Has anyone ever had good luck with seating the bullet "into" the lands?

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"DADDY"
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By mistake I loaded up some 7mag rounds at 3.35" OAL. I wondered why they wouldn't load in the gun easily, I thought I just hadn't bumped the shoulder back enough, so tough to fit. But the groups from those loads are still the best I have gotten.....like 1/2 MOA. I recently measured the actual overall length with the bullets touching the lands at 3.312", so the bullets are sitting .038" into the lands. And the loads that I've chambered and pulled out......sure enough, the bullets are all scuffed up from the lands.

Anyway, anybody get good accuracy doing this? Haven't seen any pressure signs at all. I'm using a max load of H1000....69.5gr with the 168gr Berger Classic Hunter.
 
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It is not uncommon, some bullets like to be jammed. I would think about stepping down from a max load doing that though, especially if that powder is temp sensitive. Other then that as you stated just watch out for pressure signs, otherwise I would roll with it.
 
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Have you checked to see if the loaded rounds you chambered and then removed have changed seating depth? If they haven't then you probably have quite a bit of neck tension and should be ok. Also are you measuring off the bullet tip or ogive?
 

rayporter

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yes they can be very accurate but.............i hate to load that way for a hunting rifle. the fear of pulling a bullet ya know.

and yea i have pulled many out in the chamber.
 
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Have you checked to see if the loaded rounds you chambered and then removed have changed seating depth? If they haven't then you probably have quite a bit of neck tension and should be ok. Also are you measuring off the bullet tip or ogive?

Yes, I have measured the pulled cartridges and they are the same length. I'm measuring OAL off the bullet tip, and distance to the lands off the ogive.
 

HuntHarder

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2 negatives to this in a hunting rifle are: Rounds usually will not fit in magazine at this length, and also it is possible for a bullet to get stuck in the lands if not fired. This is usually due to weak neck tension.
 
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2 negatives to this in a hunting rifle are: Rounds usually will not fit in magazine at this length, and also it is possible for a bullet to get stuck in the lands if not fired. This is usually due to weak neck tension.

They do fit in the mag, so no problems there. If one gets stuck in the barrel, a ram rod should pop it out. However, I think I'm going to work on some loads just short of the lands anyway.
 

kpk

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Jamming vs jumping really depends on the specific bullet being used. Some bullets love to be jammed and others will hate it.
 

murf45

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I have a custom 7mm rem mag. I jammed into the lands and back it off until I could open the bolt with out it sticking. I'm shooting .25" groups at 300 yds. We've used that method for all of our rifles and its worked well.
 

GKPrice

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I have a custom 7mm rem mag. I jammed into the lands and back it off until I could open the bolt with out it sticking. I'm shooting .25" groups at 300 yds. We've used that method for all of our rifles and its worked well.

murf does it correctly unless you're just fireforming improved brass
 

Broz

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Back some off to just .010" in the lands. See how they shoot. This will greatly reduce the chance of a stuck bullet from removing a loaded round. We have loaded many like this before with no issues. all our rifles are "hunting rifles"

Jeff
 
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I have a custom 7mm rem mag. I jammed into the lands and back it off until I could open the bolt with out it sticking. I'm shooting .25" groups at 300 yds. We've used that method for all of our rifles and its worked well.

Wow! .25" at 300 or .25moa?That's some good shooting either way. What load are you shooting?
 

murf45

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.25" shooting off the bench. I use 168gr Berger bullets, retumbo, cci primers, and Norma brass.


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.25" shooting off the bench. I use 168gr Berger bullets, retumbo, cci primers, and Norma brass.

What weight charge are you using on the Retumbo for that load? I tested that and the H1000 the other day without much difference in group size. Unfortunately my chrono didn't want to work very well in the cloud cover so didn't get any reliable readings for either. I really doubt I was getting 3500 out of it.:rolleyes:

How are you getting a smaller group size than bullet diameter? I would think .284" would be the smallest you could get.
 

WestDan

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What weight charge are you using on the Retumbo for that load? I tested that and the H1000 the other day without much difference in group size. Unfortunately my chrono didn't want to work very well in the cloud cover so didn't get any reliable readings for either. I really doubt I was getting 3500 out of it.:rolleyes:

How are you getting a smaller group size than bullet diameter? I would think .284" would be the smallest you could get.

Group size is based on where the tips of your bullets hit and not the actual diameter of the group. Measuring from the outside of the widest two rounds and subtracting the diameter of the bullet used gives you the distance from the tips of where the bullets hit.
 
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Interesting. All the groups I've ever shot in my lifetime just got smaller, including all my arrow groups.:) I've always measured outside edge to outside edge. Using this method, my daughter just shot a .236" three-shot group from 100 the other day with my 6.5 Creedmoor. One hole. First time she's shot that gun, and only has about a dozen rifle shots under her belt.
 

WestDan

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Interesting. All the groups I've ever shot in my lifetime just got smaller, including all my arrow groups.:) I've always measured outside edge to outside edge. Using this method, my daughter just shot a .236" three-shot group from 100 the other day with my 6.5 Creedmoor. One hole. First time she's shot that gun, and only has about a dozen rifle shots under her belt.

That's awesome. I'd say that's a shooter. Using a bench or just a bipod/rest laying prone?
 

murf45

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What weight charge are you using on the Retumbo for that load? I tested that and the H1000 the other day without much difference in group size. Unfortunately my chrono didn't want to work very well in the cloud cover so didn't get any reliable readings for either. I really doubt I was getting 3500 out of it.:rolleyes:

How are you getting a smaller group size than bullet diameter? I would think .284" would be the smallest you could get.

I'm using 70.5 gr of retumbo.


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