I'm fairly new to reloading handgun ammo and am trying to work out the kinks. One of them is that I get inconsistant seating depths when seating the bullets. Here are the particulars:
bullet: 115gr RN x-treme (plated)
powder: W-231 @ 3.8gr
dies: Hornady Custom Grade Titanium Nitride
I set the seating die to seat the bullets at 1.155 (OAL is 1.169). After seating 5 bullets I check each one with a caliper. Most seat depths are ~1.155 + or - a thousand or two. However, every once and a while one will seat @ ~1.165. See pics. I check for grit in the shell holder, make sure the seating adjuster isn't walking, insure the primer is fully seated so its not messing with the caliper, - but all is good and there is no slop in the press. And the caliper is good too - no slop in it. Out of 100 rounds loaded today 80 were between 1.153 and 1.158 and 20 anywhere from 1.150 to 1.165.
I can see when shooting that every once in a while there is a flier far out of the pattern, but should there be a 'flier' when seating bullets? Is this normal SOP? Am I being anal about trying to make sure they all seat as close to 1.155 as possible? Shouldn't a press, when set up secure and tight, seat everything at the same depth?
Most are around 1.155
but some are longer or shorter:
bullet: 115gr RN x-treme (plated)
powder: W-231 @ 3.8gr
dies: Hornady Custom Grade Titanium Nitride
I set the seating die to seat the bullets at 1.155 (OAL is 1.169). After seating 5 bullets I check each one with a caliper. Most seat depths are ~1.155 + or - a thousand or two. However, every once and a while one will seat @ ~1.165. See pics. I check for grit in the shell holder, make sure the seating adjuster isn't walking, insure the primer is fully seated so its not messing with the caliper, - but all is good and there is no slop in the press. And the caliper is good too - no slop in it. Out of 100 rounds loaded today 80 were between 1.153 and 1.158 and 20 anywhere from 1.150 to 1.165.
I can see when shooting that every once in a while there is a flier far out of the pattern, but should there be a 'flier' when seating bullets? Is this normal SOP? Am I being anal about trying to make sure they all seat as close to 1.155 as possible? Shouldn't a press, when set up secure and tight, seat everything at the same depth?
Most are around 1.155
but some are longer or shorter: