How deep to seat?

[.243hunter]

I was wondering how deep i should seat those little 58 grain V- max bullets into the case. thanks for any help. I'm shooting the 243.

[Varmint Hunter]

Seat the bullets so that there is no less than one bullet diameter (.243 in your case) of bearing surface in the case neck. The boattail does not count because it does not bear against the case neck.

Just my 2 cents - VH

[L. Cooper]

Varmint Hunter's advice is sound. I break it all the time, however. It's like anything else that has "rules". Once you know why the rule is there, you can break it when the factors that make the rule necessary aren't there.

If you are shooting a single shot rifle there is no real need for that extra "hold" on the bullet. Any time you are going to single load each round, or just know you can be careful with each one (like I can be when I am shooting gophers with my 22-250 from a single spot in a big field) you can load them with less bearing surface and have no troubles.

For all round that will be subject to recoil in the magazine, or rough handling like when hunting, I follow V. H.'s rule about one bullet diameter of bearing surface. The rest of the time I load to the COL that produces the best accuracy and just be careful with them.

[Cal Sibley]

Not always mind you, but a good rule of thumb seems to be to seat the bullet about a third of the way into the neck. That should be enough to get a good grip on the bullet. Just one mans opinion. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal

[BLUEDOT 72]

I like to set the bullet out to "almost touching" the lands. There are several ways on "How you get there". On of the best and easiest is the Stoney Point O.A.L. guage. Another is trial & error method with an unprimed case and seated bullet with some sort of fast drying marker--Dye-Chem or similar. You will need a bullet pulling tool here til you come up with the real deal.

[Cal Sibley]

With some of my calibers I also break some rules. Since most of my shooting is at the bench I can feed the cartridges single shot fashion since I do not have to worry about them clearing the magazine. Then the rule becomes, seat just enough to hold the bullet securely. This is especially true when loading for the newer rifles with their ungodly long chambers, and you're trying to reach the lands. Actually you shouldn't try to reach the lands with some rounds since many shoot their most accurate when they have to jump to the lands. Best wishes.

Cal - Montreal