A little reloading help, please

[jnyork]

For years and years I have used a Stoney Point OAL guage to determine bullet seating depth . I just got some Sierra bullets for my 22-250 and set out to use the depth guage, to no avail. After a half hour or so and maybe 50-75 tries, I gave it up as a bad job. I could not for the life of me get the same reading twice or anything even close to it, the spread was as much as .090!! Tried chamfering the case, no joy. Checked to see if it would chamber with the bolt, went in easily. Used the same technique as described in the instruction as I have done with other cartridges over the years, nothing works. Maybe some of you here have had this experience and can help me out. Thanks.

[Griff]

I guess I don't understand the question. Are you saying you can't seat the bullets to a consistent depth? What is this "Stoney Point depth gauge?"

[jnyork]

No, I cant get the guage to give me the same reading twice in a row.

Here's the guage, now a product of Hornady: http://www.hornady.com/store/Lock-N-Loa ... ght-1Each/

[flatnose]

I tried one of those tools once, but went back to my usual method of slitting a case neck lengthways and fitting the bullet in the neck, and chambering the round. After that , I recheck with a dummy round and make adjustments as required.

[Pete44ru]

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It sounds to me like the adjustment is slipping.

I would suggest speaking with a rep @ Hornady's customer service dept about it.


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[fordwannabe]

My gues is you don't have enough neck tension to hold the bullet in place as it is extracted. Check i side diameter on case neck and then the bullet should be 2 thousandths I THINK.

[Chuck 100 yd]

There are better tools to use for that measurement and can be made at home by just buying a couple of 1/4" lock collers at the local hardware. Slip them onto your cleaning rod and slide them up to the handle.slide the rod ,with a flat ended jag installed, down the bore to the face of the bolt. While holding the rod against the bolt face and collars against the muzzle ,secure the set screw in the collar farthest from the muzzle. Now open the bolt,remove the rod a few inches. Insert a bullet into the chamber and hold it against the start of the rifling with a pencil or similar object. Slide the rod in until it touches the bullet.slide the other collar against the muzzle. Lock the closest collar to the muzzle. The distance between the two locking collars is the maximum OAL for a cartridge using that same bullet.
That will give oal for a bullet touching the lands and may not work through your magazine or action.
The problem with the Stoney Point tool is the ojive of the bullet and the tools gauge dont always match.
This way you are using the bullet directly into the bore for the measurment. As said above, you can also cut a slit in a case mouth and squeeze it small enough to have a friction fit with the bullet. Long seat a bullet in the slit case and chamber it to let the rifling seat it the rest of the way. Remove and measure the oal.either method requires quality bullets for accurate measurements.
Note that every bullet in a box did NOT come from the same forming die and can vary quite a bit from one to another unless high quality bullets are used.

[Griff]

What Chuck said.

[jnyork]

got the problem fixed. After expending every possible variant, such as ogive-base measurement, bullet diameter variation (none), etc etc, I finally diagnosed it as some drag/resistance to bullet movement in the neck of the case, causing me to get false readings as to how far in I was pushing the bullet. There was enough drag that it was scratching the bullet. So, seizing a .228 diameter drill in my fingers, I very carefully and gently reamed out the neck of the case so there is no drag whatsoever, bullet is entirely loose in the neck now. I took 8 readings, got no more than .003 plus or minus variation, no more wild readings. Thing now works perfectly as it always has before.

Thanks everyone for all your kind suggestions.

[Pete44ru]

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It's good to hear that you've resolved you problem - win/win........



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