SmallCaliberCentral

I'm shooting my handloads (32 vMax) with my COAL at appx. 2.334". I say appx because I'm measuring to the tip, not the olgive (I don't have the tools to do that). I'm using a Wilson seater.

Seeing the most recent (yet another) post about 32 gn SBK's keyholing, and Fred C's point about MV (Mean velocity I assume), this thought was gendered in my head, since I had the same issue with the 32 gn SBKs:

I wonder if seating out so far means that I've never reached proper velocity, since I've only tested to a tad under the max suggested powder charge (hogdon's data for Benchmark powder) for the assumed COAL of 2.25"??

I've been seeing some crazy things going on with my golden round... and this has got me thinking

Savage 12 VLP, .204 of course...

I belive mv means muzzle velocity

bow shot, I don't believe that is your problem. I usually seat between 2.335 and 2.350 and have plenty of velocity iwth 32 grainers and while I usually shoot with MV of 3,950 to 4,000 fps, I can get much higher without overpressure in many powders. I just like to keep them in that range for best accuracy in this rifle, Savage 16WW with 22" barrel.