| Posted: Sun Nov 1st, 2009 12:13 AM |
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TnTom
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| Location: | Woodbury, Tennessee USA |
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What method do you use and do you measure from base to tip or base the tangent pt of the body.
When do you trim the meplat? At what point does it become necessary and when would it be considered excessive.
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| Posted: Sun Nov 1st, 2009 12:33 AM |
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StretchNM
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| Location: | Alamogordo, New Mexico USA |
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I measure from base to tip. There are always slight variations in the measurement, from .001" to about .003", or so, because bullet tips can be damaged or slightly off.
I never trim the meplat, although I have filed it gently to correct (to some degree) a damaged bullet tip.
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| Posted: Sun Nov 1st, 2009 12:34 AM |
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OldStuffer
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| Location: | Newton, Kansas USA |
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For OAL, I measure base of brass to tip, with a caliper if I am interested in exacting detail.
IMO, unless you are trying to make 1 very small ragged hole out of a number of shots, a few thousandths is of minimal concern.
90% of my loading is hunting ammo, virtually my only target ammo is handgun. Most of my .308 Win. loads are in GI machine gun brass, which I actually weight into 2-grain variation lots, and keep together (center weight, +-1). I also, since I do not load hundreds at a time, I hand-weigh every charge, to as exact to the weight as my beam scale skills will allow. I also trim every case, before weighing, to length. I get good, sub MOA loads I can count on, but, once I set the seating die to length, I do not go back and caliper every load. IMO a few thou in my ammo, is not enough variation at the end to worry about.
I also use a separate taper crimp die, not the crimp part of the seating die.
My .308 is a BAR, tends to stretch the brass a tad, and WILL NOT go fully into battery if the brass is too long, I have to full-resize and I trim, every single loading, to insure reliability. I could probably trim every other, but, I don't.
Most bolt actions will let you neck-size only, which cuts stretch, and trimming, down a decent ammount.
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| Posted: Sun Nov 1st, 2009 12:55 AM |
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TnTom
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| Location: | Woodbury, Tennessee USA |
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OldStuffer wrote: For OAL, I measure base of brass to tip, with a caliper if I am interested in exacting detail.
IMO, unless you are trying to make 1 very small ragged hole out of a number of shots, a few thousandths is of minimal concern.
90% of my loading is hunting ammo, virtually my only target ammo is handgun. Most of my .308 Win. loads are in GI machine gun brass, which I actually weight into 2-grain variation lots, and keep together (center weight, +-1). I also, since I do not load hundreds at a time, I hand-weigh every charge, to as exact to the weight as my beam scale skills will allow. I also trim every case, before weighing, to length. I get good, sub MOA loads I can count on, but, once I set the seating die to length, I do not go back and caliper every load. IMO a few thou in my ammo, is not enough variation at the end to worry about.
I also use a separate taper crimp die, not the crimp part of the seating die.
My .308 is a BAR, tends to stretch the brass a tad, and WILL NOT go fully into battery if the brass is too long, I have to full-resize and I trim, every single loading, to insure reliability. I could probably trim every other, but, I don't.
Most bolt actions will let you neck-size only, which cuts stretch, and trimming, down a decent ammount. I shoot mostly target. 600 yd hp and similar events.
What surprised me was how much deviation I saw when measuring for example Sierra MK 77gr bthp measuring base to tip then base to tangent pt. There was .007" min to max within a sample of 10. The measurement was repeatable. I guess thats when I began thinking about trimming meplat.
That was base to tip. The base to tangent was .0006" min to max
Last edited on Sun Nov 1st, 2009 12:57 AM by TnTom
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