longrangehunter
Handloader
- Jun 19, 2011
- 1,483
- 7
So as most of you know I've never been a fan of bullets deeply seated below the neck/shoulder junction that so many cartridges face with long bullets.
A while back Kenny Jarrett and I had this conversation while I was visiting with him over a decade ago. It always stuck with me when I was looking at cartridge design in relationship to the OAL with the various bullets available and just how far the shank of the bullet would or wouldn't be below the neck?
What I noticed from all the times I've kept the bullet shank and only the Boat Tail below the neck, tuning the load to the rifle became easier and less troublesome to find a really good load. This isn't to say it can't be done with a bullet deeply seated below the neck, which it can, but that it shows a higher percentage of better average groups within a load with various bullets and powder combinations.
My 6.5/300 WSM was reamed this way for the 140 SMK/SGK and the 142 SMK, the Berger's were too long for my liking.
Same for the 6.5x47 Lapua and my newest addition the 300 Norma Magnum which the 338 Norma Magnum also shares, bullets allowed to be seated out.
So here's what a 230 Berger Hybrid Target looks like seated .010" off the lands and is only 3.600" COAL while the DBM in the Sako is still long at 3.750".
I've always just looked for a bullet in the weight I wanted and used whatever would keep them seated the least amount below the neck, which has seemed to work out very well for me in the past. Try it out sometime and see if it works for you next time, it just might surprise you?
A while back Kenny Jarrett and I had this conversation while I was visiting with him over a decade ago. It always stuck with me when I was looking at cartridge design in relationship to the OAL with the various bullets available and just how far the shank of the bullet would or wouldn't be below the neck?
What I noticed from all the times I've kept the bullet shank and only the Boat Tail below the neck, tuning the load to the rifle became easier and less troublesome to find a really good load. This isn't to say it can't be done with a bullet deeply seated below the neck, which it can, but that it shows a higher percentage of better average groups within a load with various bullets and powder combinations.
My 6.5/300 WSM was reamed this way for the 140 SMK/SGK and the 142 SMK, the Berger's were too long for my liking.
Same for the 6.5x47 Lapua and my newest addition the 300 Norma Magnum which the 338 Norma Magnum also shares, bullets allowed to be seated out.
So here's what a 230 Berger Hybrid Target looks like seated .010" off the lands and is only 3.600" COAL while the DBM in the Sako is still long at 3.750".
I've always just looked for a bullet in the weight I wanted and used whatever would keep them seated the least amount below the neck, which has seemed to work out very well for me in the past. Try it out sometime and see if it works for you next time, it just might surprise you?
