for between .004 to .006 off the lands. This way I normally achieve 1/2" groups with my custom built rifles.

I end up with groups that resemble buckshot patterns. I sure would appreciate advice in how to load these bullets. The alternative is to continue shooting with lead based bullets.

Would certainly appreciate any guidance relative as how to load the lead free bullets to get the groupings I am used to.

Start at .050 off the lands.

No idea about the Noslers.

But, I have loaded mono bullets for years.

And I follow a simple rule.

If the bullet is long enough, I load to the maximum cartridge length.

If the bullet is too short to do this, I seat the bullet one caliber down!

Starting with a really clean bore helps when switching from gilding metal cup and core bullets sometimes. I'm not a fan of only having the single groove on the E tips vs every other solid copper bullet.

In my experience, mostly Barnes x, monos,like big jump..... .06 or sometimes more.

I have tried testing accuracy due to seating depth with hollow point match bullets.

In two cartridges, a 222 Remington and a 308 Winchester.

There was no discernible difference at all.

May be mono are different?

Might try that test next.

I have loads of original Barnes X bullets in various calibers.

I think I will try 30 caliber.

Any suggestions on how much difference in seating depth between groups I should try?

How about 0.050?

Hi Saeed
In the UK we are using a lot of mono bullets these days due to coming regulations. Plenty of small manufacturers with some great products.
I have found best accuracy between 0.050 and 0.090 off the lands.

I am thinking of doing the following.

Shoot 5, 5-shot groups with each of the following lengths.

308 Winchester and Barnes X original 180 grains.

Start off with 2.800” which the maximum cartridge length.

Then seat deeper by 0.030” as each step, for 10 steps.

Shooting 5, 5-shot groups each.

That will end by the last groups being seated 0.270” deeper.

I have not decided on the rifle yet, as I have several that can be used.

I will clean the barrel after each lot are done.

Any recommendations would be much appreciated.

I have a break this morning, as the kids are coming to shoot in the afternoon.

So, I thought I would start this going.

Rifle is a Kimber 8400 Tactical Patrol HB.

Vihtavuouri powder VVN 540.

I took the starting load and maximum load, divide by 2.

Arrived at 36.0 grains.

I am going to use this for all the test ammo.

Barnes 180 XBT.

Maximum over all length for the 308 is 2.800.

I have started with this.

Shooting 5, 5-shot groups.

Rifle shot well.

Funny thing is the largest group was more than twice the smallest.


What do we use as an acceptable result?

I am going to go 0.030 deeper seating with each increment.

Pre-64 Model 70s prefer Nosler original Partition bullets, in 30-06, 338-06 and 270.

The monos I have are mostly solids for Africa.

Barnes TX-X bullets intrude too deeply into cartridge powder space and seem to be less accurate.

safarihunter,

I've been loading Barnes monolithics since the late 1990s. I'll try to keep this short, Nosler's loading manuaL #9 states, " When loading our E-Tip bullets, seat the bullets from .050-.100 away from the lands for optimum accuracy".

Barnes bullets recommends .050-up to .250 or more.

Monolithics don't like copper and zinc bullet fouling. Barnes recommends cleaning all the copper out of your bore before shooting their monolithics. I didn't dig in to see if Nosler or Hornady says the same thing.

With regards to seating depth making a difference in group size, I tested the Barnes 168 TTSXs extensively firing 45 three shot groups varying seating depth .003 in a Sako 85 30-06 and firing 20 three shot groups with two different seating depths in a Remington 700 30-06. The difference in group size in the Sako averaged .050 and the difference in group size in the Remington 700 was .057. That lines up fairly closely with what the Hornady guys found when testing at 200 yards.

That's two 30-06s with 168 TTSXs showing a small difference in average group size firing statistically significant sample sizes. So, does seating depth matter? With the 168 TTSX if someone were shooting benchrest matches I would say yes. If someone were shooting F-class I would say yes. If someone is shooting PRS or huntin inside of 400 yards I would say it wouldn't matter. In a hunting scenario, it won't matter to me because I can't shoot the .050-.057 difference from field positions. Hope this info helps.