OAL or COAL same thing...
But my question is..

If I am reloading a .223 round. It calls for a 2.250 and the diff between my rounds is anywhere from 2.246 to 2.250.. in the same reloading session... will there be any real issues with my rounds?

I am using a Lead Tipped Sierra Bullet. I notice the diff between the size of the lead tipped rounds. This should not cause a problem right? Just wondering. Silly as it may be. Had to ask. Its irritating to measure the loaded rounds and have them all slightly different.

Thanx.

Measure from the datum line of the bullet instead of the tip. That distance from the lands should be consistent.

Using the Stoney Point

What Bill is saying is a little variance is to be expected when measuring tip to base. Bullets vary in lenght and tips get damaged. Don`t worry about the few thousanths, you`re OK.

The stoney Point is the way to go though if you want more exact measurments.

The stoney Point is the way to go though if you want more exact measurments.[/QUOTE]

I bought a stony point gauge and bullet comparator and found it easy to use.

Hey Ol' Joe, got to use some of your advice to me re die length. I use a Honrnady LNL with Micro adjust on the seating die which makes it rather long to measure the overall length of the die. What I did was measure the distamce from the actual micor adjust handle down to the first fixed part of the die (hope thats clear). Any how it works like a charm. Thanks again.

I bought the Stoney point O.A.L. measureing set for my 7mm-08. It work great for Barnes Bullets I put a Barnes TSX in 140 grain and got a measurement of 2.808 after measuring off the rifling so I know to set the Barnes bullets at 2.750 which is what they recommend 0.050 off the lands. My problem came with the Nosler bullets I put a 140 grain Accu-bond and I got a measurement of 2.859 off the rifling to the tip of the bullet. I tried it 10 times with different bullets from the same box and got the same reading. That reading is 0.059 longer then the Maxium Overall lenght of 2.800. In the Nosler reloading manual it says to set the bullets 0.015 to0.030 off the rifling. That would put me at 2.844 or 2.829 if I went with the 0.030 off the rifling. This is to long by 0.029, how can this be? I was setting my reloads to 2.800 as it says in the book. Am I doing something wrong or are the Nosler bullets seating diferently then the Barnes bullets?

It's all in the shape of the bullet. The noslers must have a longer ogive, or portion of the bullet forward of the bearing surface so they will be loager overall than your barnes seated the same distance from the lands. The 2.8" max. is for magazine considerations, I load some of my 7-08 stuff a little longer than 2.8 and they will work in MY magazine. Keep them off the lands and short enough to work in your magazine and you will be fine. If you are single loading you can go as long as you want.
Nimrod 308

If you are measuring COAL length you will get a lot of different measurments, I was getting differences as high as .015, With the stoney point gauge, Its usually about .0015 the max difference I get in bullets which is very small, Its also nice to see what the bullets are, last time I reloaded some 150btips, this was the only time so far but this bullet measured about .005 longer than the rest of the bullets I had realoaded, So I put this one so I knew where it was in my load box, I noticed I got a flyer about 1.5" away from the nice group I just shot, well it turns out, the flyer was this rouge bullet in the group. It was just a wierd bullet, I had even tried running it in the press again wouldn't seat any deeper, so for extreme accuracy check your lengths

Nimrod308 How long do you make your 7mm-08 case? What type of bullets do you use? What type of rifle is it? Mine is a Savage 11gl.
The main thing is I want to be safe with the loads I make.

7mm-08 Bert, I load for two 7-08's, a Rem. 700 with a 24" bbl. and a Rem. M7 MS with a 20" bbl. My current favorite load is a 139 gr. Hornandy with 45 gr. of IMR 4064 with CCI-BR2 primers in Rem. brass. I load these to 2.825" overall length. I clock 2850 fps from the 20" bbl. and 2925 out of the 24" tube. CHECK THE MANUALS AND WORK UP TO THIS LOAD IF YOU DON'T SEE PRESSURE SIGNS. A grain or two less of Varget has worked well also. The 2.8" max. oal listed in the books is more for magazine length than anything else. You will see a lot of variation from one bullet brand and weight to another in oal if all are seated the same distance off the lands. In my M700 this 2.825" oal is .025" off the lands and in the M7 it is .060" off the lands. If you go to another bullet this will all change. In my M700 a 130 gr. Speer SP BT seated .030" off the lands is 2.750" oal. This is just one of the things that makes this so much fun!
Nimrod 308

Some bullets will give you 2-4 thousandths of of differing ogive measurement point no matter whose measuring tool you use. But those same bullets might show 2-10 thousandths difference in an overall length measurement.