Hey guys,

I have a .416 Hoffman being built and am curious about seating on solids. Mike Brady sent me a few (4) flat point solids to load into dummy rounds to send my 'smith to check feeding. I'm thinking I'll seat one at SAAMI (sp?) specs then seat a couple at .02 progressively shorter, and one at .02 oversize. Would that be a good plan, or should I just seat all of them to spec and let the 'smith work with that?

Mikes FN Solids are great bullets.

You might have to seat them a little deeper, remember they are not pointed or round nose.
How a bullet feeds and chambers depends not only on the OAL but on the demensions of the Ogive.

As an example I have used the Sierra 165gr HPBT Gameking and the 168gr Matchking in the 308 quite a bit. The Gameking has quite a bit blunter hollowpoint, and must be seated deeper than the Match King.

You will just have to experiment and see what is the best OAL for the North Fork Flat Point.

Did I not send you an instruction sheet? If not, send an email and I will email it back to you. Basically, no, you can't seat them where ever you want. Neck/bullet minimum contact area (case dependent) and throat allowance of your rifle trump the desired OAL. After that it is what will feed in your rifle. A combination of those factors tell you what the OAL length is rather than the other way around. Few bolt guns will feed with max magazine OAL unless it is a very well made rifle that points the rounds from the magazine to the chamber mouth. Is it your intention to have the throat cut for that one bullet seated to a desired OAL? Not very many smiths will do that.

Mike

Tony, thanks for the response.

Mike, I'll give you a call. The solids won't be used as primary; your softs will. I just wanted to be sure that the solids will feed.

I much prefer Mikes Cup Point, but his flat point solids are excellent..

As opposed to concern about seating depths I would simply seat the bullets out to fit in the magazine and at a depth where they fed properly in the rifle. Seating depth on a DGR is almost a non issue within reason, mostly your locked in to whatever the magazine will take and feed........Not like a target or varmint rifle where extreme accuracy is required and seating depth will make a fraction of difference.....