How do you tell when your bullet is seated "near the lands"? In the past Ive only concerned myself with making sure that it was seated deep enough to be safe by using printed maximum cartridge length specs, boy was I ever off base. Any help is appreciated.

In some manner you need to determine the location of the lands. This can be done in a variety of ways from the most rudimentary using a dowel, to using sophisticated measuring equipment. The methods are many but the easiest is with the use of a tool sold by Stoney Point, called a Chamber-all.

Don't lose any sleep over this. The benefits are overblown. For too many years people and guns shot accurately without this concern and many will continue to do so. It is more of a tool for benchrest shooters and the high degree of accuracy they require. Not essential for hunting. In fact, in many guns such as Weatherby's with factory chambers, the lands are so distant that it is impossible to reach them, yet many of these rifles are capable of superb accuracy. Don't worry about it. It could also work against you.

one way is too make a dummy round and seat the
bullet far enough in that the brass holds the bullet. then take a black marker and color the
entire bullet,once this is done chamber the round
slowly,then extract the round .You will notice
that some copper will be exposed where the lands
had contacted the bullet.Color the bullet one more time and repeat the step.Once this is done
seat your bullet a hair deeper with your press. Put this round up and use it to set your
die in the future.
P.S dont put a primer in this round,so you wont
be a dummy and for get its a dummy

Im looking to get my 30-06 as efficent as possible. Ill be using 165 gr Gamekings as my primary load. Will they normally reach the lands or is that too short of a bullet to even worry about? No chrony yet but Id like to get some tighter patterns then Im getting. I have used IMR 4895 forever but I think Ill try working up a 4350 load next and stick with the 4895 with my other guns. Thanks for the replies.

This is how I set my seating depth. Seat the first bullet way out in a dummy round and chamber it and close the bolt. When you extract the round there will be marks on the bullet from the lands.

Put this test round in your seating die and with the ram up screw the seating ajustment down to firmly touch the bullet. Lower the ram. Turn the seating screw down one full turn.

Your all set if the LOA is 3.34" or less. If it's more than that you have to seat them deeper if you want to get more than two rounds in a bolt rifle.

WSTRNHUNTR,
This point is the subject of great debate. I have found that every rifle is an individual and as such have their own preference.That's what reloading is really all about, feeding the rifle what it wants. While most of the rifles I've loaded for over the years like the bullet just off the lands that is not always the case, but it is sure a good place to start. I use a cleaning rod with a flat tip jag in it. I slide the rod down the bore until the jag rest against the closed bolt and mark the rod with a pencil. I chamber a round into the chamber with a bullet seated as far out as possible. This moves the rod backwards. This is done gently. Once the rod stops I mark it again. That bullet and case are usedd to adjust the seating die for the length indicated by the marks on the cleaning rod. It's simple, easy and works. Once a promising load is found, if it's not as small as you want, load about 24 rounds. Seat three of them to the original OAL, the next three .005" deeper and so on. Pay close attention to pressures, seating the bullets deeper may result in higher pressures. I hope that this is of some help. Good luck.