VLD seating depth

[Oldmauser]

My CBTO of 140 VLDs touching the lands is 2.227.
Berger says:
"Since the sweet spot is .030 to .040 wide we recommend that you conduct the following test to find your rifles VLD sweet spot.
Load 24 rounds at the following CBTO if you are a target competition shooter who does not worry about jamming a bullet:

1. .010 into (touching) the lands (jam) 6 rounds
2. .040 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
3. .080 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds
4. .120 off the lands (jump) 6 rounds"

I decided to start my first seating depth at 0.40, i.e. at 2.191 and skip the 0.10 spot. Am I making a mistake? Does it make sense to start the first seating depth at 0.010 off the lands?

 

[spife7980]

Yeah it does.

 

[Alabusa]

When I started load development on my .300 WM, I started with the bullet touching and found a good powder load. Then, I started backing off in .005 increments to fine tune the groups and ended up at .040 off. To me, .040 increments seem to be too much to really find a sweet spot.

 

[Holliday]

When I started load development on my .300 WM, I started with the bullet touching and found a good powder load. Then, I started backing off in .005 increments to fine tune the groups and ended up at .040 off. To me, .040 increments seem to be too much to really find a sweet spot.

Interesting, doesn’t coming off the lands reduce your pressure/velocity?

 

[EN2722]

Yes, it does make sense to start .010 off, however, why are you going to load 6 per seating depth length?

 

[Lost_Phil]

When I did the Burger 130 VLD in my 6.5 Grendel, I started at 0.020 off the lands and worked back every 0.005 until I found the sweet spot, which was at 0.035 from the lands and I did this with 5 rounds each time.