Sinclair or Stoney point guages?? which one??

JustC

I have been looking at the oal/bullet seating guages. I have always used a bullet with black marker and an empty casing, chambered it, removed it, and set my seating die until the gouge in the base of the bullet, where it seated in the case while touching the rifling, came to the mouth of the cartridge, and then backed off .010"-.015". It has worked well, but consumes time.

What do the guys with experience with these things, think about these guages and which one of the two is any better, if at all?

Actually, it is called the seating depth tool. It also seems, if I understand correctly, that I wouldn't need a comparitor body if I use this setup. I can just re-measure the OAL if I swith to another bullet design, RIGHT?????????????

A great rifle with a junk scope,....is junk.

Der Gebirgsjager

Can't give you much help here, C--I'm still using method #1 exactly as you have described it. I always make a dummy first, no power or primer, and save it in a labelled container for later reference in the event that I readjust my dies to something else and want to come back to this load later. Saves doing it all over again. Seems like someone is always coming up with a new gadget of dubious worth for one to buy.

varmit hunter

C, I do mine along the same line as you. Instead of a Magic marker, I use non-drying prussian blue. It is made by Permatex. I have used it for years in machining operations to get perfect fit on parts. One small tube of this stuff will cover the Houston Astrodome. If you cant find it, Let me know, And I will send you a tube.

I have talked to some world class shooters. They have all told me they do not use the gauges. I resize my case neck 1/8". Just enough to hold the bullet. I then cover the bullet with the blue. Push the bolt in slowly. This will force the bullet back in the case. Then bring the bolt down. This is referred to as hard into the lands.

Wipe the blue off, Then bring it up into the seater die.Bring the seater plug down till you touch. Then drop the ram down. Seat the bullet .005 down. Re blue, At this point you should see land marks on the prussian blue, Not on the bullet. I then load five rounds at this depth. Then five more at .005 increments till I get to .020 deep. A word of caution here. Do not follow this procedure with a hot load. If there will be any pressure problems, They will show up on the load seated closest to the lands.

I know this sounds like a lot of work. It is not near as bad as it sounds. In a test last week with my .300 win mag There was a 1/2 difference with the same powder charge. No two rifles will act the same. the round backed off .005 proved to be the most accurate than any of the rest. In other guns it may be the one at .020 that's the best.

I know we have been having e-mail problems, But if you wont the prussian blue contact me at rrobison.gt.rr.com, This procedure is far faster than I have made it sound. I have been very impressed with this seating procedure. Any time I can close up a group just by a small turn of the seating plug, I consider time well spent.

The most important things, Are not things.

chuck

Hi Just I use the stoney point and it is great, especily when trying differnt brands of bullets as it measures the ojive, You can get them all the same, when measuring the chamber I stick the bullet in a unprimed case about 3/16 of an inch and close the bolt and measure. It's that simple and they don't cost a Lot. Hopes this helps.

JustC

well I guess I have to do some thinking. I was impressed with the simplicity of the guage, but it sounds like everyone does it a lot like I already do. But, for $28, it might not be a bad thing to have.

A great rifle with a junk scope,....is junk.