I ended up taking one of the new bullets and re-finding my OAL. My original load shot best at .015” off the lands, so I loaded these new bullets to .010” and .015” off the lands. This gives me a new COAL, New comparator measurement, and new micrometer setting for the seating die. The .010” shot well and the .015” shot excellent, just like before. I’m glad I got this all figured out, since I love shooting this rifle, and am hoping to take a deer with it this year.

I have scrapped the VLD seating stem and put the original back in the Hornady seating die. I will only use it for standard shaped bullets from now on. I will use the Frankford Arsenal universal seating die for any super pointy bullets. I’m still very pleased with that Frankford die, it still is seating consistently and is still repeatable.


JTD