finding oal

[landtech308]

heard this before and wonder if you guys think this is a good method . take a sharpie color your bullet black, insert it into a empty hull put in chamber and close the bolt on it . do about five times and find the average . is this a good way to find where your bullet touches the lands.? just curious. seems to me like it will work but was wanting some advice from the more experienced loaders here.

 

[mis-guided child2]

Re: finding oal

That will find your maximum length. But not necessarily the length you should
/would load to. Some rifles will shoot absolutely wonderful from there, but some rifles like there bullets to jump to the lands. Some rifles like there bullets to jump alot.
Just keep in mind that jamming the bullet into the land can cause a big pressure difference, so like everything else, work up to it with caution.

 

[Fuzzball]

Re: finding oal

Mr. Misguided is correct, there is usually a significant difference between seating to the rifling and seating for best accuracy.

Every factory rifle I've ever developed a load for shot best from a minimum of 25 thou off the lands to as much as four times that much, 30 to 35 off is the most common good range for me. Thus, all I really need to start is a point moderately close to the rifling just for a standard reference measurement. Then I start load testing at 15 thou deeper and finish tuning by seating deeper in 5 thou steps.

 

[sgtusmc_nc]

Re: finding oal

that is basically how I get my MAX OAL, then I do all my load dev. at 20 thousandths off the lands. once I find what works for me then I play with OAL jamming and jumping.

 

[landtech308]

Re: finding oal

thx guys thought it sounded good to me just wanted to get some second opinions

 

[skinnypitt]

Re: finding oal

I take a piece of brass and use a dremmel to cut three equidistant cuts down the neck. Then I sit a bullet on top and champer it so that this seats the bullet. Then I measure this as my max. As the other guys mentioned then I start out further from the lands and work in. I used the Berger method suggested for their VLD bullets starting way out and working in. I started with 20 thousandths jumps and when i got close went down to .005" adjusments.