Is this okay to do?

[hometheaterman]

So when seating bullets it seems like they each vary by up to .005. I find the ones that seat to deep if I put them in the bullet puller and give it a hit or two on the ground then run it through the seater again it comes out to the right length. Then on the ones that are too long I find if I run them through the seating die again this time doing the handle harder it will often seat them to the correct depth. Is this safe and okay to do?

 

[Heavies]

Are you measuring to the tip of the bullet or the ogive?
IMO I just set up a dummy case with a slightly sized neck(so the bullet can slide in and out easily) and set aside one piece of all the types of bullet that I use, then I use those to set up seating depth. I check this dummy round a few times for consistancy then I go ahead and seat the other bullets. (Checking occationally oal and I don't worry too much if it's a little off)
Unless you sort the bullets thorughly by length, ogive, bering surface, etc they will be varing from piece to piece.

 

[Randy1911]

Yes, what you are doing is safe. To get consistant OAL you MUST be very consistant on how you pull the handle. If they feed okay in your gun they will be okay.

 

[NCsmitty]

Don't sweat the .005" differences as long as you are not seating out to the lands. You'll never see the difference on target.
You may create more problems by loosening the bullet by puller to reseat.



NCsmitty

 

[1SOW]

You didn't mention 'WHAT' your reloading--pistol, or with what --Turret Press?.

As Randy 1911 said, a consistant pull on the handle will help make your seating more reliable.

Pistol bullets can have quite a variance in 'OL' and 'ogive' shape. Your seater die pushes against the ogive of the bullet, and a few thousandths variation is not uncommon for bulk bullets.

Unless your loading near max loads, it'll make no significant differences in middle of the chart loads.

 

[armoredman]

I've had the same issue for years, no real differance downrange. If I was loading for competetion, I might sort bullets, and only load the perfect ones...

 

[hometheaterman]

So how far can the OAL vary before changing the POI? I'm loading rifle cases btw. I'm trying to seat them to 2.616". Most are between 2.615-2.619. Some might be right outside of that but I don't think any were. My concern is I don't want to sight the gun in and then get one a little off when hunting and miss a deer or just wound him or something like that because the OAL was slightly different and made it shoot to a different poi than what I had sighted in for. Or is this a non worry?

I took out a box of box Federal and Hornady factory soft points and the difference between the OAL was huge. I thought it would be the same but some were way off. some were even .010" or so off if not slightly more than that. I'm not sure if it's a big difference between soft points and the Hornady SST's I'm loading though.

 

[Clifford]

Don't sweat it. The +-.010 OAL of the factory ammo is about normal for the factory loaded ammo I've mic'd. If you are really concerned about your reloads, just take the longest ones and use them at the range for practie ammo. Me? I wouldn't sweat it, as long as they aren't into the lead of the barrel.

BTW take a close look at those soft points. Many of them have slightly boogered tips. That alone will give you a wandering COAL if you are measuring from the tip of the bullet.