Bullet Seating Depth Help

[Airw4ves]

I feel dumb asking this, but how does everyone find their bullet seating depth with these 3 lug actions? Will the Wheeler method work? I'm about to toss my sh!tty Sinclair tool in the trash, and cannot seem to feel any click using the Wheeler method, on the upstroke like on my 2 lug actions. Do I just seat it until the bolt drops down freely?
This is on a Terminus Zeus action.

Any help would be appreciated, Thanks

 

[spife7980]

I’ve never noticed a click on my two lugs...

The bolt should fall freely with the firing pin stripped and the ejector plunger out unless there is a bullet or case is touching barrel and putting pressure on it and holding it up.

 

[Airw4ves]

This is where I got the “click” from when dealing with my 2 lugs

 

[spife7980]

I see what you mean now.
I only we get the “click” like that when I’m still a good bit in too far. If I’m far enough into them to get the click then I can feel it before/as/when I’m closing it so I don’t actully cam it closed and jam it. When you get close to it falling freely there won’t be a click. I judge by the handle fall, not the primary extraction click. Do you not get any feedback sensation at all though?

I’ve also noticed my more tangent/hybrid bullets don’t have as defined of a wall as the secants do. So bullet profile and the land geometry and how they interact have an effect on how much a little jam actually jams and thus the force it takes to extract that jam.

 

[Airw4ves]

Yeah, so I can load a round and the handle does not drop freely, but as I seat the bullet further, I do get to a point that it drops down with no resistance. I was going to use that, but decided to double check with the Sinclair and got 0.2 difference in my depth so was unsure if the Wilson method was giving me the most accurate readings.

 

[spife7980]

I like to go to where it drops so I have a repeatable point with out my interpretation of the force needed.
I can get that point to to be pretty consistent with multiple rounds so that’s why I trust the touching point over what could be an arbitrary jam point like with the Hornady tool.
I then proof it by coloring the bullet with a sharpie and visually verifying that I go from a land imprint to no imprint where I expected it to. If you have .2 inches of difference between the two measurements I would verify that the long one still shows the lands in sharpie and that they disappear when you get to the much shorter drop area and not in the middle of your two measurements.
Some pieces of brass don’t play well either. I’ll drop the handle on the sized brass In a chamber with no bullet to make sure it isnt my source of conflict.

 

[Airw4ves]

Yeah I got the bolt to drop freely, but when I coloured the bullet with sharpie, it began to stick again. Cant see sharpie adding that much to the bullet, but I’ll stick with this method. Thanks for your help, I appreciate it.

Also, this is a warning to others. Sinclair makes great stuff, but their bullet seating tool is a hunk of junk imo.

 

[spife7980]

Might just be a tight freebore rubbing on the sides as well, can you see any marks around the bearing surface of the bullet that would indicate contact other than the lands?

 

[Airw4ves]

Yeah, the sharpie is wiped away at what looks like the lands.