Hey Steve
What is your method of determining the proper bullet seating especially on the first rounds? I will be loading a Ruger MK-77 Mark 2 SS .260. Of course as you know this rifle has a deep throat and shooting the 125 or the 100 it will be impossible to place the bullet against the rifling. So where do you start? Just load the bullet out as far as it can go and still be used in the mag? I will be using W-760 powder to start off with.

I'm not Steve. But, the way I do it on a new rifle or new bullet is check the distance to the lands. If I can reach them then I back off a couple .01s. If I can't reach them then I load as long as possible allowing smoothing feeding and try and keep 1 bullet dia in the neck.

quote:

Originally posted by Blob1:
Hey Steve
What is your method of determining the proper bullet seating especially on the first rounds? I will be loading a Ruger MK-77 Mark 2 SS .260. Of course as you know this rifle has a deep throat and shooting the 125 or the 100 it will be impossible to place the bullet against the rifling. So where do you start? Just load the bullet out as far as it can go and still be used in the mag? I will be using W-760 powder to start off with.

Not Steve, but in your case I'd seat the bullet so as to have good neck tension, in other words, seat the bullet so the base is at least 1/2 the way down the neck(unless this is below minimum saami OAL) and go with it. A few rifles I own shoot well with the bullet .040"-.060" off the lands.

Or like you said, just so the round fits in your mag. Jay

Thanks for the info! On the way to load up a few 100 grain SPs!

I am Steve...

What I generally do is seat the bullet deep enough so that three dummy rounds will fit in the magazine and then function perfectly. (Naturally, this does not apply to single-shot firearms.)

THAT is my max OAL for that firearm.

If they don't fit the magazine, and if they dont extract or feed properly, what good are they?

Now if the max length for the magazine is too long for the chamber, then you start at the max that your chamber will digest.

If it is too long for a short bullet, well, the answer is kind of simple. Seat the bullet at least one bullet dimeter in the case neck, and that is your max OAL.

Thanks Steve for the info!

I've read (I believe from Barnes) that you can press the bullets 2/3 d into the case...

Is that cutting it too thin?

There are alot of different teachings out there about bullet seating. Enough to fill up a fairly good sized note book. The old standard was to seat the bullet to the bottom of the neck especially in 30 caliber bullets. Then it was just so they work in the mag well, then to the crimping ring, then it was so many thousands from the rifling, etc, etc. Many deep throated rifles took many of these teachings away and preformed well .050, .060 even .080 from the rifling. The standard to day seems to be to seat at least one diameter and like Steve states , use that as your max OAL. That is where I will start as I need for the rounds to work in the mag and I have a deep throated rifle to work with anyway.