Bulk 55gr 223 seating depth

[Jb1289610]

Hey everyone. Starting to get into reloading and began my journey with my 223. Everything was going well until I got to the seating depth.
I wanted to get started with some plinking rounds before I began loading for precision so I got bulk 55gr bullets.
The problem I am having is my seating depth. I adjusted my bullet seating for on the first round to 2.25. Right where I wanted. But then I started getting variances. Like .045-.080 differences in either direction. This concerns me because I feel like I can not just set the seating die and go.
Also I removed and weighed each bullet and they all are 55gr but the Canular is in different spots.
I understand a variance in bulk ammo but is this much normal? And should I really be worried about that much variance? Don’t want to mess up my rifle

 

[MarinePMI]

Depends on how cheap and "bulk" the bullets are. But yeah, cheap bullets have a lot of variance.

 

[clcustom1911]

Sounds like you got a mixed lot of 55gr bullets that were rejects from a military ammo run. My bulk process is this:

Trim case to 1.75", seat 55 gr bullet to where a c-hair of the cannelure ring is visible, crimp. If you do that, the OAL almost always is 2.21-2.25".

Its plinking ammo.

I once had several hundred 62 gr fmjbt's that were the same manufacturer part number, but clearly two different runs.

Your Honor, I present Exhibit A:

 

[Jb1289610]

Thanks for the help! I can see why they were rejected! ?

 

[Codiekfx400]

Hornady is a great bullet at a fair price for plinking ammo. It sounds like the bullets you are working with are very inconsistent.

 

[Gmangh15]

I am also reloading 223 with the Hornady 55G SP with cannelure. COAL was 2.6 and I didn’t feel that was deep enough with a lot of exposed cannelure. Like mentioned above seat to 2.2 and that gives a little cannelure exposure with no problems at all. I load 23.5G Varget

 

[Snuby642]

Have recived bulk midway 223 with cannelure in diffrent locations, they were junk.

I think they were scraps.
Hornady sp bullets are ok.
May try some bob's next.

 

[Snuby642]

Just found my load in work holding promise, need to get better price on the bullets.

Lc brass cci 400 26.5g cfe223 hand trickled 55gr sgk 2.20 coal.
Best groups were 3/4 1.0 was average.

These were single stage and no blemished brass for the test in 16 inch gasser.

Now to get a deal on those bullets.

 

[Snuby642]

So I thought about all the things that have messed up my seating depth.
In no particular order.

My reloader arms were contacting my bench at full stroke.

I had mixed bulk bullets with a different ogive length.

I had a compressed load when nearing my full charge on testing powder charges and not on minimum charge where I set my coal.

Different boxes of the same Hornady bullets had a different ogive length.

I didn't take the play out of my die properly when setting it up.

I had help in making adjustments from my grandson.

I drank during die setup.

If there are any I have missed give me time and I will get to them eventually.

This is a list of mistakes I have made at random and not just my first die set.

 

[Nimothy]

Sounds like you got a mixed lot of 55gr bullets that were rejects from a military ammo run. My bulk process is this:

Trim case to 1.75", seat 55 gr bullet to where a c-hair of the cannelure ring is visible, crimp. If you do that, the OAL almost always is 2.21-2.25".


Its plinking ammo.

I once had several hundred 62 gr fmjbt's that were the same manufacturer part number, but clearly two different runs.

Your Honor, I present Exhibit A:View attachment 7221728

This is exactly how I do it too

 

[Nimothy]

Have recived bulk midway 223 with cannelure in diffrent locations, they were junk.

I think they were scraps.
Hornady sp bullets are ok.
May try some bob's next.

Yeah lol I learned the hard way on some dog towns too. Hornady bulks from bluecollarreloading.com are cheaper anyways and then they’ll be the same lot. I just got 1500 68gr’ers I wanna say for 225$ don’t quote me on that (I bought Berger bricks that day too) either way he’s always treated me very well. And does his best to sell like lots without even having to ask him to do so. He calls and apologizes when he can’t get you same lots (kinda an odd concept for someone to care so much this day n age)

 

[XLR308]

So I thought about all the things that have messed up my seating depth.
In no particular order.

My reloader arms were contacting my bench at full stroke.

I had mixed bulk bullets with a different ogive length.

I had a compressed load when nearing my full charge on testing powder charges and not on minimum charge where I set my coal.

Different boxes of the same Hornady bullets had a different ogive length.

I didn't take the play out of my die properly when setting it up.

I had help in making adjustments from my grandson.

I drank during die setup.

If there are any I have missed give me time and I will get to them eventually.

This is a list of mistakes I have made at random and not just my first die set.

Do yourself a favor Snuby and get a press riser mount, there is company that makes one for just about any press and it gets it up off the bench and aids in distributing the load you putting on your bench when resizing.
I ended up building this one from 516 grade 70 plate steel that was laying around but you get the idea.
Kind of overkill but built like a brick shithouse ?

 

[Snuby642]

I moved the press to a location that didn't interfere. The dillon has a riser base.

Just a list of easy mistakes that can be checked and corrected. I actually went through those in my learning curve.

 

[Jb1289610]

So far what I have been doing is loading my powder then just seating the projectiles so a small amount of the canular is showing. And I am loading them in .5gr increments on the first run to see which lot shoots best. Then I’m going to refine it from there. They may just be plinking rounds but I still want them to be half way decent. Lol

 

[NCHillbilly]

I have also experienced the same situation while using bulk bullets (hornady 55gr fmjbt w/ cannelure). It seems the issues I had occurred mainly with bullets I bought back in 2013, when there were shortages of EVERYTHING.
If I'm just loading plinking ammo, I'll take 10 or 15 out of the bag and measure the overall length of the bullets. Find the longest one, and use it to adjust the seating stem. I have .004-.005 neck tension, so I don't crimp, which makes cannelure position irrelevant to me. Some of your rounds will be a little short, but they should all fit and function in your mags. Remember, this is blasting ammo.

 

[b2lee]

Just for plinking...I use these and have good luck with consistency: Wolf Performance

At 6 cents a piece....I can do a lot of shooting...especially if I use BL-C(2) powder....it's CHEAP!

 

[Jb1289610]

I’ll have to check out that blc powder. The store in my town just sells benchrest