OAL Changing Due To Soft Lead Tip...
I have been reloading various .223 rounds for a year now and have been quite successful with finding
out at what combination/load my AR appears to be the most accurate. I am presently loading some
Sierra 65 grain Gameking boat tail bullets and the soft lead tips distort enough upon insertion into the
casings that the OALs change somewhat up to 6 thousands. These casings were all fully resized
and the lever pressure on my single stage press to seat these bullets does not seem to be excessive
but I note that some have slightly flattened tips after seating. I am shooting for a OAL of 2.20 I have
never had any problems in the field with my reloads in the past with 55, 62 and 65 grain bullets.
Am I being too picky getting a consistant OAL? Thanks...
had the same issue with hdy spire points. Some were flattened or more pointy right out of the box. I set my die to seat the longest ones at my desired oal this will give consistent length to the o give and give consistent accuracy.
Unless they won't fit into the magazine from the start, don't worry about it, as the bearing surface/ogive is what matters for consistency.
This being said, mangled tips probably don't do much for aerodynamic stability, but that shouldn't really matter too much at shorter ranges, otherwise, you'd be using slicker/stronger HPBT/FMJ bullets.
You might try putting something soft into the seater plug, to see if you can mitigate that deformity. Either way, those softer tips will still get deformed when they bang off the feed ramps on their way into the chamber.
Chris
What brand die?
Drill a recess in the seater stem to clear the meplat of your bullets if the distortion is enough to affect accuracy.
Your seating die is using the tip of the bullet and not the Ogive. What brand of die? Also OAL should be measured off the Ogive instead of the tip for more gooder constant measurements. OAL with soft lead tipped bullets can vary quite a bit even without the seating die distorting them. You might want to invest in a rather inexpensive Comparator to check your OAL.
