LANDS???

[just learning]

how can you tell how close the bullet is to the lands? how close do you want to be? and are the lands were the bullet meets the rifling-twist??

[John Traveler]

Yes.  The rifling "lands" are the raised portions where the bore was drilled and reamed, before the rifling grooves are cut.

The standard procedure for setting bullet seating depth (overall cartridge length) is to seat the bullet just short of actually touching the lands.  

You do this by seating a bullet in a sized, empty case too far out, marking the bullet's bearing surface with a Magic Marker pen, and chambering the cartridge in the rifle.  Those "land" marks on the bearing surface tell you the bullet engages the rifling.  

Now seat your bullet say, 0.020 to 0.050" deeper and you are all set.  This is now your master dummy round for setting the seating die.

HTH
John