Having never been concerned with oal never checked
it.Just coated the bullet i was going to use adjusted untill it didn't hit the lands and loaded up. Well the other night after a 3 long year dry
spell i finaly got to do some loading. Was building a new load for a new rifle and did not have the rifle handy so i decided to just seat
the bullets at the max oal per the book.
243 105 amax/ 107 seria new ww brass rcbs dies

Why is there as much as .015 differance in them?
same bullets hornady has a diff.oal per batch
seria has a diff.oal per batch

In other words over 90 % all have a diff.oal

If you're measuring with conventional calipers, from the tip of the bullet, you will get the variations you mention. The polymer tips, lead tips, and hollow points will vary.

There are tools you can get to measure from the bullet's ogive, and this will give you more consistent readings.

I wouldn't worry. The ogive is the important part, and I'm fairly certain you're not getting .01" of variation there...

Dan

Overall length is not that critical. The numbers listed in the books designate the length of the completed cartridge to fit in the "average" magazine. It has absolutely no relationship to the chamber of the firearm or your seating die.

For that length you have to measure to the ogive of the bullet, and you can't do that with just your handy-dandy caliper or micrometer.

case size will affect col.longer cases get a deeper bullet seat.never set col at maximum,you want to use the loading data exactly,this is usually somewhere in the middle which gives you some tolerance.your better off being under,than being over and the rounds chambering incorrectly,possibly causing a dangerous situation.

thx guys guess i need the ringie thingy.