Hey guys, new to reloading. Couple questions: I was trying out my case trimmer and accidentally trimmed a couple cases too short for my 30/06. The book says to trim to 2.484, I trimmed to 2.470, is this going to matter, should I ditch these cases?

One more question,I am not using a bullet with a cannelure. If I was I assume you seat the bullet so the cannelure is even with the case. So what do you do if you seat the bullet to the edfe, and then the OAL is too long, seat it deeper anyway, or trim the case down shorter than the specs say to?

THANKS.

If I am going for just accuracy I ditch the cases, but if you are new to reloading, don't worry about it. Also, go to the thread on "to FL size or not". We talked about correct seating depth in there. Forget about the cannelure. Pretent it wasn't there (unless your bullets feed from a magazine tube). As stated by me and others in the other thread as well as many others, you are going to want to seat close to the lands. BUY A MANUAL ON RELOADING FOR ACCURACY, and also read the beginning sections in the reloading manuals (I prefer nosler and sierra). I can't state enough how much you should read before reloading. You will save yourself money, time, and LOTS, LOTS of headaches.

The "critical" time is if they get too long.

Thanks guys. I have the Speer book which I read, and book called "Basic Handloading", "Handloading Digest" and I bought a video. The sizing etc seems pretty straight forward. The confusion comes with the seating part for me and whether I need to crimp or not.

I was told by a few people to seat the bullet shallow in a dummy round, gently load it into the gun and see if the bolt would close. And to mark the bullet with dry erase marker or something and keep seating the bullet until I just see rifling marks on the bullet and then that is perfect for your rifle. Problem is, one book I have says not to do that because pressure increases too much. Input?

As long as there is enough neck to get a good grip on the bullets, too short doesn't matter a whole lot. The only thing I'd suggest is trimming the ALL to the same length. That gives you consisten grip on the bullets. With some cases short and some long, the grip will vary and affect your groups. Consistency is the key to accuracy. The minimal amount you are short would really not have much effect if you trimmed them all to that size. Three or four reloads and they are back up to spec.

Dogcatcher,

The method of finding out your oal (over all length) that you listed is correct. The reason one book said not to do it is because this puts the bullets slightly into the lands rather than actually "just" touching, and can cause slight pressure increase. Do exactly how you said with the marker for 4 or 5 rounds or so, then set your seating die up according to the average and turn your seating plug stem on the top of your seating die down 1/4 turn or so. Then work up loads with this length until you find the most accurate. After finding the most accurate, then vary seating depth by .005", then .002" till you find the most accurate load. Seating depth makes a difference (seat out longer and shoerter from your initial length). Oh, and DON'T CRIMP if you have a bolt action. No reason to.

Buy a stoney point bullet comparator or the one from sinclair international. The length of the bullet from tip to base changes from bullet to bullet in the same box, but length from the base to ogive is almost exactly the same. From lot to lot, the bullet profile will change slightly thus the length of the bullet, but you will want the same length from OGIVE to base of case for every round of every lot, and if you have a bullet comparator you can measure this way. from box to box, measuring from the base to tip will throw you off.

Thanks guys! I went to the store and found all the Stoney point stuff. Looks like a good way to go, I am waiting till payday then picking some more stuff up. I am pretty complete now on my setup. Appreciate all the help. Going to go and shoot my 25/06 tomorrow to try out a new trigger job. I had to buy ammo for it hopefully for the last time. What a rip, I paid $16 for plain old Remington. I just want to try it out at the range. Oh well, atleast I get the brass!