.308 OAL ????

[sethmstanton]

I currently have a Remington 700 BDL VS in a .308. The barrel is the stock 24" 1 in 12 RHT. This is my dillema.

Ive been loading all my cartridges to 2.808". Ive been shooting the Barnes TSX 168gr. The gun consistently holds 5 shot groups between .266 and .300" groups @ 100 yds. At 200 its shooting groups at 1.4" and @ 300 shooting groups of 1.4".

I just bought the hornady OAL gauge. I measured the distance to my rifleing numerous times and kept coming up with the same numbers. The OAL is coming out to 3.012" (Touching the rifling). That Means that the bullets Ive been loading at 2.808" have been jumping .204". Thats almost a quarter inch!!!How has it been shooting those kind of groups @ 100 yards with .204" of jump?

Also, with the new data I have on my OAL being 3.012", Ive backed my bullets off between .020" and .040" putting my OAL of my finished cartridge @ 2.992".

Does this sound right to you? Should I even mess with the length, given the groups this gun is shooting now?

Thanks for the help guys.

Seth

 

[sethmstanton]

Re: .308 OAL ????

Bump

 

[ChrisGarrett]

Re: .308 OAL ????

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HogsLife</div><div class="ubbcode-body">I currently have a Remington 700 BDL VS in a .308. The barrel is the stock 24" 1 in 12 RHT. This is my dillema.

Ive been loading all my cartridges to 2.808". Ive been shooting the Barnes TSX 168gr. The gun consistently holds 5 shot groups between .266 and .300" groups @ 100 yds. At 200 its shooting groups at 1.4" and @ 300 shooting groups of 1.4".

I just bought the hornady OAL gauge. I measured the distance to my rifleing numerous times and kept coming up with the same numbers. The OAL is coming out to 3.012" (Touching the rifling). That Means that the bullets Ive been loading at 2.808" have been jumping .204". Thats almost a quarter inch!!!How has it been shooting those kind of groups @ 100 yards with .204" of jump?

Also, with the new data I have on my OAL being 3.012", Ive backed my bullets off between .020" and .040" putting my OAL of my finished cartridge @ 2.992".

Does this sound right to you? Should I even mess with the length, given the groups this gun is shooting now?

Thanks for the help guys.

Seth

</div></div>

Seems a bit long to me, but it's a Remington, so who knows how long the throat is? I have some of those bullets I loaded up for a buddy, I'd have to measure the ogive on them, but I don't think that they'd qualify as a VLD secant design and seat that deeply in the throat, but again...it's a Remington.

If your rifle is consistently shooting ~.3 MOA 5 shots groups, which is somewhat astonishing, I'd keep things as they are.

Chris

 

[BOLTRIPPER]

Re: OAL ????

ya....stock barrels got a whole bunch of space ....before the them lands and grooves....go wear it out and get a gunplumber to jock you up a custom......welcome to the Hide

 

[Criver600]

Re: .308 OAL ????

Sounds about right, Local guy has a brand new Remington Tactical 308 with a very deep throat...............

BTW if your consistently getting .266 to .300 groups you need to find a benchrest match, shoot factory class that will win anywhere......

 

[Boomholzer]

Re: OAL ????

seating to lands isn't everything, consider it a possible add-on.

The length to bore or lands is based roughly on Ogive or the expected (per external guage) diameter of the bullet to enguage. If your measuring base-to-tip delta, even with same bullet your gonna also get the variance in that bullet length from Ogive to tip. For example, with just OAL; a secant bullet Ogive will measure a larger jump vs a tangent Ogive. It's still useable data for reloading that bullet but a garbage number to make comparisons in throat length.
With the TSX, that reads very long.
Touching the lands isn't a universal plus with all bullets/chambers/loads.

A trick in either measurement is to ink the bullet. The kiss will grab the bullet and pull it out on extraction making the measurement void. It's also amazingly repeatable but still in error. Some tooling die or even sharpie marker will give indication of such. Getting decent neck tension in the donar measurement brass is a trick in itself.

Good consistant seating tension (with consistant load) will go farther then trying to make a Rem jump IMO. Keep the neck clean and don't sacrifice the neck-to-bullet bearing surface. Given your posted results, I would'nt fuck with any of it.

 

[ColoWyo]

Re: OAL ????

If your stick is shooting that well. Don't change a thing.

 

[sethmstanton]

Re: .308 OAL ????

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: criver</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Sounds about right, Local guy has a brand new Remington Tactical 308 with a very deep throat...............

BTW if your consistently getting .266 to .300 groups you need to find a benchrest match, shoot factory class that will win anywhere...... </div></div>

Wow, I figured .266-.300" groups would be fairly common with all the hopped up customs on here. Ive shot probably a total of maybe 10 5 round groups @ 100 yards with this load, my best being .266". I havent been able to break the .25 mark yet. Majority of groups being somewhere around .270-.300 So for a factory gun Im happy. But the minute I start shooting @ 200-300 it jumps to 3/4 MOA. Ive never been in to the 100 yard thing other than zeroing. Id be alot happier if it was shooting 1/2 min @ 200 & 300.

Thanks for the help guys. Guess if its not broke dont fix it.

 

[19818119]

Re: .308 OAL ????

1.4" @ 300 = 1.4/3 = .466

be happy - you are shooting better than 1/2 min @ 300.

Rath

 

[USMCj]

Re: .308 OAL ????

If your barrel is shooting that good, I would have it set back and a new chamber cut instead of rebarreling it for now. Factory barrels can last a long long time.

 

[MitchAlsup]

Re: .308 OAL ????

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: HogsLife</div><div class="ubbcode-body">Also, with the new data I have on my OAL being 3.012", Ive backed my bullets off between .020" and .040" putting my OAL of my finished cartridge @ 2.992".

Does this sound right to you? </div></div>

Completely believable. I load mine to 2.948 or 0.015 from the lands (155 scenars). Yours looks to be a scant 0.040 deeper.

 

[ewoaf]

Re: .308 OAL ????

sounds alright to me...I'm running a factory rem, my coal to the lands is 2.945, but i run bullets at 2.85 so they fit in my mag.

 

[ArcticLight]

Re: .308 OAL ????

Whoever put it at 2.85 said it - but I had 2.86 and my mag had problems loading with a VLS.

I run at 2.810 now and it works and ti works as well as 2.865 did at 1000 so why mess with it on a loose chamber such as ours?

 

[Victor Co Heather]

Re: .308 OAL ????

If it ain't broke....

 

[sniper7369]

Re: .308 OAL ????

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: criver</div><div class="ubbcode-body">
BTW if your consistently getting .266 to .300 groups you need to find a benchrest match, shoot factory class that will win anywhere...... </div></div>

+1 on that. Or go out and shoot some mid range F-Class matches.

As for COAL, I've only experimented a bit with 168 SMKs and my 700 SPS doesn't seem to care as long as the COAL is at least 2.820. If I seat at 2.800 the groups open up some what. Then again I almost never shoot closer than 300 with it, so I'm not sure what affect the COAL would have at closer ranges.

 

[03psd]

Re: .308 OAL ????

I load mine 2.90" and have good results.

 

[sethmstanton]

Re: .308 OAL ????

Thanks for all the info. I figure Ill test it out backed off the lands bout .010 and go from there. If it dont shoot as well, I know where I was sitting before. Hell, cant hurt, maybe itll shoot even better. Thanks again.