Seating my bullets...

[dancinzen]

Hello, so I have a question about some hornady 55 gr sp and fmj in .224 with the CANNELURE in them both... The hornady book says to seat them overal at 2.220, but if I do that then the fmjs have the CANNELURE completely under the brass case, and the sp have the CANNELURE off balence( not in middle). Soy question is, do I ignor the book and seat them in the middle of the CANNELURE, or do I keep them at the 2.220 and ignor the CANNELURE? What are the pros and cons of doing either?

[joelogic]

Seat to cannulure if you are going to crimp. Seat to length if you are striving for accuracy.

[Bug Splat]

different shaped bullets will seat differently in the same die. Assuming your brass is trimmed to the correct length, seat them to the center of the can's.

[dancinzen]

What are the bennifits of crimping? Do you need a crimping die to crimp or can I crimp with my seating die... I have the hornady set...

[Bug Splat]

Crimping helps hold the bullet at the right place. Some feel that when cycled in an automatic or semi-automatic gun a non-crimped bullet can move slightly due to momentum of the bullet and this causes slight pressure differences making it less consistent and thus decreases accuracy. The other reason one might crimp is if your bullet takes a nose dive into something and pushes the bullet further into the case making it dangerous to fire.

I don't crimp my rifle loads. I have bought crimps to play with but never noticed a difference other than an extra step in my reloading process. If my bullet takes a nose dive or is damaged I just don't use it. I'll reuse what ever is not damaged the next time I reload.

[dancinzen]

awesome, thanks for the advice, i will go with the recommended book seating length then.