Hi all.

A quick one today I went and used the stoney point OAL gauge on the Remington 30/06 model 710.

Okay came up with an OAl of 3.311,now I have been shooting 125 grain Sierra sp and the OAl on them according to Lyman is 3.080.

So is this okay?

Can't back them out and more or they will fall out of the case.

I am going to switch to 150 Hornady sp with the cannulure and crimp.

But no damage will be done if I continue to set the 125 grain ones at the depth specifed right?

freaked me out bullet was about 1/8 in case

G'day, are you trying to seat the projectiles out to be just short of touching the lands of the rifling? If so, it sounds as though your 710 has a fair amount of freebore, perhaps you could check it against factory specs?
If you continue to follow the loading advice in the various manuals, then you should be o.k.

Cheers, Dave.

Hey reef

The COAL for my 30-06 with different bullets are:

3.295 for Barnes TSX 168 gr
3.284 for Barnes TSX 180 gr
3.388 for Nosler Accubond 200 gr

I don't even know what the book says the OAL should be and don't care. Your gun is individual and has it's own specific distance from the bolt face to the start of the lands. Books give a very conservative figure that will fit in any rifle, especially ones with a short throat.

Very light-for-caliber bullets like the 125 gr or even the 150 gr are usually much shorter and you may have a problem seating them deep enough to get a good grip on the bullet and still get close to the lands. Not to mention that the twist rate of an off the shelf 30-06 was probably made to accomodate a normal bullet weight for that caliber like 165 gr or 180 gr.

My advice would be to get some 168 gr Barnes Triple Shock bullets and you may solve your seating problem.

JMHO

I'm thinking the stoney point guage doesn't measure overall length but lets you determine where the bullet engages the lands.

quote:

I'm thinking the stoney point guage doesn't measure overall length but lets you determine where the bullet engages the lands

Well is that not the OAL?

quote:

Originally posted by woods:
Hey reef

The COAL for my 30-06 with different bullets are:

3.295 for Barnes TSX 168 gr
3.284 for Barnes TSX 180 gr
3.388 for Nosler Accubond 200 gr

I don't even know what the book says the OAL should be and don't care. Your gun is individual and has it's own specific distance from the bolt face to the start of the lands. Books give a very conservative figure that will fit in any rifle, especially ones with a short throat.

Very light-for-caliber bullets like the 125 gr or even the 150 gr are usually much shorter and you may have a problem seating them deep enough to get a good grip on the bullet and still get close to the lands. Not to mention that the twist rate of an off the shelf 30-06 was probably made to accomodate a normal bullet weight for that caliber like 165 gr or 180 gr.

My advice would be to get some 168 gr Barnes Triple Shock bullets and you may solve your seating problem.

JMHO

That is right on bullet would be about 1/8 in case using what I am 125 gr.

I am ordering some 150 grain with cannulure on them Hornaday

but still 3.311 as using 150 gr which are set at 3.200 and still 0.111 off the lands another

But I shoot paper don't want heavy big bullets any other hints?

Good answer Woods and thanks to you and all.

If you're hunting, get the load that is between .025 and .050 off the lands and still will go in the magazine and feed smoothly. If your gun is long throated and making it that long will not go in the magazine, then opt for making it short enough to fee well. In the field you probably won't miss an animal over the little bit lost in the distance off the lands equation. Giving the round a short run at the lands is a good thing most of the time anyway. My $0.02 worth...o.s.o.k.

Reef12---------The Stoney Point gauge measures Distance to Lands not Over All Length. When you slide the bullet out of the Stoney Point modified case, to the point where it gently stops, it's stopping due to hitting the Lands.

The Stoney Point Comparitor measures Distance to the Bullet's Oglive. This measurement should be slightly shorter than Distance to Lands which should be shorter than Over All Length.

OAL is important for magazine lengths and proper feeding of the shell into most rifles. In Single Shots it's not very important, nor would the amount of bullet in the case make a big difference. But if the loaded bullet is exposed to recoil and is not held in the case mounth with sufficient force, then the bullet can move in the case and cause misfeeds or jams.

With lower weight bullets in most calibers, it is often hard to impossible to seat the bullet near the lands. This causes the bullet to "jump" further to the lands but in most cases this is preferable to having the bullet jump out of the case even before you get to shoot it.

quote:

Over All Length

Okay is this not the same as OAL?

What do you mean distance to lands this is AOL of round is it not?

Thanks.

All good answers.

But I am buying 150 gr which will allow me to get closer to the lands.

Hey reef

Let's do it this way.

Point A is the case head

Point B is the point on the bullet where the curve will meet the lands in the bore

Point C is the tip of the bullet

What Bigdog is saying is that with the Stoney Point you are actually gauging the distance from point A to point B.

Overall Length is the distance from Point A to point C.

Now, if you are not using a Stoney Point Comparator which will adapt your caliper to measure from Point A to Point B, then after using the Stoney Point you will have to measure the OAL from Point A to Point C.

Some things I have found out:

Monolithic copper bullets will be longer because copper weighs less than lead that is used in other bullets, therefore they have to make the bullet longer in order to get the same weight

Heavier bullets of the same kind will generally have a longer distance from the base of the bullet to Point B because to get the heavier weight they make the heavier bullets less pointed

The twist rate of your rifle is better at shooting some bullets than others. This is more dependent upon length of bullet than weight.

As I stated before, I would assume (bad practice, but here goes) that a standard 30-06 would have a twist rate to shoot the most normal bullet length for that caliber, i.e. 165 to 180 gr. That's not to say that it might not shoot others, either lighter or heavier well also.

Some bullets like the round noses and low ballistic coefficient are exceptionally accurate.

If you want to shoot a light weight bullet at 150 grain then I would recommend that you try a 150 grain Barnes Triple Shock which will be longer than a normal copper/lead combination bullet. They are exceptionally accurate and excellent hunting bullets.

JMHO

OAL or over all length is just that, the overall length, from the tip of the bullet to the bottom of case head. This is generally most important in rifles other than a single shot. If the over all length is too long it won't fit in a magazine box. A round can also fit in the box and be too long if the cartridge won't chamber because the bullet sticks in the throat, the throat area basically being where the chamber cease to be and is now the rifled portion of the barrel. A bullet jumps from the end of the chamber into the rifling. The distance of this jump is a way to fiddle with accuracy. Determining this is what the stoney point tool is doing, not determing OAL. All you need to do to measure OAL is stick the round in your calipers and measure.

Measuring OAL....3.355


Measuring with the stoney point stuff 3.764


That number really means nothing in terms OAL. What it tells me is when using this tool my cartridge will measure 3.764 when my bullet is seated in the case at a length thaat has the bullet just touching the lands, the lands being the beggining of the rifling.

I hope that makes sense. I'm loaded to gills with pain meds as I type

Thanks to all.

Loaded up some 150 grain Sierra and all went well.

set at 3.205 a little out then the described 3.200 so oh well I guess we are going at it right.

Thanks fellow shooters.