.222 rem seating depth

[the black mire]

hi lads am loading 50grain bliztkings for a cz 527 varmint in .222 my coal is 2.180 anybody on here load for same and was wanting to know what coal shoots best for you.

[Dougy]

There may not be a short answer to this question,as i doubt any 2 rifles will be the same,

 

I was taught to seat to the point the bullet touches the lands, then back off 1 or 2 thou and see how they group.

Load different batches at different seating depths keeping notes all the time of POI find out the best seating depth

then fine tune the powder by .5 of a grain or less again keeping notes. Remember to keep them seperate !!!

Most important though is to keep to withing the safety limits always load up to max not down and check for signs of pressure .

 

Best advice is to get a mate who Knows what he is doing to give some help.

Edited September 22, 2009 by Dougy

[Paul223]

For accuracy?

Are you neck sizing your fired brass?

if so the take one or two of your neck sized but unprimed brass and cut length ways down the flat of the neck with a junior hack saw blade to the crease where it meets the shoulder, you should find this will hold the bullet tight but all so allows it to be pushed in or out with a little force,

 

*now insert the bullet of your choice for loading, ( if you later change bullet type then repeat this process for the new bullet) leaving it long out of the brass, insert this into the chamber and slowly close the bolt, this will allow the bullet to touch the barrel lands and for the lands to push the bullet seating it further back into the case, then gently remove and use a comparator to measure the case / bullet / comparator length*,

 

A comparator is a tool which measures the bullet at the ogive,

 

repeat this * operation several times you should get very very close readings, if not your doing something wrong, now take those readings and reload your cases to various sizes ranging from 20 to 5 thou UNDER the measured size, so you end up with a case and bullet say 10 thou shorter than the measured overall size, as mentioned keep the various sizes separate and check them for accuracy, I'd do this on near minimum loads, so for my .223 / varget / 55 grain v max I'd be loading 26 grains of varget (27.5 the recommended max)

 

bear in mind the closer the bullet to the barrel lands the higher the case pressure AND the more powder the higher the case pressure, and primers add to the mix too

 

Not for accuracy, but just reloading to factory spec? then look for the sammi overall lenth specs for your case

 

hth

[wymberley]

Paul 223,

Hi, Mate, nice piece. I Googled ogive and found the reason for the trouble that I've been having. We shoot the same bore and bullet, just a different powder. Ignoring the bench rest pure accuracy type of thing, what do you reckon a good field group (5 shot) at 100 yards would be?

Many thanks in advance.

Phil

[Paul223]

I'm probably not the best person to ask about groups, I have a mate who can (and has) shoot my rifle on the range and get groups the size of a two pence piece, at two hundred yards, the problem i have with this style of shooting is that it does not lend itself to the field very well, foxy would have had a kip,woke up and brushed his teeth before my mate would start to pull the trigger! well not quite but you know what I mean.

I'm happy with inch may be inch and a half at 100yards, does me fine, i line up on the fox and start squeezing, no hanging around :unsure: i take a little more time at 200yards and will usually achieve the same size of group, about inch and a half. This all does my mates head in as he knows the rifle is capable of much more but I like my style of squeezing as the rifle settles on target, it works well for me.

 

The foxing rig I use has a pretty standard 3-9x42, so no massive x factor, and also no parallax to fiddle with. Took the time to look at some of the high power scopes in the midland game fair, most impressed with the clarity and magnification, could clearly see the detail on tree bark 300 yards away at full x power, don't know if I could be doing with the fiddly parallax though

[wymberley]

Paul,

Thanks again. I've got it to just over the1", shooting as you described so I think I'll settle for that.

Cheers.

[henry d]

hi lads am loading 50grain bliztkings for a cz 527 varmint in .222 my coal is 2.180 anybody on here load for same and was wanting to know what coal shoots best for you.

 

Slightly different here, I use 50gn Vmax and using them my chamber COAL is 2.165 and I back off 20thou and this gives me groups of around .6" and is accurate out to 200 yds in my hands, others may be better but it works for me and I `aint fiddling with it now :unsure:

[Rem223]

I was taught to seat to the point the bullet touches the lands, then back off 1 or 2 thou and see how they group.

Dougy are you sure you don't mean 10 or 20 thou? 0.001" to 0.002" is pretty close to the lands. I am not knocking you, but I would have thought it better to play safe initially.