factory OAL vs measured OAL accuracy

[aiyadude]

so i was wondering something. i know that in the case of factory made ammo, for example the federal gold medal match ammo, the OAL is set to around 2.82-3" (not sure exactly, but its what i read online). i have a hornady OAL gauge and measured to the lands and set my OAL to each down by 0.005" (meaning every 3 rounds the OAL decreases by 0.005") just to test what length my gun favors the most. this is a good procedure and all but i noticed that for the past few range visits, all ive been doing was testing my rounds. ive been testing out several brands of bullets, primers, brass, and powder and im getting tired of it.

so my question is, if factory match ammo is set to a certain OAL which is supposed to be accurate for all guns, cant i just set my OAL to that length and skip having to test out my rounds and still have match accuracy?

 

[justdave]

Re: factory OAL vs measured OAL accuracy

Factory match ammo is set at an overall length that will fit in most magazine designs for a particular cartrige and stay inside SAMMI specs. If you are using a simular bullet design, I don't see that it would be wrong to stay at spec. If you are using something like a Berger VLD design e.g. consult their web site for instruction on how to find the best seating length with little wasted time.

 

[ArcticLight]

Re: factory OAL vs measured OAL accuracy

I used to set my AOL for a factory chamber at 2.866.

Know what it got me?

NOTHING.

I cannot outshoot that so I'm still limited by being human.


I went back to the exact load M118LR uses and the AOL of M118LR

2.810


Still shooting as accurate as I used to.

 

[aiyadude]

Re: factory OAL vs measured OAL accuracy

i guess ill follow factory specs then. thanks for the input everyone!