Pressed a Few Today

[GunnerGunz]

I loaded 48 (2 of the brass were bent and unusable) 22-250 cartridges today. First time for this caliber. One question I have is in 90% of the cartridges were within 3/100 inch COL. The other 10% varied by 12/100 inch COL. This is the first time using soft points and wondering if the soft lead made the difference?

 

[Park ranger]

100th or 1000th? .003" isn't a big deal. .030" is huge.

 

[DaemonAssassin]

100th or 1000th? .003" isn't a big deal. .030" is huge.

^^^^ THIS...

 

[Speed3]

I usually aim for .001" variation in ogive. .030" is too large

 

[Sticky]

You should be measuring to the ogive, not the tip of the bullets... there is much potential variation in oal to the tip, especially with soft points. Get a comparator from Hornady or Sinclair and you will get much more consistent measurements..

A link to Midway... http://www.midwayusa.com/product/23...ad-bullet-comparator-basic-set-with-6-inserts

ETA - if you have some boolits left not loaded, measure a dozen of them and see what you find...

 

[GunnerGunz]

Sorry yes it was .003 (3/1000) brain fart in original post.

 

[kalister1]

Sorry yes it was .003 (3/1000) brain fart in original post.

That is less than the thickness of copy paper, I would not worry unless you shoot 1000 yds.

 

[StickShaker]

You should be measuring to the ogive, not the tip of the bullets... there is much potential variation in oal to the tip, especially with soft points. Get a comparator from Hornady or Sinclair and you will get much more consistent measurements..

A link to Midway... http://www.midwayusa.com/product/23...ad-bullet-comparator-basic-set-with-6-inserts

ETA - if you have some boolits left not loaded, measure a dozen of them and see what you find...

This ^^^ for more meaningful readings. Probably is just a tip variation.

 

[tkd4life]

You should be measuring to the ogive, not the tip of the bullets... there is much potential variation in oal to the tip, especially with soft points. Get a comparator from Hornady or Sinclair and you will get much more consistent measurements..

A link to Midway... http://www.midwayusa.com/product/23...ad-bullet-comparator-basic-set-with-6-inserts

ETA - if you have some boolits left not loaded, measure a dozen of them and see what you find...

And it is also important to note that most good rifle seater dies apply the pressure to seat the bullet at the ogive and not the tip. This is to account for the varying types of tips you can have in the bullet industry like soft point lead, polymer, hollow point, etc. As everyone is saying, that is where you need to measure from.

 

[GunnerGunz]

I ordered the comperator set from Amazon and will recheck measurements. I normally load FMJ bullets (were always good measurements) until I recently did the safe hunter course and plan on hunting in the near future. Hence reason for reloading soft points.

 

[GunnerGunz]

So I got the comperator and after remeasure all of the bullets were 0.006 range of variance. So not bad at all.