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12/27/2009 4:38:15 PM EDT
rcbs dies, lee challenger press, cases trimmed consistent, die not loose in press, 147gr. pulled mil fmj bought in bulk. bullets check consistent
with venier calipers. oal for most part comes out 2.8 as aimed for. can't find why some come out as short as 2.78, and as much as2.815.
a .035 dif spread.  is that a non-issue?  anybody know whats happening?
12/27/2009 4:44:27 PM EDT
[#1]
Quoted:
rcbs dies, lee challenger press, cases trimmed consistent, die not loose in press, 147gr. pulled mil fmj bought in bulk. bullets check consistent
with venier calipers. oal for most part comes out 2.8 as aimed for. can't find why some come out as short as 2.78, and as much as2.815.
a .035 dif spread.  is that a non-issue?  anybody know whats happening?


Join the club, bullets are not the same length they differ from ogive to tip giving you the variation.  One way to solve it is to presort bullets then adujst seater for each batch or just measure from ogive if you want to ignore the real overal length from base to tip.
12/27/2009 4:51:03 PM EDT
[#2]
Most bulk FMJ's will measure differently from one to another, just the tolerances FMJ's are made to. Are you crimping, and if so, are you seating and crimping in one operation? If done at the same time, try doing it as separate steps and double check the OAL, it should be more consistent. If you have the stony point or rcbs precision mic check your oal using them and  you will probably also see more consistency measuring from the ogive instead of the bullet tip.
12/27/2009 4:56:53 PM EDT
[#3]
+1 on the Ogive measurement. I've found 97% of the bullets I've loaded had inconsistent OALs , but good measurements at the ogive.
12/27/2009 5:05:27 PM EDT
[#4]
Your results are normal.

I always seat bullets slightly shorter than max for this reason.

Example,  max OAL for 223 is 2.260. I load to 2.250 OAL.
12/27/2009 6:14:00 PM EDT
[#5]
thanks guys.
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