Go fast,
Here are some readings showing seating relationships across a range of 6.5 bullets. The barrel is a Lilja and while yours will be different the trend will be the same.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19983[/ATTACH]
Measurements are in mm, and 0.5mm is the metric equivalent of a 0.02" jump.
First column is the OAL to ensure a 20-thou jump. As you know, different shaped bullets will have slightly different OALs.
Second column is for reference - it's the length of an ASC 6.5 Grendel stainless magazine. Rounds cannot be any longer than this for normal use in a semi-auto.
Third column shows how much shank will be in contact if bullets are seated to the max the magazine will allow.
Note the mag is the limiting factor in every case. Jump will always be further than preferred.
Even with mags limiting the OAL note how lighter bullets have progressively less shank in contact. You either have to crimp or have a lot of brass elasticity, or seat them even deeper (like in your case) to make sure they won't budge while being slammed home into battery.
Unfortunately 20-thou jumps are a luxury that only bolt gun users will enjoy. If you look after everything else however, longer jump-to-lands are not going to compromise your groups much, and maybe not at all - certainly not to 3-4MOA.
While it is convenient to blame the gun for large group sizes there are a number of factors that cause bullets to go where they do: gun, scope, rest, wind, ammunition, and firer. I remember a group of us shooting an old pencil barrel A1 AR with the handle upper. It had the barrel blown out by full-auto mag dumps yet still shot 3MOA with Milspec M193 ball ammo. And that was using iron sights. 3-4MOA means something is not right and it is not going to be the factory ammo, and for sure not the jump-to-lands.
Here are some readings showing seating relationships across a range of 6.5 bullets. The barrel is a Lilja and while yours will be different the trend will be the same.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]19983[/ATTACH]
Measurements are in mm, and 0.5mm is the metric equivalent of a 0.02" jump.
First column is the OAL to ensure a 20-thou jump. As you know, different shaped bullets will have slightly different OALs.
Second column is for reference - it's the length of an ASC 6.5 Grendel stainless magazine. Rounds cannot be any longer than this for normal use in a semi-auto.
Third column shows how much shank will be in contact if bullets are seated to the max the magazine will allow.
Note the mag is the limiting factor in every case. Jump will always be further than preferred.
Even with mags limiting the OAL note how lighter bullets have progressively less shank in contact. You either have to crimp or have a lot of brass elasticity, or seat them even deeper (like in your case) to make sure they won't budge while being slammed home into battery.
Unfortunately 20-thou jumps are a luxury that only bolt gun users will enjoy. If you look after everything else however, longer jump-to-lands are not going to compromise your groups much, and maybe not at all - certainly not to 3-4MOA.
While it is convenient to blame the gun for large group sizes there are a number of factors that cause bullets to go where they do: gun, scope, rest, wind, ammunition, and firer. I remember a group of us shooting an old pencil barrel A1 AR with the handle upper. It had the barrel blown out by full-auto mag dumps yet still shot 3MOA with Milspec M193 ball ammo. And that was using iron sights. 3-4MOA means something is not right and it is not going to be the factory ammo, and for sure not the jump-to-lands.