Just loaded tomorrow's rounds, using the Forster Ultra Seater.

It's tits.

I had a few sample rounds in a loading that had been ultimately accurate.

I hate setting seating dies, so I'd been avoiding using the new Forster.

All I had to do was get close to the COAL that had been effective in the past, and then use the micrometer to dial in the length I wanted.

Load development is a long, slow process.

And I have yet to seat these rounds close to the chamber throat.

Without encouraging Hot Core and Woods to get into it again, is it possible to just empirically find the the rifling by slowly diminishing the depth of bullet seating a few thousandths at a time?

flaco

I bought a Forster Ultra die set for my 22 Hornet. I used the setup in my Co-Ax. A wonderful set of dies, well worth the money. You will be very happy with yours. They are the tits for sure!!!

quote:

Originally posted by flaco:

Without encouraging Hot Core and Woods to get into it again, is it possible to just empirically find the the rifling by slowly diminishing the depth of bullet seating a few thousandths at a time?

flaco

By slowly increasing the OAL by seating the bullet longer I suppose it would be possible to find the lands. It might take a while and you would have a lot of bullets at varying seating depths but eventually you could see where the lands hit the ogive if you blacken each bullet after using the seater.

Or you could pull out your Stoney Point and do it right the first time.

PS: I prefer the RCBS Competition seater. It has the micrometer on top also and you can insert the bullet in the side and the sliding collet will hold it in alignment from the beginning of the seating operation.

Damned If I know, yesterday I tried loading a new projectile, very carefully used a rod to measure the difference from the bullet to the bolt face.
Then just pushed a long dummy round into the chamber. (Same projectile).

The difference was 20 thou. The push in effort was the shorter.

They shot up to sh** anyway, where as the normal load went just under 3/8" as usual

Those are very nice dies.

With most factory rifles you will run out of magazine length before you kiss the lands.

I use a Stoney point to get close, them make up a couple dummy rounds around that length, and coat the bullets with black magic marker. The correct maximum length is when the magic marker is barely scratched off.

You can then start working shorter in whatever increment you are comfortable with.

LD

quote:

Originally posted by flaco:
...Without encouraging Hot Core and Woods to get into it again,

"Woods" who???

quote:

... is it possible to just empirically find the the rifling by slowly diminishing the depth of bullet seating a few thousandths at a time?

Yes.

I measure distance to the lands using a case in which I make a cut vertically from the cartridge mouth to neck's intersection with the shoulder. I use a Dremel with cut-off wheel. Put a bullet in it. Remove the bolt. Insert the case/bullet in the chamber and tap it in with a 1/4" wood dowel and a little hammer until you feel brass on steel. Remove. Measure. Repeat several times for accuracy. You may have to adjust neck tension. Sometimes the bullet sticks, so push it out with a cleaning rod. Yeah, I have a Stony Point tool, but it's too much trouble. I also have the RCBS tool. Make a new measurement for each weight/brand of bullet. There are variations.

Thanks for the replies, Gentlemen.

I think I'm gonna try Brice's method.

For the two cartridges in question, 6.5x55 and 7x57, I have the RCBS micrometer tool. I particularly enjoyed being able to mike the cases for shoulder length, to see how accurately I fit the barrels, but can't get consistent readings from the bullet depth tool.

Both of these are on '09 actions, lawndart, so I'm hoping to have enough magazine length to reach the lands.

I guess it will all depend on how deep Lothar Walther throated the barrels.

One, the 6.5x55, is shooting about as well as one could hope for a 100 year old action. So I may be reaching the area of the law of diminishing returns.

But I'll take all the help I can get.

The 7x57 has up 'til now sported a nice Lyman 57 aperture sight. It's recently been fitted with a scope, in deference to my 58 year-old eyes.

(Which did, on occasion, manage some pretty nice groups.)

The scope is no target model, a fixed focal length 6x, but which, I'm hoping, will make a very nice hunting rifle.

flaco

quote:

Originally posted by flaco:
...I have the RCBS micrometer tool. ...but can't get consistent readings from the bullet depth tool.

If you would use 1 Bullet to determine the Kiss-the-Lands distance, measure the OCL and then convert it to the Overall Die Length of your Seating Die, that problem will be resolved. You can find how to do it at OCL to ODL.

quote:

It's recently been fitted with a scope, in deference to my 58 year-old eyes.

(Which did, on occasion, manage some pretty nice groups.)

The scope is no target model, a fixed focal length 6x, but which, I'm hoping, will make a very nice hunting rifle.

Shooting good groups with "only" a 6x scope speaks well for you. My old eyes benefit from a good bit more power than that when shooting paper.