Measuring to the lands

[Jethro21]

I am just getting into reloading for my rifle and have learned a lot from the sticky'd threads above. I read the thread about measuring and determining where your lands are and I wonder if there is a different way to measure the lands than Tresmon described. Not that I don't think it works, but I am short on money and haven't bought all the equipment he has shown.

Can someone give me some other ways of measuring to the lands?

Thanks,
Jethro

 

[TRAAV]

Re: Measuring to the lands

OAL gauge

 

[Leaddog]

Re: Measuring to the lands

The Sinclair Seating Depth tool works good.

 

[Huckleberry75]

Re: Measuring to the lands

You don't have to have the rod stops. You can just put masking tape on a cleaning rod and mark it with a fine point pencil. Run the test several times to verify your answers and go on down the road. Those toys are handy (and yes, I do own them), but they are not absolutely essential, merely more convenient.

 

[Powder_Burns]

Re: Measuring to the lands

Cleaning rod thing in a little more detail:

1) Empty rifle, bolt closed, put the cleaning rod all the way into the barrel from crown to breech until it contacts the bolt face, tape or mark the position of the rod at the crown.

2) Now, remove the rod, get a fired case and liiiightly crimp or size the beginning of the neck so that it will provide enough friction to hold a bullet but not enough that the bullet gets stuck in the case mouth.

3) Put the bullet in the case mouth (without powder or primer).

4) Carefully insert your cartridge in the chamber with the bullet floating out of the neck a considerable amount. (You want the bullet to make contact with the lands as you close the bolt on the cartridge)

5) Gently reinsert the cleaning rod from crown to breech again, this time the tip of the rod is going to stop on your bullet meplat. Mark the position of the cleaning rod with tape or a pen again. Remove the rod, calculate the distance from the first tape mark to the second one.

This is going to be your cartridge's overall length from case head to the meplat, not your 'comparator overall length' which measures the distance from the case head to the ogive where it makes contact with the lands. However, if you take this measurement a couple times and then get an average or median measurement, you will have a very good estimation of how long a cartridge can be loaded until it makes full contact with the lands (when measured end to end).

Important things to consider:
Is the end of the rod making contact with the meplat, is the meplat going into the female threaded portion of the rod (if you have that style rod)? Whats the difference in depth if this is occuring?

Are the bullet lengths all the same? Take an average reading or sort bullets by length if you are making your measurement by OAL and not COL, also ogive position can vary from bullet to bullet so just because you have made an accurate measurement of OAL does not mean that all the bullets in a given batch or lot are going to engage the lands at the same seating depth.

When your rod makes contact with the bullet in the lands, are you just touching the bullet or did you 'bump' the bullet with the rod? This would pull the bullet out of the lands if you hit hit hard enough.

 

[Tripwire]

Re: Measuring to the lands

You must have a magic marker laying around right?

Seat a bullet too long, try to chamber, the bolt should not close.

Adjust seater a little at a time, seat the bullet a little deeper each time, until the bolt finally closes with resistance.

Paint the bullet black with a sharpie or magic marker covering all of the ogive of the bullet where you know it should contact the rifling.

Chamber it again, carefully extract....upon inspection of the painted area you should see land marks showing as bright shiney spots evenly spaced around the circumerfence of the bullet.

Keep adjusting your seater a few thousandths at a time, seating the bullet that much deeper, repainting your bullet, and chambering it, until the land marks just barely go away.

This is close enough to being to being your OAL just kissing the lands with THAT bullet profile, from there, do whatever trips your trigger.

 

[justinbaker]

Re: Measuring to the lands

what gun are you shooting it in

if its a factory 700. you are almost 99% guaranteed not to touch the lands and still fit in the magazine

 

[Tripwire]

Re: Measuring to the lands

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: justinbaker</div><div class="ubbcode-body">what gun are you shooting it in

if its a factory 700. you are almost 99% guaranteed not to touch the lands and still fit in the magazine </div></div>

Still doesn't hurt a thing to know the measurement, regardless......

 

[Jethro21]

Re: Measuring to the lands

My gun is a Savage 110. Thanks for the tips, I am going to give it a go. My plan is to use Varget and 175gr smk.

Right now with Black Hills Match 175gr it is shooting 1/2" if the bone head pulling the trigger works it right...I am hoping to load something that is comparable for much cheaper (BH match= $32/box!!!).

 

[armorpl8chikn]

Re: Measuring to the lands

Here:
Tripwire has pretty well covered it but you can use a candle and the soot comes off easily.

http://www.snipershide.com/forum/ubbthre...029#Post2977029

 

[Ol Rob]

Re: Measuring to the lands

I use cheap harware store wooden dowels and mark them with a razor flat across the muzzel. Very easy to catch the razor cut with the dial caliper. Cheap and easy.
Rob

 

[oneshotkyle]

Re: Measuring to the lands

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Leaddog</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Sinclair Seating Depth tool works good. </div></div>

 

[Tripwire]

Re: Measuring to the lands

<div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: oneshotkyle</div><div class="ubbcode-body"><div class="ubbcode-block"><div class="ubbcode-header">Originally Posted By: Leaddog</div><div class="ubbcode-body">The Sinclair Seating Depth tool works good. </div></div> </div></div>

Yes it does, very well, but the OP states his reloading money is short and his question was about inexspensive ways to do it without buying an expensive tool.

 

[Unknown]

Re: Measuring to the lands

An old fashioned way of finding where the lands starts:

Make up a dummy round (no primer or powder) and leave the bullet seated quite a bit longer than you know you need. Using a candle, rotate the bullet above the flame so the soot collects on the bullet. Allow the bullet to cool so it isn't unnaturally large due to heat expansion.

Drop the soot covered bullet into the clean bore of your rifle. You will clearly see the lands pushing the soot off the bullet. Continue this process as you seat the bullet deeper and deeper into the cartridge case. When you first notice that there are no marks on the bullet's ogive, you know you have found the beginning of the lands WITH THAT BULLET. Any other bullet will require you to repeat the process.

After you know the overall length to the lands, you can decide how much you want the bullet to jump prior to engaging the lands.

As the meplat on most bullets is not consistent, you will get a better measurement if you use a tool that measures to the ogive on your bullets. Measuring to the tip of the bullet often results in inconsistent results due to how the bullet's meplat is formed, and it's length. So, I measure from cartridge base to the bullet's ogive for most consistent results.