I'm new to reloading and loving it so far. I loaded up my first rifle rounds the other night. I loaded 30 rounds of 30-06, 10 each with 41.0, 43.6, and 46.3 gr of varget (51.0 gr listed max) with winchester bullets and new winchester brass. I read that best accuracy is achieved if the bullet is sitting just off the lands. I read a previous post that said the best way to do this is to use a dumby round with the bullet seated very shallowly and slowly increase the depth until the round will chamber. Then turn the seating adjustment another half turn so that the bullet is just of the lands. I was planning on doing this, but following this procedure I ended up with an OAL of just over 3.5 and the published max OAL is 3.340. I didn't know what to do so I seated the bullet to the max OAL since I figured this would be safer since I am very inexperienced in this area. Am I doing something wrong?

My other concern is does this mean my barrel has some serious throat erosion. It is an old gun (Rem 700 ADL? from the 70s?) that I bought from a friend at college for $375. It shoots factory ammo alright (~3.5 in groups at 100 yds no bench). He said it was used only for hunting, so I wouldn't expect the barrel to be worn out, but I don't really know.

Any advice would be appreciated
Carl

Some bullets have different ogives and will not come close to the lands when set to the standard COL. The Hornady 139 gr 7mm SST is one. Your throat is most likely ok.

You must seat the bullets deep enough so that they will go into the magazine and feed out well. In some rifles this is more than the standard length and there must be some that are less also.

With my (Mauser baised custom) 30-06 I seat Nosler BT's to +.040 (over spec) which gives me .030 Mag well clearance. At that point I'm still .135 off the lands, and holding groups in the 1/2 MOA range (.85MOA with factory ammo).
You have to remember that the throat is made long enough to safely keep a 220gr roundnose from engaging the lands so a lighter bullet or a spitzer design will be even further away from the lands (compair a 220RN to your bullet, specificly where they measure .300 diameter, to see what I'm refering to.
Long throats are a fact of life (unless you go to a custom chamber/throat and can somehow insure that a different bullet than the throat was cut for will NEVER be used in it) and IMHO not worth worrying about.

Carl, I'm also using Varget in my 06 with 150BTs(50.5grs.)and I've got them at 3.280", I'm touching the lands at 3.340", so I'm .060" off the lands and the rifle shoots around 1/2" when I got my stuff together, I noticed your starting out quite light with your load development, me thinks you're being a little too cautious, 46grs. is about the starting point, the other loads you have will be like shooting something less than a 300 Savage, I started out with 49grs. Varget and couldn't tell the difference in recoil between that and 51grs. 49grs. would be plenty low to start out with, and from my tests, the more powder you put in, the better the accuracy got, and I ended up with .5gr. from max., just don't want you to waste that good powder on too light a load. Jay

Thanks guys I appreciate the advice. About the powder charge, I came to the same conclusion and pulled the 41gr's and 43's and loaded them with 49gr nd 51gr. I figure I'll start with the 46.3gr (10% under max) and work my way up, nice slow and safe.