I am new to reloading and I am wondering what would be a good distance off of the lands to start. I am reloading 25-06 with Nosler Ballistic tips 100gr and 22-250 with 55gr Nosler Ballistic Tips and Berger 55gr Match Varmint. I also am loading 223 for an AR, but am I wrong in the assumtion that magizine length will dictate bullet seating depth? Thanks for any help. I am new here but am loving all the reading and good post on this site.
Darrell

Welcome to AR....post #1!

It makes little difference where you start as it is just the start and must be adjusted for your gun....not mine nor someone els's!

I suggest you start with seating the bullet one diameter into the case (assuming the cartridge fits easily into the magazine).....and after you have tried a few different powders and loads then adjust the distance to the lands as it seems prudent for your rifle.

IMO there's no magic in the starting point.

I generally start off about .050 off the lands and adjust from there to fine tune accuracy but you are correct in that whatever COL you settle on must still fit and function from the magazine. So if you have a rifle with a long throat but short magazine, you will be seating to the magazine length and not be able to adjust bullet jump.

On Conventional bullets start out .010 - .020 on copper bullets such as Barnes stay out .040 or more .
As your load develops too your liking , then adjust inward . Most of my loads prefer 5-10 thousandths Except Copper !. Magazine length will determine ( COAL )cartridge over all length , it's best to know exactly how much room that is compared too your rifles chamber . Then find the Happy spot .

What I do might not be as precise as some methods.
I take a fire case that easily fits in the chamber. I use a full length sizer to size the first 1/32 or so of the neck. This will hold a bullet with a snug slip fit. I put a bullet barly in the case. I carefully insert this dummy round in the chamber and close the bolt. I carefully extract the dummy round from the rifle.
As the round is chambered the bullet hits the rifling and gets pushed into the case.
I now measure the COAL. This is the COAL that gets the bullet to touch the rifling. Using this length I can set my seater to seat the bullet to whatever distance from the rifling.
I also try this dummy round in the magazine to see if it fits. If it fits I use the COAL I got from the chamber, if it don't fit I use a COAL that fits the Magazine.
If I can use the Chamber COAL I just subtract the amount I want the bullet off the rifling from the COAL.
In my 270 using a Hornady .277 130 gr sp, I get a chamber length of 3.290 inches. I wanted .020 off the rifling, so I subtract .020 from 3.290 and get 2.88. In the reloading process I adjust the bullet seater to seat the bullet to 3.288 inches long.
You need to do the dummy round for each bullet you choose to use. If I use a 150 gr rn then the COAL from the dummy round will be different than from the 130 gr.
This way you don't need some big fancy expencive tool to get the max COAL for your rifle.

In most of the rifles I have worked with the magazine length has been longer than the chamber max COAL. And in the ones that had a short magazine and long throat, the accuracy wasn't enough different that the animal could tell the difference. On paper it was less than 1/4 worse.

-.025 to -.030 for jaceted bullets
-.065 to -.075 for barnes-esque bullets

To keep things simple and give me confidence in the reloadinng process, when I first started reloading, I duplicated my favorite factory load.

Set the seating die to the factory load that you have used. Load a few shells with appropriate powder weights, and shoot them. Once you are comfortable with the mechanics and operation of the equipment, the possibilities are endless!

Good luck, and go slow.

One more bit of advice, running rounds to the ragged edge of velocity/pressure won't make animals any more dead, or make a hold for a 300yrds shot a miss (generally speaking). Across the spectrum of velocity for a cartridge and bullet, the actual difference in trajectory numbers don't mean a whole lot in the field, an inch or two here or there, and that's it. Be safe.

In my experience the OAL sometimes makes a difference, sometimes a little, sometimes a lot, sometimes it seems to make no difference at all. That's why this reloading stuff is so much fun! I use one of the Stoney Point (now Hornandy I think) overall length gauges to determine length to lands. These are simple to use and an inexpensive addition to your reloading equipment. Just my $0.02. Welcome to the Forum!