What is the best tool for the most consistently seated reloaded ammo?

[OLD-skool454#3]

Comparator Hornady/Stony, Sinclair, Short Action Customs, RCBS Precision Mic etc?

[ar15barrels]

Wilson hand die and an arbor press gives the best feel.
You can add a strain gauge if you want to log seating pressures and sort the stragglers from the main herd but I just do it by feel.
you can really feel when a round is different than most of the others and just sort it to the side for practice ammo.

[OLD-skool454#3]

I'll have to look into the Wilson dies. I have a few Forster with the sliding sleeves, but they may work differently though. Should I worry about the OAL not being exact on each reloaded round? I set my die up for the suggested OAL, but when I check them I get some that are a bit longer, some a bit shorter and a bunch that match exactly what I set the die to? I know polymer tip and soft nose bullets can have different lengths due to abnormalities/manufacturing even bullets that came from the same lot/box... Maybe I am letting it get to me a little too much.

[ar15barrels]

I'll I know polymer tip and soft nose bullets can have different lengths due to abnormalities/manufacturing even bullets that came from the same lot/box... Maybe I am letting it get to me a little too much.

Yes.
the bullet tip to ogive is where the variation is.
your rifling never touches the bullet tip so variation of the tip length matters little.
if you have variation in case head to ogive lengths, that’s from variation in seating force that you are not able to feel when seating in a press due to how much leverage the press has.

that is where hand dies and an arbor press gives superior bullet seating feel.
the bullets that seat harder then most are the ones that will be running long because the seater reforms the bullet while the bullets that seat easily are not getting reformed by the seating stem.

[OLD-skool454#3]

I got a Wilson inline seater die for my 22-250, but have only loaded a dummy round. I'll have to load several so U can compare the seating depths.

[newbie1234]

I had the same inconsistent bullet sitting depth problem on both Lee and RCBS die sets. It took me many days frustrating many night without sleep (exaggerate ) . Until I found out the problem of inconsistent bullet depth is not causing by the die but the curvature of the bullet tip is not the same for every bullet. That difference in bullet curvature made the round in difference AOL. I fixed the inconsistent bullet depth seating by seating all the round nose bullet with the "FLAT POINT adaptor" on the seating die. If a die set does not have the "flat point adaptor" then I had to machinist the "flat point adapter" for myself, just buy a round rod of aluminum from Home Depot and make the "flat point adapter" from there.

[mofo1111]

My Redding Precision Seating die works great for pistol. I use the seating die for 9mm and it seems to seat from the sides of the bullet rather than the top, making more consistent OAL. It has a fine dial to adjust OAL in a more precise manner.