Whats your Standard Deviation for COAL

[downfall]

What do you allow for standard deviation for your COAL? 3 thousandths, 5 thousandths or whatever you get out of the press is good enough?

[Clownpuncher]

Depends on the round. Pistol, I'll go 5 thousandths. Rifle, I refuse to have any deviation.... but thats why it takes me an hour to load half a dozen rounds.

[Sub95]

for me + or - .001 only on my hunting ammo though.

I never set my dies to get that close to coal as you will always get some bullets that will go deeper or shorter.

I set set my seater up higher .005-.008 then go back through them one by one to where i want the finished coal at. yes it takes longer to do but i try and keep everything the same.

pistol . no more the .005

[downfall]

I am basically a newbie loading .45 ACP and 9MM and i have using 3 thousandths as standard deviation for COAL. That is. until I measure the COAL of some factory rounds.
I discovered the factory rounds are all over the map thus making me question if 3 thousandths is overkill.

[EL_NinO619]

+- 0.003 On my progressive, Less if I load for accuracy on a SS.

[Whiterabbit]

Whatever comes out of the press is good enough for me. Why?

The best ammo I make is done that way and it's a clover leaf or better out of a cold barrel at 100 yards. That's good enough for plinking.

How about this. cast in a rifle, the lead so soft the seat die (before I fix it) will imprint the bullet. That's TERRIBLE, and I don't like it. Still a clover leaf at 50y out of a hot barrel, Haven't tried it at 100 with a cold barrel. Probably won't before I fix the seater die plug. More than reasonable groups out to 100 for "steels ammo".

yeah, what comes out of the press is good enough for my style of shooting. your mileage (style) may vary.

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I should mention, the performance is better than factory, even using ammo that just comes out of the press. There's another positive reinforcement.

[RugerNo1]

Rifle ammo there is no variance in Base to Ogive length on my loads. COAL is a poor indicator of seating depth because bullets vary from base to tip by very drastic measures. However, the base to ogive length is what is important because that is where the bullet contacts the rifling.

[damndave]

Rifle ammo there is no variance in Base to Ogive length on my loads. COAL is a poor indicator of seating depth because bullets vary from base to tip by very drastic measures. However, the base to ogive length is what is important because that is where the bullet contacts the rifling.

Even with my rounds that measure exactly the same from base to ogive, the COAL may be off as much as +/- 0.005.

[CSACANNONEER]

COAL doesn't mean that much if your bullet profiles are not EXACTLY the same. I've shot many .5-1moa documented groups at 1000 yards with a deviation of +/- .005" or more using match quality projectiles (and a lot more for plinking ammo with surplus projos). The real trick is getting the point where the bullet contacts your lands (ogive) to be the same distance from your lands every time.