Does anyone index their cases?

[Kappy]

One of my shooting buddies is trying to turn me on to the idea of "indexing" my cases, by which he means that I should put a mark on the bottom of my case to let me know how to put the completed round back in the chamber to fire again, somewhat guaranteeing that the round will fire in a more uniform way than it would otherwise.

Any thoughts? It didn't strike me as terribly important, but I figured I'd... run it up the flagpole and see who saluted.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[mark501w]

Pistol silhouette guys used to do it for 200 meter shooting .

[Fjold]

What's it index? All it means is that the brass case is laying the same way every time that you fire it. How does that make anything else more uniform? Does he index it when he resizes it and when he seats each bullet in it?

[Enfield47]

It might be worthwhile for precision shooting but if you aren't doing that level of shooting, I wouldn't worry about it. There are so many other factors that might have a bigger impact like culling your bullets for only those that are the exact same weight and mic out the same.

[Kappy]

What's it index? All it means is that the brass case is laying the same way every time that you fire it. How does that make anything else more uniform? Does he index it when he resizes it and when he seats each bullet in it?

He loads cast bullets for 45-70 and tells me that it may help me with my jacketed 308. He has seams on his bullet, so he indexed off of that and (I think) when he sizes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[J-cat]

Indexing only works in conjunction with known runout. You spin the round on a runout gauge. You see the bullet wobble on the indicator. You mark the case where he runout is most extreme. You load the rounds into the chamber using the index marks so the bullet tips all point in the same direction.

[sghart]

Indexing only works in conjunction with known runout. You spin the round on a runout gauge. You see the bullet wobble on the indicator. You mark the case where he runout is most extreme. You load the rounds into the chamber using the index marks so the bullet tips all point in the same direction.

This.

There are a myriad of things you can do if you want to get into microdetails. Indexing is just one of them. With cast bullets matched to the same bore over and over it can work.

[zoid52]

Kinda like using dedicated brass for rifles of the same caliber. Some people say this will make your brass last longer. Everyone has an opinion.

[John Browning]

Indexing only works in conjunction with known runout. You spin the round on a runout gauge. You see the bullet wobble on the indicator. You mark the case where he runout is most extreme. You load the rounds into the chamber using the index marks so the bullet tips all point in the same direction.

This, with the exception that you need a rifle that is capable of extreme accuracy for this to matter. You wouldn't be able to tell a difference unless you're also weighing bullets, charges, cases, using match dies, prepping your brass, etc.

[Kappy]

I hope my rifle is capable of extreme accuracy, but time will tell.

Scobun, I'll try your ideas first.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[ejohanson]

Does anyone index their cases?

.Deleted

[J-cat]

This.

There are a myriad of things you can do if you want to get into microdetails. Indexing is just one of them. With cast bullets matched to the same bore over and over it can work.

The problem with cast bullets is they are not perfectly round. The shank is after sizing, but not the nose. And they are soft, so the indicator will dig into the metal.

[Fjold]

He loads cast bullets for 45-70 and tells me that it may help me with my jacketed 308. He has seams on his bullet, so he indexed off of that and (I think) when he sizes.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Jacketed bullets do not have seams, it doesn't apply to them.