Hunting Rifles - Bullet Reloading Tips

Tips for Reloading Bullets from Hunting Australia

Getting the best accuracy from your hand loaded ammunition, quite often requires small changes to the bullet seating depth. This is how I set my bullet seating depth up and make small changes as required.



I begin buy taking a fired piece of brass from my rifle and cutting one or two small slots in the neck. I then resize the brass and seat a bullet just far enough into the neck so that it will not fall out.

I then chamber the dummy cartridge in my rifle. As I close the bolt, the bullet is pushed backwards into the case by the rifling lands.

Note :- This may not be possible with very short for caliber bullets or rifles with a lot of free bore.

I then carefully remove the dummy cartridge and measure the overall length with a micrometer. I then grab hold of the projectile and pull it back out. I then repeat this process a few times to make sure I am getting an accurate reading.

If this particular bullet was loaded to this overall length, then it would be just touching the lands. Now some people like their bullets just touching the lands, others like them off the lands and others like them into the lands.

Note :- Some rifles do not have enough magazine length to enable the bullet to be seated anywhere near the lands.

Now I pull the projectile back out again, but this time I place it into the bullet seating die and lower the handle to seat the bullet to a random depth. The overall length of the bullet is then measured. The difference between the two readings is the distance to the lands.

You now need to make a decision on how deep you wish to seat your projectiles relative to the lands.

A Redding competition micrometer bullet seating die is marked so that small changes in seating depth can easily be made. The micrometer is calibrated with 0.001” markings. Make note of these settings for future reference.

This bullet seating die is set up to seat the bullets to be 0.010” off the lands.

Note :- All bullets are a slightly different length, so use the same bullet to set up your seating die.

Note:- Changes in bullet seating depth will change chamber pressure. Reload with caution

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