I just measured to my lands for the first time.

[Savage-10FP]

I just picked up the tools to measure how far out my lands are on my remington 700P. I am at 2.385. I have only been reloading for months now. I have always measured the OAL. I am tired of fussing with these 175 grain smks' being different lenths. So I purchased these tools and will measure off the ogive for now on like I should have been doing all along. I have been going through the posts and see its pretty common to see some deep throats. What do you guys recommend I start at off the lands.
What I have been loading is winchester case,45grains of varget,wolf primer and 175 smk's, but I have always used 2.800 AOL. My groups are ok, but I want to tighten them up a bit. I am looking to shoot out to 1K and I think if I can get a little better groups I will be better off at longer distances.
<span style="font-weight: bold">Edited to add: To fit into my accuracy international mag I cant be at more then 2.303 to feed goood. So I guess I kind of just answered my own question. I am not looking to load single rounds.</span>
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[gcoulsey]

Re: I just measured to my lands for the first time.

So start with your mag length, and load up some groups, working back .010" at a time.
As you have probably read elsewhere, sierra's don't mind a jump, so there's no panic to exceed your mag length

Good luck!
Giles.

 

[JSTARSZ]

Re: I just measured to my lands for the first time.

the first thing I would start measuring is from the ogive versus the end of the bullet as you have noticed is inconsistent. Get a 308 comparator so you can measure from the ogive and you will find it to more consistent. I have asked this question several times and never have gotten a good answer. If you measure most manufactured ammo, to include Fed Gold Medal Match, you will find they all come in below 2.8 COAL. Most everyone I know evaluates their reloading accuracy based on the perceived accuracy of the Federal Gold Medal Match. I load 178 AMAX in my GAP M40A3 to .10 (2.875) from the lands and get accuracy of .50 MOA and then I fire Fed Match 175 SMK (2.775 average) and still get .50 MOA but it is set up way different from my loads but come to the same result.

There may be reasons to get it to the lands but I am just not convinced that the average shooter will notice that much of a difference. I am a shoot once a week guy (ammo and time) and not a bad shot but not the best either so at the amount of time and effort that I can put into the sport I am just not sure the average shooter will know the difference - IMHO.