Couple Q's on repeat-ability and desired tolerances...

[havoc_squad]

One thing to note which - hasn't happened - basically ever...

Rounds seated a tad deeper than published COAL - (2.25)
2.2 to 2.24 end up slipping in and out of my slotted Sheridan gauge easily.. Most rounds always got stuck..

I've got the Hornady runout tools so I know bullets are straight but at 2.25 coal they'll get jammed up in the sheridan.
huh!

If your sheridian case gauge is formed to SAAMI minimum chamber dimensions, then it is sticking likely because the bullet Ogive is pushing against where the rifling lands would begin.

SAAMI minimum chamber specs assumes the most tightest possible chamber for ammunition made.

If it will pass that test, very rarely will they fail to fire or chamber for all guns in that caliber.

Since you shortened that bullet seating and they pass your gauge, that is the most likely cause.

Any new bullet or lengthening an existing load gets checked with a dummy round in the gun chamber hand fed to make sure it is not jammed in the lands. Don't care what the published COAL says, I'm checking first.

If it does not freely fall out by itself on a clean chamber when shakened vertically, then the bullet is too far out.

[dellet]

Loaded up some more 110 Barnes Tac-TX's this morning

15 @ 19.7gn h110
15 @ 20.3gn H110...

Tried a couple different seating depths in groups of 5ea..

One thing to note which - hasn't happened - basically ever...

Rounds seated a tad deeper than published COAL - (2.25)
2.2 to 2.24 end up slipping in and out of my slotted Sheridan gauge easily.. Most rounds always got stuck..

I've got the Hornady runout tools so I know bullets are straight but at 2.25 coal they'll get jammed up in the sheridan.
huh!

I'm going to try and get some more groups shot weekend after next. Waiting on Labradar to send me a new external microphone adapter... Last one was nonworking for whatever reason.

So we'll also see if ES/SD is any better with different seating depths.

Thanks!

Depends on which 110 Tac-Tx you have, blue tip or black tip.

The black tip will not hit the lands or gauge until longer than 2.400". The blue tip hits much shorter, but I do not remember that off the top of my head.

Knowing what bullet you have will make helping a lot easier.

[SIMJOSH1]

Probably my second reloading session I leaned a valuable lesson with bullet ojive and lands...

I hobbled some data together for maker 190s.. Since I couldn't find any published data I made my own... Without checking where the bullet hit the lands...

I wasted 50 bullets and got varying fps +/- 200-300fps... It was all over the place... 11gn fires at 900fps.. 10gn load at 1000.. Another 11gn load fires at 1200fps. Drove me crazy

Well the bullet was impacting the lands on the barrel. Which I believe randomly set the bullet deeper into the case or lands...


After that I took a lc brass case and fire formed/ resized then chopped up the neck with my dremel to make a headspace gauge..


I'm using black tip bullets. As havoc mentioned I do believe the Sheridan is just so tight it's giving me resistance. They slide in fine just never fell out. Shortening coal just a couple thousandths changed that tho. I'll toss a bullet into the Sheridan Sunday when I go to work. (Where my reloading setup is located). I'll see where it lines up at and maybe get a picture if it seems to stop short..

[dellet]

COL will be around 2.410" and CTBO will be around 1.665".

I would start by cleaning the gauge really well with a Qtip. If there is a burr or something at the land in the gauge it will snag the fibers. Then see if the bullet comes out the end like above.

It's important to be able to trust your tools, so finding out what's going on would be important to me.

[SIMJOSH1]

@dellet

I checked for any issues on the sheridan gauge.. Seems like it was already thoroughly clean. I slid a couple bullets in.. and sure enough they would go toward the end and have the tip hang out..

A couple bullets was entered off kiltered and would hang up where I'm used to seeing it on completed ammo.
*But they still fell right out once the gauge was inverted...*

So I'm not 100% sure if this has something else to do with concentricity or neck diameter. I'll have to do some more investigation.

Maybe the neck runout from sizing is causing some issues once the bullets in...

Empty sized cases always fall in and out without issue... Only once loaded do they require a push out (not in).. I also just bump 2-3thou but I kind of always figured it was something to do with the bullet / tight tolerances there.

Thanks!

Just got shipping info from LabRadar for a replacement external microphone - Should have a day at my range coming up this Saturday!

[cdl]

I use the NECO concentricity gauge so I could be off base, but the Hornady gauge kind of stacks a lot of tolerances and the shorter bullets exaggerate them. Also it basically works by bending the neck. Have you tried not straightening your loads?

[SIMJOSH1]

I use the NECO concentricity gauge so I could be off base, but the Hornady gauge kind of stacks a lot of tolerances and the shorter bullets exaggerate them. Also it basically works by bending the neck. Have you tried not straightening your loads?

Yes I have... I normally set the hornady tool up where the probe / pusher is right above the neck.. figured it was slightly re-aligning the bullet vs messing with the neck... but that's something to take into account too...

I'll check out the NECO gauge.. I also like the sinclair tool but figured being able to adjust slightly crooked bullets made the hornady one best..

I found a couple tips and tricks for helping to create concentric ammo.. Going to try those out next time I resize.
*one down fall of the hornady tool - can't check neck concentricity out the gate without extra stuff...

[dellet]

Small, flatbase bullets are kind of a pain to seat, you might be distorting the neck on seating. Measuring diameter might catch that. Also very common is a burr at the neck not being removed by chamfering.

You might pick up either of those with a light file at the lip of a padded round that give you trouble. Sometime you can feel it with a finger nail.

The Sheridan is by design a pain in butt to use, the question is if you value being told you did it wrong.

[SIMJOSH1]

Small, flatbase bullets are kind of a pain to seat, you might be distorting the neck on seating. Measuring diameter might catch that. Also very common is a burr at the neck not being removed by chamfering.

You might pick up either of those with a light file at the lip of a padded round that give you trouble. Sometime you can feel it with a finger nail.

The Sheridan is by design a pain in butt to use, the question is if you value being told you did it wrong.

LOL.. yes I wouldn't have posted if I didn't want to know.
I originally used it to verify that the cases were within spec for headspacing.

-For loaded ammo.. just couldn't figure out where the sticking was. Tried the sharpie trick but coudln't get it.. Back then I was using converted LC brass from a 55 gallon drum. Tons of minor head issues caused cases to not properly sit etc. IF I can get this figured out though it would definitely make me feel better about the over all quality of my finished product...

I'll try some of the concentric tips on sizing die setup along with seating to see if thatll help in addition to your suggestions. 9

Unfortunately I have no idea how well my sized cases measure for runout - could be an underlying issue there.

[cdl]

As long as your going to the trouble ... and I haven't done this with 300 Blk yet.

I call "Case Symmetry" the uniformity of case wall thickness and "Run Out" as the straightness of the completed cartridge, but that's me because concentricity gets me confused.

So, measure the case wall symmetry (wall thickness) behind the shoulder. Because a non symmetrical case expands like a banana. When I do Lapua 308 Win brass, those out of symmetry between 0.0015" < 0.0030" get indexed, over 0.0030" get culled. Out of 100 Lapua 308 Win, on average, 20% get culled for being too light, too heavy, non- symmetrical or for just bothering me. 40% end up indexed and 40% are pretty "darn" symmetrical.

What's counter intuitive is that the indexed rounds shoot almost twice as tight as the "darn" symmetrical rounds.

The moral here is that I expend all that effort to find and shoot the crooked rounds when it counts.