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Seating bullets to touch lands & barrel life????

Redbear57
I've been reloading for my 22-250 for a number of years now and have seated my bullet to touch to lands and get very good accuracy and fairly long barrel life (about 3500 rds or so, before the accuracy goes south).

My question is:
If I seat the bullet "short" so it has to "jump" to reach the lands, will this decrease barrel life? are there any other considerations?

Any comments or suggestions will be appreciated.

Thanks....aim small and good shooting! ......[8D]
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Comments

13 comments

Date Votes
  • Rocky Raab
    There is no reliable way to measure it because the "test" can't be repeated another way. In other words, once your barrel is toast, you can't change something and see if that barrel lasts longer. It's like asking if a dead man would have lived longer if he'd been a vegetarian. Can't run that test both ways.

    The real factor isn't seating depth, but the load. If you are a "Max is just the beginning" kind of guy, your barrel will burn out long before it would if you loaded moderately. The 22-250 isn't known for long life to begin with, being a fairly large case on a small bore. You'll burn three barrels before a .223 burns one. That's the price you pay for extra oomph.
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  • Redbear57
    My loads are fairly moderate for a 22-250 and run about 3500 fps. I am just wondering if seating bullets "short" will do any serious damage or decrease barrel life. Just wondering what the long time reloaders have discovered in this area or even if it makes any difference, except for accuracy. Thanks for your reply..
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  • 243winxb
    Gas Cutting - The front of the bullet must seal the bore before the base of the bullet leaves the case mouth for longer barrel life.
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  • Rocky Raab
    I think that sums it up very well indeed, 243winxb. Very short/light bullets would be the ones to eye closely unless the freebore is very long. In that case, even normal weight/length bullets might be a problem.
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  • Hawk Carse
    A lot of shooters "chase the rifling" seating bullets farther out as the barrel wears and the throat erodes. Of course there is a limit but it can help for a while.
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  • Redbear57
    I had "heard" that it's best to seat the bullet to just touch the lands, but didn't realize the impact on barrel life. Thanks for the assistance. Aim small & good shooting.....[8D]
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  • Okie743
    If you have not checked your bullet seating depth to touch the rifling in awhile after several rounds you will most likly find that you need to increase the OAL to touch the rifling!
    Do not get concerned if you see such and you still have good accuracy, it's a normal thing. I started keeping a log of the approx number of shots vs change in throat leade after I noticed such few years ago on several rifles that still had good accuracy! Seems most don't discover such until they see accuracy going away and immediately blame throat wear when it may actually be something else causing their accuracy issues! Good excuse to go buy a new gun or barrel though![;)]
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  • Rocky Raab
    Let me be a bit clearer then. Whether the bullet touches the rifling or not has no effect on barrel life per se. What matters is that front of the bullet seals in the bore before the rear of the bullet leaves the case mouth.

    If the bullet is so short that it "floats" through the barrel throat, the hot gas pushing it will race around the bullet and impinge on the start of the lands. That causes very fast erosion of the lands, which does shorten barrel life.

    The distance the bullet has to jump to the lands has a definite effect on accuracy, and not all rifles shoot their best with the bullet touching the lands. If you habitually seat to touch the lands, therefore, you may be sacrificing accuracy in the possibly vain hope of having the barrel last longer.

    Accuracy is paramount, so seat the bullet for best accuracy. If you hit what you aim at the first time, you don't need extra thousands of rounds of barrel life.
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  • Redbear57
    Thanks for the thoughts. I have checked my throat after each prairie dog trip and have noticed that the throat does grow a bit, but the accuracy generally stays the same. On one of my 1st barrels to go, after over 3600 rounds, the throat was virtually wiped out for the 1st 8-9"...we know, as we cut the barrel open to a look see.

    This item is the most important:
    The front of the bullet must seal the bore before the base of the bullet leaves the case mouth for longer barrel life.

    this is critical and I'll be watching & checking. Thanks...

    Barry
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  • jonk
    It isn't really the copper or lead bullet that wears the barrel, it's the hot plasma/gas from the powder and primer that slowly etches into the metal and wears it away. Seating to touch the lands doesn't really impact what the gas is doing to the throat, but as mentioned if the bullet is sealing the bore before the base exits the case you will see some improvement, in theory. The other thing I'd add is that seating to touch the lands or nearly so means better bullet alignment and less bullet distortion, also leading to less blow by gas- assuming bore diameter is proper to begin with.

    Of course, seating to jam right against the lands also increases pressure to start so in general you'd want to avoid max loads.

    This all goes out the window with guns designed with very long throats, but for your 22-250 is fine. In practice I don't think you'll see much increase in barrel life, but even a hundred rounds or two is certainly worth it.
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  • v35
    It doesn't seem to bother '96 Swede Mauser owners that the standard 139 grain ogival bullet takes a good jump to enter the rifling.
    To my knowledge, chambers were all cut for the longer original 156 grain RN bullet.
    One would think it makes sense to set these barrels back.
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  • jonk
    quote:Originally posted by v35
    It doesn't seem to bother '96 Swede Mauser owners that the standard 139 grain ogival bullet takes a good jump to enter the rifling.
    To my knowledge, chambers were all cut for the longer original 156 grain RN bullet.
    One would think it makes sense to set these barrels back.
    There's a reason I shoot mainly 160 gr RN 6.5 in my Swede... that's it.

    The military was interested in spitzer point bullets and downrange ballistics. I'm interested in best accuracy. While I've done ok with 100, 125, and 140 gr bullets in my Swedes, 90% of the time I get best accuracy with a 160 gr round nose.

    I'd agree though, long throats on military guns are exceptions, in that you are unlikely to be able to fill some of them. In several of my 8mms, even a long, blunt bullet seated just barely in the case and far too long for mag cycling doesn't touch the rifling.
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  • v35
    I wonder how much better they'd shoot and how much longer accuracy would last with barrel set back and properly throated for the 139 grain ogival bullet.
    After all, the 96 Swede was arguably the best of the Mausers.
    Wouldn't it be worth it?
    We used breechbore gages in the Army to classify serviceability of
    30-06 rifles and MGs.
    If it didn't matter, the forward advance of throat erosion wouldn't have been a critical criterion of serviceability.
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